Recovery and Nutrition

Nutrition

Good nutrition is a vital part of a swimmers development and success in the sport. The benefits of good nutrition are many but also include:
- Feeling healthy and happy with yourself.
- Improving your body development and growth.
​- Improving your memory and brain function.
- Improving your reflexes, agility and physical ability.
​- Higher recovery rate and better sports performance.

Nutrition in training and at home

The most important thing for swimmers to do in training is make sure they stay hydrated. You might not realise it but you are sweating quite a lot in most training sessions and this lost water needs to be replaced. If you don't stay hydrated you will experience headaches regularly and become unhealthy with a stressed immune system. When drinking it is also important to sip water rather then gulp it down.

​Using sports drinks in training can sometimes be beneficial but can also become unhealthy if done too often. When having a sports drink only a small amount is needed at training (around 200ml). Try and look for sports drinks that contain little or no sugar and don't use energy drinks like Monster or Red Bull.

​Dieting is almost never necessary for swimmers. Rather swimmers should aim to eat well, following the nutrition pyramid advice. Key to good nutrition at home is limiting sugar and soft drinks. Snacks should ideally be healthy more often then not. Swimmers can encourage parents not to buy sugary snacks or crisps as these will get eaten first.

​After training it is extremely useful to have a nutritious snack. Research shows that consuming a snack like this within 20 minutes of finishing training greatly aids in recovery rates. Snacks should have around body weight (kg changed  to grams) in carbohydrates, about 10-15grams of protein, and important vitamins and minerals like sodium, potassium and Vitamin C. Examples of snacks can include Up and Go's (a fair bit of sugar here though) or nutritious muesli bars and bananas. A glass of milk provides plenty of protein.
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Competition Nutrition

More information to come.

Log Book

A Log book for swimmers is in the works.

​The log book includes nutrition, sleeping habits, energy levels, training details and exercise information. It needs to be completed once each season.