Competition Prep for Armatures

Elite athletes usually know when they are competing. Their schedule is so regimented that their team can improvise a nutrition and warm up ragtime to follow on competition day. Armature athletes don't always have that luxury. If you warm up too soon you'll be cold by the time you want to compete and if you eat too late you will experience a stitch, stomach bloating or cramp. It's a tricky one. I've wrote an intervention to try and combat the issue.

I will start with the night before. You want to consider a good meal within an hour before you hit the hay. This meal should contain the most fibrous of all carbohydrate sources, vegetables. Take on plenty of greens for slow release energy throughout the night. More starchy carbohydrates should also be present as they will supply your muscles with glycogen. Glycogen is needed in higher quantities for endurance athletes but for people with a more explosive discipline such as sprinting, weightlifting or martial arts it should be a simple fist sized portion. Glycogen is important for anaerobic respiration but too much pasta or potatoes will result in uncomfortable bloating with a restless sleep. A palm sized protein portion should also be present as it aids in slowing down digestion.

Get ready to take regular light sips on water in the morning. You can lose up to 2 litres of water during the night through sweat and perspiration. Eat a simple balanced breakfast. Nothing fancy. Oats are a fantastic way to start the day as they will instantly provide slow digesting energy. Add blueberries to provide an instant hit of energy and maybe some raisins. Almonds are also a brilliant way of adding protein whilst slowing down digestion with its fatty acids.

From this point on it gets complicated. You don't know when you're competing, you need energy but you don't want to fill up before competing and you need to ensure that you are dehydrated. Here's what you need to do.

Drink a small mouthful every 15 minutes. Larger sips will make you feel bloated and you won't gather the same mineral content. An energy tablet may make water go down easier and will prevent cramp from occurring.
You will also need a light carbohydrate content for throughout the competition day. Eat 20 grams of carbohydrates every 30 minutes. A more sugary variety will go down easily but make sure that a high content of complex carbohydrates are present as they will provide slow releasing energy. I would recommend a home made out bar with strawberry jam.

Warming up is tricky in this scenario but not impossible. At the competition venue you should immediately mobilise your joints and practice the skills that you wish to perform well at on the day. If you're a sprinter work on your skips and hops. If you're a martial artist work on your kicks. Keep it light but try to get a minor sweat on. After 30 minutes of practice put on a lose fitting jacket and tracksuit trousers so that your body temperature doesn't drop. You will then be in a good place to work on any psychological preparation set out for you by your sports psychologist.

The best warm up you can have is the one that gets your body ready in the least amount of time so that you don't fatigue yourself. Practice 4 minutes of jogging on the spot, 1 minute of mobility and 1 minute of dynamic flexibility. This should give you enough time to get your body ready on the competition area just before you get called.