HOW TO WIN

Issue No. 24

Stealing a tasty march on the opposition

This week's How To Win includes:

Just as the most finely-tuned engine in the world will splutter, judder and finally fail for want of the right high-octane fuel, so the athlete’s finely-honed body will perform below par if it is denied the best diet.

These days there are very few coaches or athletes who will deny the crucial importance of diet for peak performance. Indeed, as the Essential Carbohydrates Report says in the Food and Drink Special Issue of Peak Performance, with many others putting in equal efforts on track, road, field or water...

...tailoring your diet closely to the needs of your body and the demands of your sport is one way to steal a march on the rest of the pack.

Of the three macronutrients (the other two being protein and fats), carbohydrates have the most immediate impact on athletic performance, as anyone who has experienced the unpleasant sensation of plummeting blood sugar towards the end of an endurance event will know.

And the comprehensive Essential Carbohydrates Report tells you everything you ever wanted to know – and a lot more besides – about your body’s carbohydrate needs during training, recovery, pre-competition and competition itself. Read on for some extracts, exclusive and free to How To Win readers...

Fluid: the one thing your body can’t learn to do without

The Food and Drink Special Issue of Peak Performance also contains the Essential Hydration Report.

Whereas most people, given the chance, will eat as much food as they need – and usually more – the evidence suggests that people tend to underestimate their fluid needs, with thirst a poor guide to hydration status.

Here's a few top tips from the Hydration Report to help you achieve adequate fluid intake when training and competing in the heat (to read the rest, you can take out a US$1.99 / GB£1.27 trial subscription to Peak Performance):

  • Be aware of your fluid requirements;
  • Make fluids as readily available as possible;
  • Ensure you are well-hydrated before exercise (500ml of a 6% sports drink one hour beforehand will suffice);
  • Empty your bladder before exercise;
  • Drink small amounts regularly during exercise;
  • Start drinking before you feel thirsty;
  • Practise a drinking régime during training;
  • Aim to drink 150-200ml every 15 minutes.

Dietary Supplements: When the price for ‘harmless’ tablets is just too high

Food supplements are an integral aspect of diet for many athletes, but even the most innocuous preparations may present hidden dangers, as Ron Maughan points out in the Food and Drink Special Issue of Peak Performance.

No one who faces the prospect of random dope testing should miss this worrying and thought-provoking piece.

To read these reports in full, for free, take out a trial subscription to Peak Perfomance for just US$1.99 (GB£1.27), click here for details...

Or read on to start learning how the right food can give you 'the inside track'...

Carbohydrates: the fuel of choice for serious athletes

As an athlete you expect the best from your body. You put in hours of training and preparation to get into peak condition to compete.

But it’s a tough world, and there are many others putting in equal training efforts – so just how do you get the edge on the rest of the pack?

The answer is: through nutrition and diet.

Whether you are aiming to win an international championship, top your age group category or simply complete your first marathon, you must ensure you are optimally fuelling your body.

To back up all your hard work with the right nutrition you need to start with the basics. To compete you need to train; to train you need energy; to recover from training you need to replace the energy used in training. Where does that energy come from?

The answer is: from carbohydrates.

Our diet is composed of macronutrients (protein, fat and carbohydrates) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Carbohydrate accounts for, on average, 50% of total energy intake, with fat supplying around 30% and protein the remaining 20%.

Carbohydrates exist in several formations, of which the most commonly consumed are monosaccharides (one sugar unit, also known as simple carbohydrates) and polysaccharides (many sugar units, or complex carbohydrates).

The type of carbohydrate consumed determines how quickly it becomes available to your body as an energy source, although most naturally-occurring foods contain a mixture of carbohydrate types, along with varying amounts of protein, fat and other nutrients. Good carbohydrate sources are often referred to as ‘carbohydrate-rich’. Not all carbohydrate sources are of equal value, and those that are also high in fat are not particularly useful to athletes.

In the Food and Drink special of Peak Performance, you can also discover:

  • the carbohydrate and fat content of typical foods
  • how different carbohydrate sources elicit different metabolic responses
  • which type of foods to eat just before and during compeition
  • the important difference between glycogen stored in your muscles and your liver
  • when fat gets burned off, when it doesn't and how this affects your performance

Many studies have shown that increasing the availability of glycogen to the muscles improves endurance exercise performance.

And it may surprise you to know that muscle glycogen levels are also depleted by short repeated stints of high-intensity exercise, suggesting that middle distance runners and athletes whose sport involves repeated stints of running – such as football and tennis – would also benefit from high-carbohydrate diets.

And that's not the end of the story!

During any form of prolonged or high-intensity exercise carbohydrate stores are taxed, and if the athlete is required to perform again the following day they must be refilled as fast as possible.

A high carbohydrate intake is essential for maintaining hard training and good performance. But stores are not infinite, and constantly need topping up.

The Essential Carbohydrates Report shows you how to implement an increased carbohydrate diet to enhance training capacity, improve competitive performance and speed recovery.

To be reading this report within minutes, click here for a US$1.99 (GB£1.27) trial subscription to Peak Performance and receive the Essential Carbohydrates Report and the three most recent issues completely free.

You need to know the essential differences between the training diet, which is consumed on a daily basis for most of the year, and the competitive diet.

The aims of the training diet are to ensure an adequate energy supply to enable you to carry out repeated hard-training sessions in order to improve fitness and perform in your sport.

The aims of the competitive diet are split into three parts: pre-competition, during competition and post-competition.

Each of these diets and of course different types of sport, require different levels of carbohydrate intake. You can find out what they are and the best foods to eat to reach them. All this comes with example meals for you to use, all in the Essential Carbohydrates Report

The Essential Carbohydrates Report and The Essential Hydration Report are just two examples of how Peak Performance can give you the same information as the world's top coaches and competitors - the ones that come back with medals and trophies from international events.

In each issue you'll discover new and tested techniques that coaches and sports therapists are currently using to extend the limits of athletic achievement. These are for you to use in your own sport.

Read on to find out how to receive three free issues of the Peak Performance newsletter...

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You will also receive the three latest issues of Peak Performance absolutely free.

Respond within 48 hours to ensure you receive the Essential Carbohydrates Report and the Essential Hydration Report, FREE.

And if you aren't completely satisfied with the training information in Peak Performance - let us know and we'll refund your money. That's how confident we are that Peak Performance will start improving your own performance.

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Enjoy your training and your competition.

Yours,

Sylvester Stein

Chairman
How To Win

Coaches' Training Secrets FREE: Peak Performance Coaching Special Report

Includes articles on how teaching technical proficiency is not enough, the relatively new discipline of Performance Analysis and a major piece of work on instinct and intuition in sport from Sir John Whitmore, the man responsible for introducing us to 'The Inner Game', over two decades ago.

Whitmore observes that plenty of people pay lip service to the idea that “it’s all in the mind”, but few put this revolutionary insight into practice. Let Sir John tell you how.

You could be reading this report in minutes from now, for FREE. Click here for details.

Coaches' Training Secrets FREE: Coaches' Training Secrets as used by the world's best athletes

The Coaches Training Secrets Special Report is packed with the latest tested techniques on Crash Training, minimising the risk of injury, endurance training to boost performance, how to prevent staleness and over training, exercises to prevent back injury, core muscle training, sizzling super-sets that give a dramatic effect.

You could be reading this report in minutes from now, for FREE. Click here for details.

Sports Psychology Report FREE: Effective mental training techniques that will improve your athletes’ performances, in The Peak Performance Sports Psychology Special Report

When physical skills are evenly matched, it is often the competitor with the stronger mental approach, who can control his or her mind before and during events, who wins.

However, many athletes wrongly assume that mental aspects of performance are innate and unchangeable when, in reality, systematic mental training can have a similar impact on performance as physical workouts.

The Peak Performance Sports Psychology Special Report provides effective mental training techniques that will improve your athlete’s performances.

You could be reading this report in minutes from now, for FREE. Click here for details.