Nutrition recipes
Alcohol and Sport – A Bad Match
It may seem harmless to have a quiet beer or wine the night before a game. Or perhaps you go all out and even turn up to your netball game hungover. Either way the effects of alcohol – long and short term – do not mix well with sports of any kind.
Alcohol is so detrimental to your game it’s almost designed to make you bad at sports. It drastically reduces reaction time, dulls your body’s ability to process food into energy, increases body heat loss, leaves you dehydrated and puts you in greater risk of developing debilitating muscle cramps. In other words, even the most basic netball drills will leave you confused and exhausted.
Click Here To Read More
The Best Thirst Quenchers for Netball Athletes
Hydration is a very important factor in any athlete’s life, and with a high-intensity sport like netball it’s a must. The body loses about 2 litres of water everyday – and that’s without even exercising. Imagine how much you lose after an intense netball training session! Water is an essential component of our body, indeed it’s the most plentiful ingredient. Without it our blood wouldn’t flow to our muscles (or brain), we wouldn’t be able to cool ourselves or regulate temperature at all.
Keeping hydrated before, during and after sports wards of dreaded dehydration. We’re at risk if we lose as little as 3% of our body weight through sweating. but it’s not just surrounding games that athletes need to take in fluids. Using thirst as an indicator is a sign that you’re not drinking nearly enough fluids.
Water is the number one best choice for hydration. Not sweetened, flavoured, coloured or otherwise sullied water. Pure, simple water is what your body needs. Any other liquid is only ever effective for hydration because of the water it has in it.
Click Here To Read More
The Athlete’s Diet – A Guide For Netball Players
Netball is a game that requires a certain discipline and this extends to nutrition. Fuel is important for the body to function properly. Whilst a normal diet may do for a single game a week, getting the most out of your body’s capabilities is going to take a bit more effort. And if you’re attending several training sessions a week along with games, nutrition is an extremely essential part of your regime. Eating the right foods at the right times will not only prepare you for the game, it will also aid recovery. Taking control of your diet will have you in fighting form for your game and leave you with enough energy for the rest of your life.
Look at the week ahead to plan your meals. Often it’s a good idea to cook a large batch of food and subsist of this for a few days. When you come home from a gruelling game or netball training session it’s good to know that you can simply microwave or heat up a meal that’s healthy. This is also a great way to avoid junk food, which we often crave after heavy physical exertion. Another way to avoid the junk food is to try re-organising your days to have your main meal either during the day or prepared during the day so you can have it soon after returning home from training or your game.
Click Here To Read More