You’ve worked long and hard to prepare for this competition, and the outcome could mean winning the championship. The last thing you want after grinding your way through the preliminary rounds of competition is to bottom out during the finals!
One of the biggest nutrition challenges of tournaments is what to eat in the limited time before and between games, in order to keep your energy levels up all the way through the competition. Optimal recovery between events can be critical to consistently achieving your best performance. Your skill level and training may give you an edge over your competition, but if you’re dehydrated or running low on fuel, that advantage can quickly evaporate.
Get a good start
One of the most important things you can do to prevent a drop-off in performance over the course of a tournament or meet is to start fully fueled and hydrated.
If possible, taper your training for a few days before the start of a grueling tournament. At the same time, boost your daily carb intake to about 4.5 grams of carbs for every 1 lb (0.45 kg) of body weight. This is about 675 gram of carbs for someone weighing 150 lbs (68 kg). This carbo-loading strategy will enable you to super-maximize the storage of glycogen muscle fuel prior to the competition. Yes, a pasta dinner the night before a competition is still a great idea, but it takes extra carbs for a few days before your tournament to effectively carbo load.
The general advice for eating just before a competition is to consume a carbohydrate-rich meal somewhere between 2–4 hours before the action begins. This will help top off your glycogen stores and ensure a steady supply of blood glucose during competition. It’s also wise to make sure that you’re well-hydrated at the start of exercise. Do this by drinking fluids as soon as you wake up and continuing to drink regularly up to your first competition of the day.
Here’s an example of a high-carb, pre-exercise meal:
- Breakfast cereal with lowfat or nonfat milk
- Banana
- Toast with jam or honey
- Yogurt
If pre-game jitters have your appetite waning, don’t skip out on carbs entirely. Instead, try liquid or less-solid carbohydrate sources such as a fruit smoothie, a meal-replacement drink, low-fat flavored milk, yogurt, applesauce, fresh or canned fruit, or low-fat pudding. Find a carbohydrate source that you’re comfortable consuming.
If you have an early-morning competition, and a full meal 2–4 hours before the start just isn’t feasible, a high-carb snack an hour or two before exercise is the way to go. PowerBar
® Performance Energy bars, PowerBar
® Fruit Smoothie Energy bars, PowerBar
® Energy Bites, PowerBar
® Gels, PowerBar
® Gel Blasts™ energy chews, yogurt, fruit smoothies, meal-replacement beverages, breakfast cereal with milk, and PowerBar
® Recovery beverage are all good examples of easy-to-digest high-carb options.
If you miss your wake-up call entirely or only have an hour or so before game time, try PowerBar Gels, PowerBar
® Endurance sports drink, Performance Energy bars, PowerBar Fruit Smoothie Energy bars, Energy Bites, or Gel Blasts energy chews on your way to the event. They are convenient, on-the-go solutions for getting needed carbs and fluids.
Recovery between events starts immediately
Okay, so you’ve emerged victorious from your first competition of the day and it’s on to the next round. Congratulations! But what do you do next? Post-competition, your first priority is recovery. Your window of opportunity for recovery starts as soon as your first event is over. Glycogen stores need reloading, and fluid and sodium losses need to be replaced.
The downtime between competitions will vary, so it’s wise to be prepared for any possibility. In addition, tournament and meet venues sometimes have limited access to food and fluids — or none at all. So don’t just hope for the best: Plan ahead. That means packing your bag and cooler with the types of fluids and foods you’ll need to keep hydrated and fueled throughout the day.
If your break between competitions is long (around 2–4 hours), a carbohydrate-rich meal with some lean protein is appropriate. Steer clear of slower-to-digest fried, fatty, or high-fiber foods. Examples of good choices are bagels, sandwiches, fruit, cereal with milk, and low-fat muffins — the same types of foods you would eat for a pre-exercise meal.
If the interval between competitions is short or uncertain, “grazing” is the best recovery strategy. Grazing involves consuming smaller portions of foods and beverages that are quickly and easily digested. Again, the focus should be mostly on carbs with some lean protein.
Below are some ideas for good grazing:
- Liquid meal supplement
- Fruit smoothie
- Breakfast cereal with low-fat or nonfat milk
- Pretzels
- Yogurt
- Low-fat puddings
- Mini-bagels
- Fruit (melons, plums, ripe bananas, peaches, cherries)
- PowerBar® Recovery bar
- Recovery beverage
- Performance Energy bars
- PowerBar Fruit Smoothie Energy bars
- PowerBar Gels
- Gel Blasts energy chews
- Energy Bites
- Endurance sports drink
Build variety
Plan on packing some variety in your bag: Take along snacks and the makings for small meals. Don’t burn out your taste buds by packing only sweet, carbohydrate-rich foods. Savory carbohydrate sources, such as noodle soups, crackers, and pretzels are often more appealing during the latter rounds of a competition. Also, savory foods tend to be higher in salt, which can help you replace the sodium lost in sweat. Consuming sodium will help you take in more fluids, as well as better retain the fluids you consume.
Maintaining hydration: Drink up and start EARLY!
Preventing dehydration is vital to sustaining optimal athletic performance throughout a tough competition.
Use these tips for maintaining hydration during tournaments and meets:
- Drink 14–20 ounces (400–600 ml) 2–4 hours before game time.
- Drink another 8 ounces (240 ml) during active warm-up.
- Start exercise well-hydrated: Make sure you have fully replaced the fluids you lost in your warm-up. You should be at your usual pre-exercise body weight.
- Steadily consume small amounts of fluids throughout the tournament or meet by taking advantage of quarter or halftime breaks and time-outs.
- Continue to sips fluids regularly between competitions.
Remember that a sport drink is more effective at maintaining hydration than plain water. This is especially true during hot and humid conditions and during long competitions. Also, a sport drink has the added benefit of being a good source of carbohydrate fuel.
- Cool fluids are usually most appealing: Use ice, if available, or freeze drinks the night before and allow them to thaw slowly over the day of competition.
Overnight recovery
Full recovery after an exhausting day of competition usually takes 24 hours or more. However, if your tournament or meet continues the next morning, then your window of opportunity for recovery opens as soon as your last competition of the day ends. For rapid recovery, remember to have recovery foods with you to eat right after your last competition of the day. Keep consuming carbs until you go to sleep.
Your body’s ability to synthesize and reload glycogen muscle fuel is fastest in the first 30 minutes after your competition ends. So your job is to consume carbs as soon as possible to help jumpstart the recovery process. The general rule of thumb is to consume enough carbs (in grams) to equal about ½ your weight in pounds, and to repeat within 2 hours or until you have a regular meal. For someone weighing 150 pounds, this would be 75 grams of carbs within 30 minutes, and another 75 grams of carbs within 2 hours or until you resume your usual high-carb meals.
You’ll also benefit from having some protein. Consuming a minimum of 15–25 grams of protein within an hour after competing provides the amino-acid building blocks your body needs for muscle tissue repair and building. Taking in protein may also help speed the rate of glycogen resynthesis after a long day of competing.
For effective rehydration after a tough day of exercise, plan to consume 16–24 fl oz (475–700 ml) of a recovery beverage, sports drink, or water for every 1 lb (0.45 kg) of weight lost during exercise. Rehydration will be more effective when sodium is included with the fluid or food you consume during recovery. Monitoring your body weight following a day of competition is a good way to assess your hydration status. If your body weight returns to your normal pre-exercise weight, it’s a good indicator that you’ve fully replaced your fluid and electrolyte losses.
Here are some post-competition foods that promote rapid recovery:
- Bread, rolls, bagels, and muffins
- Pasta and rice dishes
- Bread sticks
- Baked and boiled potatoes
- Sandwiches
- String cheese and crackers
- Fresh and canned fruits, fruit salad, and fruit smoothies
- Cereal with low-fat milk
- Yogurt or cottage cheese with fruit
- Thick-crust pizza
Leading-edge recovery: PowerBar has you covered
PowerBar has a number of product options for promoting rapid recovery. The PowerBar Recovery bar is just one example of a great-tasting way to help you maximize your recovery after a grueling competition. Each bar provides carbs for glycogen refueling, protein for muscle repair and building, electrolytes to promote rehydration, and lipids to restore those muscle-tissue fuel sources that are lost during exercise. With a Recovery bar in your bag, you can be sure that you’re getting the sports nutrition you need to be ready for the next round.
The following PowerBar products promote rapid recovery; mix and match them to meet your needs:
- Recovery bars (30 g carbs and 12 g protein per bar)
- Recovery beverage (50 g carbs and 7.5 g protein per 20 fl oz)
- PowerBar ProteinPlus® protein bars (37–39 g carbs and 23 g protein per bar)
- PowerBar ProteinPlus® 30g protein bar (33 g carbs and 30 g protein per bar)
- PowerBar ProteinPlus® Bites (34 g carbs and 20 g protein per pouch [about 8 Bites])
- Performance Energy bars (41–45 g carbs and 8–10 g protein per bar)
- PowerBar Fruit Smoothie Energy bars (42 g carbs and 6 g protein per bar)
- PowerBar® Nut Naturals Energy bars (19–20 g carbs and 10 g protein per bar)
- Endurance sports drink (42 g carbs per 20 fl oz)
Putting it into practice
Practice may not make you perfect, but it will help to ensure that what you put in your mouth on the day of a competition will enhance — not hinder — your performance. Make certain that the foods and fluids you bring to a tournament or meet have all been put to the test during training. This will help you avoid food-related stress and issues during the competition.
Tournament day is not the day to try something new; stick with familiar foods!
Below is a practical example of a sports nutrition plan for a tournament schedule. The idea is to get a good start on the day of competition and to achieve optimal recovery between events. Use this example as a guide to developing a plan that works for your sport and specific needs.
Keep in mind the more time you have before a game, the more food you can take in; with less time before a game, you need to go easy, or you could be risking a game-ruining stomach ache.
| Tournament Sample Day: |
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| Time |
Event |
Sports Nutrition Plan |
| 6:30–7:00 am |
Breakfast
(Ideally 2–4 hours before a game) |
Low-fiber breakfast cereal with low-fat milk
Banana
Toast with honey
Endurance sports drink or water |
|
|
|
| 7:00–8:30 am |
|
Frequent sips of Endurance sports drink or water |
|
|
|
| 9:00–10:30 am |
Game #1 |
Frequent sips of Endurance sports drink, or down a PowerBar Gel plus water during breaks in play |
|
|
|
| 10:30–11:00 am |
Recovery |
Plain bagel
Yogurt
banana
Frequent sips of Recovery beverage, Endurance sports drink, or water
Goal: 0.5 grams of carb/lb body weight (1.1 grams of carb/kg of body weight) within 30 minutes, plus 15–25 grams of protein |
|
|
|
| 12:00–12:30 pm |
Lunch |
Turkey sandwich
Fresh or canned fruit
Baked chips
Low-fat frozen yogurt
Frequent sips of Endurance sports drink or water |
|
|
|
| 12:30–1:30 pm |
Rest time |
Frequent sips of Endurance sports drink or water, and, if hungry, PowerBar Gels, Gel Blasts energy chews, PowerBar Fruit Smoothie Energy bars, or Performance Energy bars |
|
|
|
| 2:00 pm |
Warm-up |
Frequent sips of Endurance sports drink or water |
|
|
|
| 3:00–4:30 pm |
Game #2 |
Frequent sips of Endurance sports drink, or down a PowerBar Gel plus water during breaks in play |
|
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|
| 4:30–5:00 pm |
Recovery |
Choose from:
Recovery drink
Recovery bar
ProteinPlus protein bar
ProteinPlus 30g protein bar
ProteinPlus Bites
String cheese and crackers, smoothie, bagel, or peanut butter and jelly sandwich
Goal: 0.5 grams of carb/lb body weight (1.1 grams of carb/kg of body weight) within 30 minutes, plus 15–25 grams of protein |
|
|
|
| 6:00 pm |
Dinner |
Cheese ravioli with meat or marinara sauce
French bread
Fruit
Steamed vegetables
Gelato or frozen yogurt
Goal: Consume a carb-rich meal and carb-based snacks until you retire for the night |
|
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Proof of principle
Will all this preparation and planning make a difference in your performance? Chances are very good that it will.
Soccer players, for example, have been found to have significantly depleted muscle glycogen stores after a game, with some players already showing low glycogen content at halftime. Players with depleted muscle glycogen stores covered less ground in the second half of the match — and at a lower speed. If a single game or match can deplete your muscle fuel stores and impair your performance, imagine what multiple competitions in a day or weekend can do.
Studies have also shown that carbo-loading before a competition allowed soccer players to complete 33% more high-intensity work during a game and allowed ice hockey players to skate for longer distances at a higher intensity, compared with when their normal dietary practices were followed.
Other studies have shown the performance benefits of a strategic approach to recovery in the interval between competitions occurring on the same day and when the competitions were on successive days or even a few days apart.
The bottom line is that during a competition, attending to your recovery as soon as possible after each event is critically important to ensuring your best performance.
References:
Saltin B. Metabolic fundamentals in exercise. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise 1973; 5:137–146.
Ekblom B. Applied physiology of soccer. Sports Medicine 1986; 3:50–60.
Balsom PD, Wood K, Olsson P, Ekblom B. Carbohydrate intake and multiple sprint sports: With special reference to football (soccer). International Journal of Sports Medicine 1999; 20:48–52.
Akermark C, Jacobs I, Rasmusson M, Karlson J. Diet and muscle glycogen concentration in relation to physical performance in Swedish elite ice hockey players. International Journal of Sport Nutrition 1996; 6:272–284.
Niles ES, Lachowetz T, Garfi J, Sullivan W, Smith JC, Leyh BP, Headley SA. Carbohydrate-protein drink improves time to enhaustion after recovery from endurance exercise. Journal of Exercise Physiology 2001; 4:45–52.
Nevill ME, Williams C, Roper D, Slater C, Nevill AM. Effect of diet on performance during recovery from intermittent sprint exercise. Journal of Sport Sciences 1993; 11:119–126.
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