Nutrition Tactics for Power Athletes

Different activities place special metabolic requirements on muscle systems, and these differences alter the nutrition requirements among athletes involved in various types of sports. Sports that require a high level of power and speed over short distances have a high anaerobic component. Athletes in these sports are not interested in their ability to move efficiently over long distances for long periods of time; they want to be there first in short distances. When a baseball player steals a base, there is virtually nothing about that 4- to 5-second experience that requires aerobic efficiency. The sprint to the next base is entirely dependent on anaerobic metabolism, which is almost entirely dependent on phosphocreatine and glycogen as fuels. Bodybuilders need explosive power to train but almost never place continuous stress on the muscles for longer than 1.5 minutes, which is the approximate time limit for anaerobic activities.

There has been an evolution in the way athletes eat to support top athletic performance. Around AD 200, Diogenes Laertius wrote that the training diet of Greek athletes of the time consisted of dried figs, moist cheeses, and wheat products.1 American Olympians at the Berlin Games of 1936 had a daily intake that included beefsteak, lots of butter, three eggs, custard, 1.5 liters of milk, and as much as they could consume of white bread, dinner rolls, fresh vegetables, and salads. With each successive Olympic Games, athletes have consumed certain foods and avoided other foods depending on the state of nutrition knowledge. Since the 1960s, however, there has been a purposeful scientific effort to learn what athletes need and why they need it. This scientific endeavor has led to a much-improved understanding of how muscles work for power and how they work . for speed. The science of sports nutrition has also helped us understand the different nutrition demands associated with different types of activities. A failure to consider the nutrition implications of the activity will most certainly lead to problems in training and to performance outcomes that are below the capabilities of the athlete.

Our current knowledge of nutrition requirements for anaerobic activity is substantial, with the clear understanding of what it is that muscles use in this type of activity: phosphocreatine and glycogen. Of course, there is also a question of how to obtain and sustain the larger muscle mass typically needed by athletes involved in anaerobic activity, and the answer to this question is also known: more calories. However, despite the well-established nature of these facts, anaerobic athletes place an unyielding focus on protein intake to satisfy the phosphocreatine, glycogen, and muscle requirements of their activities.