Training Time: Six strategies to proper nutrition for the high-performing athlete. 

Do you know what types of things athletes have to do to improve their health, body composition and performance? As a Precision Nutrition Master Level 2 coach I get the most up to date, scientific based researched and practical nutrition strategies at my fingertips. These are my six strategies to proper nutrition.

   Everything I teach my athletes is based on the 3S criteria, developed by Precision Nutrition.

   1. Simple: Are the rules easy to follow?

   2. Science-based: Are the rules based on sound scientific principles?

   3. Successful: Have the rules produced success in others like your athletes?

   A system based on those three things is absolutely critical. To help you out, here are the exact strategies I’ve used with my athletes for years:

   1. EAT EVERY FEW (3-4) HOURS: Now, you don’t need to eat a full meal every few hours. Some can be smaller snacks. But every few hours you should be getting a dose of good food that follows the other rules below.

   2. INCLUDE PROTEIN-DENSE FOODS IN EACH MEAL AND SNACK: The most protein-dense and high-quality proteins come from animal foods (chicken, beef, fish, dairy etc.) Females should get one palm size and male’s two palm sizes.

   3. INCLUDE VEGETABLES IN EACH MEAL OR SNACK: One of the best and easiest things you can do to improve your health and performance is to include veggies in each meal or snack. Get at least one fist size in, but the more the better!

   4. EAT MOSTLY UNPROCESSED CARBOHYDRATES: This includes things like rice, pasta, potatoes, etc. These should come from whole food sources that contain no more than three ingredients if packaged. You should control your portions, limiting them to one cupped-palm size for females and two-cupped palm sizes for males with each meal.

   5. INCLUDE A GOOD BALANCE OF HEALTHY FAT IN YOUR DIET (There are three types of fat): 

   >> Monounsaturated fat should come from mixed nuts, olives and olive oil.

   >> Polyunsaturated fat should come from flaxseed oil, fish oil and mixed nuts.

   >> Saturated fat come from animal proteins, butter and coconut oil.

   Eating all three kinds in a healthy balance can dramatically improve your health, performance and body composition.

   6. MAKE SURE TO GET HALF YOUR BODYWEIGHT IN OUNCES OF WATER PER DAY: Our bodies are made up of 60% water, and water is absolutely essential for a variety of physiological functions. Your health, performance and body composition will suffer if you don’t drink enough of it.

   These 6 strategies to proper nutrition will have athletes eating better, and performing better, than 85-90 percent of their competition.

Tim Rudd is an IYCA specialist in youth conditioning and owner of Fit2TheCore.