Football

In every sport, supplements are being recognised as the missing link between success and failure, offering the extra edge your body needs to take you to the next level. Here’s some examples of the sports supplements available that can aid your body before, during and after football.

Quickly absorbed by the body to prevent muscle loss and help re-build extended muscle tissue, Whey Protein is a great product for any sportsman. Not only does protein rebuild muscle and improve muscular function after the rigorous exercise football provides, it also improves mental focus when otherwise you would tire.

Products such as BSN’s No-Explode or Syntha-6 offer you explosive energy during the game and the caffeine and brain stimulating nutrients can ensure you are focused until the very last minute when all other’s around you are slipping. Furthermore, the right products such as those mentioned, don’t include the fat-promoting sugars that can cause you to gain weight or water. 

Often over-looked as a supplement, multi-vitamins are as important as any to ensure the vitamins and nutrients you use during intensive exercise are recalled afterwards to promote recovery and ensure overall health and fitness. Multi-vitamins can aid everything from your energy levels and mental focus during the game, to your recovery afterwards. Further nutrients such as Zinc, Choline, Inositol and L-Carnitine also help your body regulate blood sugar and therefore, energy levels, during exercise.

Another supplement that shouldn’t be underestimated, Amino Acids are commonly known as the building blocks of protein and not only stimulate muscle growth, but aid recovery and prevent muscle loss, key to promoting and improving the muscle reactions required during football. Furthermore, they can increase the body’s fuel supply by storing glycogen and have also been said to decrease the production of serotonin, thereby lowering mental fatigue and the feeling of tiredness, vital to any footballer.

Again, natural glutamine levels are depleted during intensive exercise so it is important to supplement glutamine as it can prevent muscle deterioration and is highly beneficial to the immune system, both key to any footballer. Again, Glutamine is also converted to glucose when the body requires more energy.

At any level, football is a game of skill, vision, pace and stamina. The body is pushed to the limit for 90 solid minutes as the stop-start notion of the game results in a trigger-like response required for a number of manoeuvres such as sprinting, turning, jumping and stretching. The sport also required high mental focus as football is a game of intelligent requiring a vision and awareness for as long as the game is played. All these exertions on the body can result in a high number of physical strains and injuries. Not only do you need the required energy to retain mental focus and explosive bursts of energy at any point of the game, but football is one of the most testing sports on your muscles, joints and overall flexibility. Whatever exercise a footballer participates in, without the right nutrients their body wont have the endurance nor strength to cope with these excessive demands.

Although the game has developed constantly over the course of the last century, it is only really since the start of the Premier League back in 1992 that has seen the sport change like no other. As a billion pound commercial business, so competitive are the clubs and players alike that every aspect of the game is dissected and analysed to get the very best out of individuals on the pitch. To this end, the importance of the right diet and benefits of sports supplements have seen regimented diet programmes ran by several experts at all club levels.

The Footballer’s Diet

Before we look at the advantages supplements for footballer’s can bring, remember, nothing can replace a good diet.

As in any sport, carbohydrates are vital to provide you with the energy to compete and the ability to recover properly afterwards. Foods rich in ‘complex carbs’ include bread, pasta, rice, oats, baked beans and baked potatoes should be taken a few hours before a football match. After or in-between training, it is also important to give your body a quick boost with ‘simple carbs’ such as bananas, sugars, honey, yogurt and jam.

Protein is also important to repair muscles and provide energy from foods such as dairy products and poultry. Protein’s and Fat’s should be avoided prior to football matches to avoid slumps in energy levels and prevent your body over-working itself digesting the food rather than turning it into energy. Here’s a roundabout example of a solid footballers diet:

Breakfast: High protein or wheat-based cereals such as bran flakes or shredded wheat are good to provide a good energy boost to start the day without your body getting bogged down digesting proteins or fats.

Lunch: Jacket Potatoes or bread with beans and/or tuna is often used by footballers to provide slow-releasing carbs and sugar-rich energy. Sandwiches with a little butter and healthy fillings are also good.

Dinner: Nothing revolutionary, but again solid carbs such as potatoes, pasta and rice with lean proteins like fish, poultry and any vegetables result in a dinner designed to boost energy and aid recovery.

Drinks and Snacks: Water, fruit juices and isotonic drinks are extremely important to keep the body hydrated and healthy. After exercise, fluids need to be replaced to alcohol should be clearly avoided. Snacks high in sugar such as bananas or chocolate are also good in between meals as long as the consumed energy is used for exercise and isn’t stored in the body.