Case Study: A “Nutrition Program for a Handball Player”
The sports nutrition world is currently experiencing significant changes regarding strategies intended to favor adaptions that occur as a response to training. According to Drobnic et al. (2014) in the nutritional guide, FC Barcelona Sports Nutrition Guide: The evidence base for FC Barcelona Sports Nutrition recommendations 2014-216, teams and individual sports personality are now prioritizing individual needs to facilitate maximum field performance. As nutrients and training are closely connected, optimum adaptations designed around meeting the requirements of repeated sessions of training demand a balance between diet appropriateness and amount and nutrient (Drobnic, et al., 2014; Burke, 2015). Though there exists no specific assemblage of nutritional recommendations or accords detailing dietary requirements when exercising, it is agreed that athletes need to ingest balanced diets accordant with recommendations to maintain commonweal health and wellbeing (Drenowatz, et al., 2013; Goulet, 2012; Philips, et al., 2011)
Athlete A is a handball player aged 29 years, of body mass 73 kilograms, height 1.99m and a BMI 18.4. The athlete is employed and travels for 1 hour to his training. The athlete is currently in the ‘competition phase’ of his season, has a weekly game, as well as specific training for strength. He is also the team captain. Additionally, he finds it hard to eat during the day at work and often goes to Costa Coffee or subway on campus. After work, he often feels tired, so he regularly drinks coffee to improve his performance during training and competition. This paper will provide a comprehensive nutrition program to help improve his recovery after training, and build lean muscle mass to improve his strength.
The Weekly Training Program of Athlete A
- Sunday: A 1-hour morning low intensity continuous run, one-hour evening strength exercise
- Monday: 2-hour handball training session in the evening
- Tuesday: 40-minute morning yoga, 45-minute evening sprint sessions
- Wednesday: 2-hour handball training session in the evening
- Thursday: 1-hour strength training session in the evening
- Friday: Resting day
- Saturday: Competition/match day
Nutrition Program
Table 1: A weekly nutrition program for athlete A
| Day | Breakfast | Lunch | Supper | Pre-workout Meal | Post workout meal |
| Sunday | 2 wheat toast slices, 2 cups of cornflakes, 1 cup orange juice, 1 banana | 1 cup nonfat yogurt, 4 slices of turkey breast, 1 table spoon mustard, lettuce leaves, ½ cup baby carrot, 1 apple, 1 oz. pretzels, 1 cup mashed potatoes, chopped celery | 2 cups of spinach, 1 cup low fat milk, 1 tablespoon sliced almonds, 1 tablespoon balsamic vignette, ½ cup strawberries, 4 oz. cooked chicken, ¼ a cup of shredded carrots, 2 cups spinach, ¼ cucumbers, 1 whole wheat roll with 1 tablespoon of butter | 1 cup of skimmed milk, 1 banana, 2 cups of water | Whey protein, 1 banana, ¼ cup almonds |
| Monday | 2eggs and 3 egg whites, 1 tablespoon jam, 1 banana, 1 cup low fat milk, 2 slices of whole grain toast. | 4 oz. baked chicken, no skin. 1 cup green beans, 2 cups skim milk, 1 cup mashed potatoes, 1 cup vegetable soup | 4 oz. lean steak, ¾ cup red potatoes, 1 peach, ½ cup low fat milk, ¼ cup mango salsa, 1 melon, ¼ cup walnuts | ½ cup apple juice, 1 fruit smoothie, 1 cereal bar | 1 power bar, 1milk whey |
| Tuesday | cups of corn flakes, 1-2 cups of water, 2 slices of white toast, 1 banana | English muffin, 1 whole wheat, ½ cup cottage cheese, 1 cup melon, 1 oz. pretzels, crackers, ¼ cup walnuts, 1 cup snap peas | ¼ cup black beans, 1 tablespoon salsa, 1 cup low fat milk, 2 cps cucumber and spinach salad, 1 whole white tortilla, ¼ cup cottage low fat cheese | 2 oz. pretzels, 1 apple, 1 tablespoon hummus | ¼ a cup of almonds, 1 banana, whey protein |
| Wednesday | 2 egg and 3 egg whites, 1 banana, 2 cups of cornflakes, 2 slices of wheat toast,1 cup of orange juice | 4 oz. skinned baked chicken, 1 cup green beans, 2 cups skim milk, 1 cup of peas, 1 cup vegetable soup | A cup of low fat milk, 2 cups of spinach, 1 tablespoon sliced almonds, 1 tablespoon balsamic vignette, ½ cup strawberries, 4 oz. cooked chicken, ¼ a cup of shredded carrots, 2 cups spinach, ¼ cucumbers | 1 banana, 1 cup smoothie, 2 cups of water | Whey protein, 1 banana, ¼ cup almonds |
| Thursday | 1 cup low fat milk, 2 slices whole grain toast, I banana, I table spoon of jam, a cup of cantaloupe | 1 peach, ¼ cup cucumbers, ¼ cup shredded carrots, 1 oz. whole wheat roll with 1 table spoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vignette, 4 oz. cooked salmon | 1 peach, 2 cups mixed greens, 4 oz. cooked salmon, ¼ cup cucumbers, ¼ cup green papers, ¼ cup low fat feta cheese, 1 tablespoon balsamic vignette, 1 tablespoon chopped pecans | Cereal bar, fruit smoothie | 1 Whey milk and 1 power bar |
| Friday | A cup of low fat milk, 2 cups of corn flakes, 1-2 cups of water, 2 slices of white toast, ¼ cup chopped walnuts | 1 cup mashed potatoes, 2 slices whole grain bread, 4 slices of turkey breast, 1 tables spoon mustard, 1 oz. pretzels, 1 apple, 2 cups skimmed milk, a cup of green beans | 2 cups of spinach, 1 cup low fat milk, 1 tablespoon sliced almonds, 1 tablespoon balsamic vignette, ½ cup strawberries, 4 oz. cooked chicken, ¼ a cup of shredded carrots, 2 cups spinach, ¼ cucumbers | Rest | Rest |
| Saturday | Match day. Meals tend to change depending on travelling plans of the team. | ||||
Stay hydrated:
- Choose caffeine-free fluids.
- Bring a water bottle to training.
- To each meal, add a glass of water.
- Put a juice box; sports drink or a water bottle in the workout bag.
- Popsicles and Jell-O should be eaten as snacks.
Critical Analysis of the Dietary Program
Goulet (2012) poses that exercise scientists have identified an interaction between nutrient availability and exercise training-induced responses. The energy status of skeletal muscles has the greatest intensity of effects on fuel usage during training practices and the resting metabolism, incisive regulatory actions forming the basis of cell signaling, exercise capacity, gene expression, and a myriad of other processes responsible for training adaptation (Philips, et al., 2011).
Carbohydrate requirements and energy expenditure on match days tend to be higher compared to weekly training periods. On these days, from the analysis of studies, it is revealed that athletes consume less citing travels and game stress and, match schedule eating that alter normal eating patterns. Athlete A, who has a single competitive match per week, has sufficient time to recover nutritionally, and thus the diet is designed around recovery. Goulet (2012) argues that aggressive feeding strategies that promote adequate rehydration and carbohydrate intake are imperative.
According to Hawley et al. (2011), the concentration of glycogen in skeletal muscles has a controlling effect on many cellular functions. GLUT 4 and contraction-induced glucose transport are hindered by elevated levels of muscle glycogen. The availability of carbohydrates also has a modulating effect on the transcription and translation of a number of exercise-induced genes. The Barcelonan doctors, Drobnic et al. (2014), further elaborate that the commencement of exercises on low muscle glycogen stores leads to heightened transcriptional actuation of enzymes responsible for the metabolism of carbohydrates; GLUT 4, AMPK, pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), and hexokinase, as compared to average glycogen concentrations.
Based on this case, Hansen in Philips (2011) conducted a 10-week training commencing with a reduced availability of glycogen in muscles would encourage adaptation to greater lengths than when the such session begun on normal muscle glycogen levels. The hypothesis was tested using a 10-week training schedule that entailed the left and right legs of an amateur participant performed equal amounts of work with different pre-exercise glycogen concentration in skeletal muscles. Maximal activities of the enzyme citrate synthase, resting muscle glycogen content, and time of exercise taken for fatigue were all heightened to a larger degree in the limb that begun exercises with reduced glycogen content comparative to normal glycogen content.
Other studies (Burd, et al., 2010; Philips, et al., 2011; Drenowatz, et al., 2013; Hawley, et al., 2011) manipulated training frequencies and intensities as to commence heightened interval exercises at a time when 50% lowered glycogen supplies through previous workouts or were replenished. It was realized (Philips, et al., 2011) that the greatest magnitude of self-selected physical strength produced was lower when such fit persons begun intervals with lower than normal glycogen stores. These studies, therefore, indicate that contingent of previous training programs designed with short-term commencement with either reduced glycogen concentration in skeletal muscles and low availability of exogenous glucose increases training versification to an advanced level than when set upon with average to raised muscular stores of glycogen. (Drenowatz, et al., 2013). Importantly, as the studies also used various training modes and arrangements in training sessions, combined with varied period of intervention, it is possible that some of these findings cannot without deviation be constructed to dissimilarities in the availability of carbohydrate per se; but rather to the effects of the number of recovery periods within exercises and number of training sessions. There exists no evidence of impaired adaptation decrease in results of performance after temporal training with low concentration of carbohydrate (Philips, et al., 2011, p. 5).
Fat plays a significant contribution to exercise at low and moderate intensities (Goulet, 2012; Burke, 2015). The oxidation of lipids is important for the provision of an alternative to liver carbohydrate at physical exertions of up to 75–85% of VO2max in trained individuals. According to Drobnic et al. (2014), the consumption of fat rich diets while training on a daily basis adds a positive contribution to healthy training-induced gain in the oxidation of fats, lowers the utilization of carbohydrates, and serves to holdup the beginning of fatigue during lengthened training sessions. Helge et al. in Philips et al. (2011) conducted the first contemporary research into the interaction between training and diets high in fats on training capacity and metabolism. 20 untrained male participants consumed a diet either rich in fat (n=10) or a diet rich in carbohydrates (n=10) while partaking in endurance training in a frequency of 3 to 4 exercises weekly for seven weeks. Both groups then ingested high carbohydrates diets on the 8th week. On the 7th week, endurance performance was undertaken to reveal significant improvements after the consumption of a carbohydrate-rich diet exercise as equated to a diet rich in fat (56%). The replacement of diets rich in lipids and fats by a carbohydrate rich diet on the 8th week of exercise led to a lower endurance performance record for these group of subjects than those who had trained for the entire duration on a high-carbohydrate diet. A conclusion from the research was, therefore “ingesting a fat-rich diet during an endurance training program is detrimental to endurance performance … due to suboptimal adaptations that are not remedied by the short-term increase in carbohydrate availability” (Philips, et al., 2011, p. 837).
Pre-Match Eating
Before games, event competitions or even a training session, it is important for an athlete to maximize carbohydrate stores within their liver and muscles and top up body glucose stores (Drobnic, et al., 2014; Hawley, et al., 2011). Consumption of high glycemic food within an hour of exercise, experts argue, adversely lowers body glucose. An overshot in insulin production after the ingestion of high glycemic index foods causes muscles to take up high amounts of sugars, which in turn lowers blood glucose concentration (Drobnic, et al., 2014). Intake of low glycemic index foods (pasta, rice, whole grains, bread, milk, oatmeal, and fruits -except dried fruits and bananas) before a match allows for the relatively slow release of glucose into the blood, counteracting an unwanted insulin surge (Hawley, et al., 2011).
Post-Match Eating
A handball player can spend up to 200 to 250 grams of carbohydrates during and intense training game or a game. It is important that such athletes replenish these stores as quickly as possible. It becomes more necessary if an athlete gets involved in intense training sessions or has more than one competition in a week.
References
Burd, N. A., West, D. W., Staples, A. W., Atherton, P. J., Baker, J. M., Moore, D. R., Holwerda, A. M., Parise, G., Rennie, J. M., Baker, S. K, & Philips, S. M. (2010). Low-load high volume resistance exercise stimulates muscle protein synthesis more than high-load low volume resistance exercise in young men. PloS One, 5(8), e12033.
Burke, L. M. (2015). Re-Examining high-fat diets for sports performance: Did we call the ‘Nail in the Coffin’ Too Soon? Sports Medicine, 45(1), 33-49.
Drenowatz, C., Eisenmann, J. C., Pivarnik, J. M., Pfeiffer, K, A., & Carlson, J. J. (2013). Differences in energy expenditure between high and low volume training. European Journal of Sports Science, 13(4), 422-430. Drobnic, F., Lizarraga, M. A., Medina, D., Rollo, I., Carter, J., Randell, R., Jeukendrup, A. (2014-2016). FC Barcelona Sports Nutrition Guide: The evidence base for FC Barcelona Sports Nutrition recommendations 2014-216. Fc Barcelona Medical Services & The Gatorade Sports Science Institute, pp.88
Goulet, E. D. (2012). Dehydration and endurance performance in competitive athletes. Nutrition Reviews, 70(Suppl 2), S132-S136.
Hawley, J. A., Burke, L. M., Wong, S. H., & Jeukendrup, A. E. (2011) Carbohydrates for training and competition. Journal of Sports Science, 29(sup1), S17-S27.
Philips, S. M., Hawley, J. H., Burke, L. M. & Spriet, L. L. (2011). Nutritional modulation of training-induced skeletal muscle adaptations. Journal of Applied Physiology, 110(3), 834-845.
