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Sports Performance
This sports performance guide is for athletes wanting to perform at the top. This guide shows you how to fuel for sprint to expedition length extreme sports through electrolytes, the pre-race meal, hydration and more. Fueling the body with proper nutrition is crucial for extreme sports. We are especially hard on the body. Proper fueling helps us have fun while we do what we love. For the first five years of racing I did not have a good sports performance guide and therefore experimented with many products. Many companies offer a sports nutrition guide, but most do not handle extreme sports nutrition. After trying a free sample of Hammer Nutrition at a race, I was hooked. These products are awesome and keep me feeling good during racing, training and recovery. In addition to learning about fueling during a race, I have discovered a race changing strategy the pre-race meal. Once you have obtained your fitness, fuel can give you the edge that can put you at the front of the pack.
HYDRATION AND ELECTROLYTES
One crucial sports performance tip is to make sure that you do not over hydrate. Being dehydrated is what most people worry about, but by drinking too much we can actually hurt our bodies. Hydrating properly is crucial to success. Studies on athletes have shown that drinking water in extreme, can cause sodium levels in the blood to fall below normal. This is called hyponatremia. Water intake should be from 15-32 ounces per hour depending on the environment. If it is very hot you are going to need more. If it is cool not quite as much. I used to drink about 30 ounces per hour. This is too much for my body. I frequently had swollen fingers and toes, and my electrolytes were off. I now try to stick to around 20 ounces per hour. This is most helpful as in several races, including the Utah desert, I ran out of water! You must have the correct balance of minerals and not just sodium. It should consist of sodium chloride, calcium, magnesium and potassium, manganese, vitamin B-6, and L-Tyrosine.
CALORIES WHILE RACING
Many athletes try to take in the same amount of calories they burn. I tried this in my first 24 hour race. My stomach did not feel well the next morning. I had eaten twice the amount of calories my body needed. When looking at calorie/energy sources, Hammer Nutrition has 4 products in this category in their sports performance guide.
Electrolytes,
protein powders, energy drinks and recovery drinks.
Our body cannot process excess amounts of calories though our body is burning up to 800 per hour. Each person is different, but no more than 300 calories can be digested each hour. I settled on about 150 calories per hour. Protein should be ingested if your extreme sport is beyond 2-3 hours. This prevents the body from eating itself, by burning muscles. Soy protein should also be used. Whey protein creates ammonia which produces lactic acid. Because of digestion avoid taking in a lot of solid foods. I use Sustained Energy and Perpeteum as a liquid source of calories.
Both of these products contain I-carnosine, I-carnitine, and chromium polynicotinate, and soy protein, but the levels differ slightly depending on which product you choose for your sports event. Hammer Nutrition has an excellent sports nutrition guide to help you choose. Sustained Energy has a neutral flavor while Perpeteum has an orange/vanilla flavor.
EVENTS SHORTER THAN 2 HOURSWhen fueling your body, avoid the simple sugar fuels. The reason for this is that you would have to intake enough liquid to push yourself into a possible over hydration situation in order to intake enough of the sugar to be effective for fuel. For events shorter than 2 hours you just need carbohydrates. Hammer-Gel and HEED have only carbohydrates as their energy source. Neither contains any added sugars. While Hammer-Gel is a concentrated complex carbohydrate gel, HEED is a powdered sports drink mix. Hammer-Gel comes in 8 different flavors, while HEED is only available in 2 citrus flavors. There are other subtle, but important differences between these 2 energy sources and with different amounts of amino acids, sodium chloride and potassium. Hammer has a more detailed sports performance guide that details this. Do not try something in the field you have not tried during training. With hammer fuels we have the flexibility to try a variety of combinations during training to give you serious extreme sports performance options in the field. We can use any variety. They all compliment each other.
THE PRE-RACE MEALThe pre-race meal can give you an edge other athletes do not have. Eating within 3 hours prior to the race can use up your glycogen stores quickly. Once I discovered this it changed my morning routine and the way I felt during workouts. The only sad thing is I don't get to eat breakfast anymore before 11 AM and I love breakfast! Aside from the recovery meal what we eat before the race is our most important meal. To learn what to eat, when to eat, and how close to the race to eat just read our article... THE PRE RACE MEAL
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