Everything You Need to Know About Nutrition & Hydration

This article was written by NCSA College Recruiting’s newest partner: Go Pro Workouts by their Featured Expert Gio Grassi.

Most important meals of the day:
Breakfast (within 30 min. of waking)

• Re-fuels your body after an overnight fast – your body is starving and burning calories as you are sleeping!
• Starts your metabolism

Pre-workout/practice (30 min. – 60 min. prior to exercise)

• Ensures adequate energy is available to fuel your performance

Post-workout/practice (< 30 min. post-exercise – MOST IMPORTANT)

Increases glycogen storage
Carbohydrates are the re-fueling nutrient for all athletes to prepare for the next bout/training session

• Increases protein synthesis. Amino acids are used to help rebuild protein in the muscle cell

• Prevents protein breakdown

During a workout you’re tearing your muscles up, allow them to recover by providing your body with proper food or fluid within 30 minutes after a bout or training session.

Feed every 2-3 hours (5+ meals/day)
Stimulates metabolism

Balances blood sugar

• You are constantly burning calories throughout the day and glucose is the major contributor for energy, stay fueled throughout your day

Improves health, body composition, and performance

• This help prevent you from overeating a large meal and gaining unnecessary weight during lunch or dinner

Stay hydrated, a loss of just 2% of body weight can lead to:
Increases in perceived exertion and central fatigue

• The less hydrated you are, the less your body will allow itself to cool off during a workout; therefore making the workouts more exhausting.

A reduction in plasma volume

• Plasma is the liquid portion of blood consisting of various inorganic salts, such as sodium, potassium, calcium, and proteins; the solid portion of blood is composed of cells. Normal plasma volume in an average adult is usually 3 liters, while total blood volume is about 5 liters. The nutrients in blood plasma help aid in muscular contraction, in turn, will help prevent cramps from occurring. Cramping is a usually sign of dehydration, but the first symptom usually begins with a sense of thirst

Decreases in sweat rate and cooling

• Your body sweats to cool off skin temperature. While dehydrated it will retain as much water as possible.

A decrease in mental performance

• Cognitive thinking becomes impaired.

A decrease in fine motor skills and precision

• A lack of focus and ability becomes apparent

A decrease in endurance and work capacity

• Because of an increase in core body temperature, the ability to produce more work or endure a long exercise bout becomes inhibited.

Water in Human Organs (Organ Percentage Water)

• Skin 64%
• Skeleton 31%
• Muscles 79%
• Brain 73%
• Liver 71%
• Heart 73%
• Lunges 83%
• Kidneys 79%

Eat 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables/day
Fruits and vegetables are alkaline, which reduce the loss of bone strength and muscle mass

Contain more fiber

• Fiber helps in the digestion process and carries nutrients to muscle cells

Have a high micronutrient/macronutrient ratio

• Micronutrients are your vitamins and minerals / macronutrients are Carbs, Protein, and Fat.

Better management of blood sugar

Sleep 8+ hours/day
Major growth hormones are released at this time which aid in recovery

• Sleep is for the brain to get rid of toxins that are released throughout the day. A better management of sleep will increase the mental aspect of recovery.

Learn to train like a pro, like the author of this article by visiting our partner Go Pro Workouts. The author, Giovanni Grassi, is a sports performance specialist at the Parisi Speed School in Fair Lawn, N.J.

New to the recruiting process?  See what college programs you might quality for by creating  your free NCSA College Recruiting profile.