Nutrition & Performance

Proper nutrition is such an instrumental component of performance, yet it is overlooked by 90% of athletes at the starting line. A few years back, a research project associated with human performance (equipment, altitude training, endurance training, strength training, etc.), revealed that the most powerful influence on performance was attributed to hydration and nutrition habits. Nail your nutrition and the results were stellar; miss your nutrition (even by a little) and the results were devastating.

Let’s talk about, first and foremost, the overall goal of nutrition. This is something that I think people tend to allow to become convoluted. The goals of nutrition are threefold. Number one, nutrition is about improving your body composition. What we mean by that is how much body fat and muscle tissue you have. When we’re looking at increasing lean muscle mass, ask yourself the question, “Why? Why is it important that you build lean muscle?” When you’re looking at general health and wellness, the leaner muscle tissue you have, the more efficient you are at burning body fat. So, as you go to the gym and you increase your lean muscle mass, you’ve increased your ability to burn stored body fat, which is going to make you leaner.

When we step over into the realm of performance, becoming stronger means that you’re able to go longer before you become tired. We refer to it as muscular endurance. It’s kind of built off the foundation of muscular strength. So, the idea is you want to be strong enough to do something once, then you want to build that muscular endurance to be able to do that activity for an extended period before becoming fatigued.

Goal number two of nutrition is improving the immune system. Think about it. All of us want to be healthy when it comes to general health. But when we get into the realm of performance, if you are sick, and/or you are injured, this will keep you from being able to train on a regular basis, and this is the beginning of the end when it comes to your continuum of improvement. Because remember, we’re always looking to be 1% better every day. If we do that without getting sick, our percentage of making that a reality goes up exponentially.

Reason number three why we focus on nutrition is to create a human body that is durable. And what we mean by that is the nutritional support that we extract from food is what helps us build stronger bones, helps us build stronger tendons, ligaments, as well as muscles. Think about that. When you look at tendons and ligaments, and how they attach bones to bones and muscles to bones, and the ability for a muscle to be able to do its job, the nutritional support that you give it allows you to have a very durable and a very strong overall body.

The essential foundation for health, wellness and performance is based on two elements- macro nutrients and micronutrients. Macro nutrients – carbs, proteins and fats – are essentially what’s responsible for movement and recovery from movement. Micronutrients – vitamins and minerals – interact with macro nutrients for energy production and recovery. Together, they provide the fuel for life and all desired activity.