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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Ratgeber
- Sprache: Englisch
Discover the nutritional and physiological age-related changes and needs of athletes aged 35 and above
Athletic activity is becoming increasingly central to the lives of many adults as they age. More and more adults over 35 participate actively in athletics. Additionally, older adults are increasingly encouraged to pursue athletics for reasons of health and wellness. There is a growing need, therefore, for sports nutrition and physiology texts that focus on this population in detail, and not simply as a subset of a field that has been primarily oriented towards younger athletes.
Sports Nutrition for Masters Athletes meets this need with an intensive, evidence-based approach to the nutritional needs of athletes over the age of 35. Alert to the importance of diet in performance and the requirements of older athletes, the book offers a robust toolkit for maintaining athletic performance with age while adjusting for physiologic changes. The result is an essential contribution to a growing field of research and clinical practice.
Sports Nutrition for Masters Athletes readers will also find:
- An overview of physiological changes associated with the aging process and their impact on performance.
- Detailed insights into the relationship between nutrition and the mitigation of the inflammatory process.
- Coverage of subjects including the determination of caloric and nutrient needs, dietary strategies, and many more
Sports Nutrition for Masters Athletes is ideal for those pursuing education in nutrition, exercise science, exercise physiology, health and wellness, and physical education. It will also be of interest to those studying physical aging or work with older adults as clients and patients.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
Preface
1 Overview
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Demographic Data
1.3 What Is Sports Nutrition?
1.4 Why Study Sports Nutrition?
1.5 What Is a Masters Athlete?
1.6 Why Focus on Masters Athletes?
1.7 What Are the Nutrients Used by Athletes?
1.8 Macronutrients
1.9 Micronutrients
1.10 Hydration
1.11 Supplementation
1.12 Overview: A Nutrient Approach to Diet
1.13 Conclusion
References
2 A Biochemistry and Physiology
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Homeostasis
2.3 Energy Production
2.4 Biochemical Reactions in Sports Nutrition
2.5 Energy Systems
2.6 Conclusion
References
3 The Aging Process
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Performance‐Based Changes
3.3 Motor Neuron Changes
3.4 Endocrine Changes
3.5 Oxygen Delivery Changes
3.6 Conclusion
References
4 Macronutrients
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Carbohydrates
4.3 Protein
4.4 Fat (Lipids)
4.5 Conclusion
References
5 Micronutrients
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Vitamin Overview
5.3 Dietary Reference Intakes
5.4 Water‐Soluble Vitamins
5.5 Fat‐Soluble Vitamins
5.6 Electrolytes
5.7 Major Minerals
5.8 Essential Trace Minerals
5.9 Nonessential Trace Minerals and Choline
5.10 Conclusion
References
6 Nutrition Assessment
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Client History
6.3 Dietary Analysis
6.4 Anthropometric Testing
6.5 Assessments of Hydration
6.6 Nutritionally Focused Lab Work
6.7 Conclusion
References
7 Hydration
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Water in the Body
7.3 Functions of Water
7.4 Sources of Water
7.5 Sources of Water Loss
7.6 Impact of Hydration Imbalance
7.7 Assessing Hydration Status
7.8 Hydration Strategies
7.9 Hydrating Sports Drinks
7.10 Conclusion
References
8 Peri‐workout Nutrition
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Pre‐workout Nutrition
8.3 Intra‐workout Nutrition
8.4 Post‐workout Nutrition
8.5 Conclusion
References
9 Inflammation
9.1 Introduction
9.2 The Physiology of Inflammation
9.3 Inflammation in Athletes
9.4 Managing Inflammation for Performance
9.5 Conclusion
References
10 Supplementation
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Supplementation vs Whole Foods
10.3 Muscle and Tissue Repair and Growth
10.4 Carbohydrate Powders and Gels
10.5 Vitamins and Minerals
10.6 Oxidative Stress
10.7 Hormone Balance and Cortisol Control
10.8 Inflammation Control
10.9 Ergogenic Supplements and Weight Loss
10.10 Microbiome Support
10.11 Bone and Joint Support
10.12 Supplement Quality
10.13 Conclusion
References
11 Putting It All Together
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Nutritional Assessment
11.3 Establishing Dietary Goals
11.4 Establishing Performance Metrics
11.5 Creating the Nutritional Plan
11.6 Determining Caloric Needs
11.7 Determination of Macronutrient Needs
11.8 Determination of Micronutrient Needs
11.9 Developing a Hydration Strategy
11.10 Establishing a Peri‐workout Nutrition Plan
11.11 Establishing a Targeted Supplementation Plan
11.12 Conclusion
References
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Illustrations
Chapter 1
Figure 1.1 Hierarchy of the determination of nutritional needs.
Chapter 4
Figure 4.1 The glycemic index and glycemic load of various foods.
Figure 4.2 Recommended requirements for dietary carbohydrates.
Figure 4.3 Recommended requirements for dietary protein according to the ISS...
Figure 4.4 Health concerns associated with dietary trans fats.
Chapter 5
Figure 5.1 Water‐soluble vitamins.
Figure 5.2 Fat‐soluble vitamins.
Figure 5.3 Major minerals.
Figure 5.4 Electrolytes.
Figure 5.5 Essential trace minerals.
Figure 5.6 Nonessential trace minerals.
Figure 5.7 Micronutrients directly associated with athletic performance [20]...
Chapter 6
Figure 6.1 Sweat rate calculation.
Chapter 7
Figure 7.1 Hydration needs calculations.
Chapter 8
Figure 8.1 Peri‐workout nutrition.
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 Protein absorption rates.
Figure 10.2 Biochemistry of cortisol synthesis.
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 Total caloric requirement.
Figure 11.2 BMR formulae.
Figure 11.3 Activity multipliers.
Guide
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
Preface
Begin Reading
Index
WILEY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
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Sports Nutrition for Masters Athletes
Peter G. Nickless, DC, PhD
Dean of Online Education Director Master of Science in Applied Clinical Nutrition Northeast College of Health SciencesSeneca Falls, NY, USA
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Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication DataNames: Nickless, Peter G., author.Title: Sports nutrition for masters athletes / Peter G. Nickless.Description: Hoboken, New Jersey : Wiley, [2025] | Includes index.Identifiers: LCCN 2024028315 (print) | LCCN 2024028316 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119904304 (paperback) | ISBN 9781119904311 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781119904328 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Athletes–Nutrition.Classification: LCC TX361.A8 N53 2025 (print) | LCC TX361.A8 (ebook) | DDC 613.202/4796–dc23/eng/20240723LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024028315LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2024028316
Cover Design: WileyCover Images: © PeopleImages.com ‐ Yuri A/Shutterstock, © Westend61/Getty Images, © vm/Getty Images, © Photo and Co/Getty Images
I decicate this book to my family: my wife Katie, daughters Samantha, Nicole, and Vivian and my grandchildren Jacob and Charlie. You are the reason why I do everything I do. You are my inspiration and my support. Thank you for putting up with me during the writing of this book.
I would also like to dedicate this book to my brother and to all of the master’s athletes. This book is for all of you still woking to be your best and not giving up on your dreams at any age.
Preface
The study of sports nutrition has been an important part of my career for the past 20 years. My introduction to sports nutrition began as my own Olympic aspirations as a weightlifter started to decline. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, I was a competitive Olympic‐style weightlifter. I was able to compete at various local, regional, and national level events but aspired to earn a national team placement and even compete at an international competition. I may have been overestimating my abilities, but this was the driving force for my training during these years. At the time, I was competing in the superheavyweight division, weighing around 420 lbs. During my athletic career much of the nutritional information going around weightlifting circles was that to be able to compete as a drug‐free athlete, you need to eat both a large amount of calories and protein. Supplements were discussed but discouraged for drug‐tested athletes, due to the potential for adulteration. This made up the whole of my nutritional plan from the start of my career until around 2004. Around that time, as I approached 30 years old, I started to get nagging injuries which hurt my ability to train and compete. As a practicing chiropractor, with a focus on treating athletes, I had the knowledge and tools for the treatment and rehabilitation of these injuries but not enough information for their prevention from a nutritional perspective. I was personally using a mixture of chiropractic manipulation, rehabilitative exercise, massage, physical therapy, acupuncture, and various orthopedic injections to support my career. I would give myself rest and utilized various training and recovery modalities to support my performance but would find these injuries kept returning and amplifying. I was simply outperforming my ability to recover, and my body was paying the price in injuries. I finally realized that nutrition was a key piece of the performance puzzle that I had yet to explore. These injuries were not coming from breakdowns in technique, but rather a failure to match my diet to my training needs. I was not fueling recovery and performance adequately, and I was making poor food choices that limited my recovery and fueled the inflammatory process. I had been able to get away with eating pizza and fast food as a young athlete, but not any longer. Where previously I could recover from an extreme bout of exercise or small injury quickly, no matter what I ate, I now found that I was coming into workouts overtrained and achy. This epiphany led me to explore the world of sports nutrition. As a chiropractic student I had been exposed to a lot of quality nutrition education, but it focused mainly on general health. I could easily say that I had a good base of knowledge but needed more focused information in sports nutrition specifically. I then took it upon myself to read everything I could get my hands on both from popular media and peer‐reviewed research. I took post‐graduate educational courses and hired nutritionists to help me to learn. I found great success during this period of learning but felt a need to go deeper to understand how everything fit together. This led me to pursue a graduate education in nutrition.
My education and training provided me with the knowledge of how to put together an effective nutritional strategy for an athlete. I was able to create and oversee a nutritional plan that could support most athletes, but often found the needs of older athletes to be discussed as an afterthought or as a “special population.” The reason for this, in my opinion, is that the nutritional needs of older athletes are not a seismic shift from those of a younger athlete. Instead, older athletes need a solid foundation of nutrition, similar to younger athletes, but with added focus of specific areas to adjust for the physiological impacts of aging and their impacts on recovery. This change, although seemingly small, has a lot to do with why implementing the nutritional strategies of younger athletes may look good but will not work as the athlete ages. The information was largely available, but not all in one place and rarely focused solely on older athletes.
Over the next 20 years of study, I have seen an evolution in the way that the subject of nutrition has been researched, specifically, as it applies to the needs of an older athlete. Unfortunately, while I have seen an increase in the knowledge base around older athletes, it was often difficult for me to find. I often had to rely on peer‐reviewed research directly or through websites that often present incomplete or inaccurate information. This process of acquiring the knowledge to support an older athlete has been laborious and possibly is too cumbersome for many people who work with athletes. Coaches or healthcare professionals working with athletes may find it difficult to balance their direct work with athletes with all of the study needed for a strong evidence‐based approach to sports nutrition for masters athletes.
I am still very active in athletics and still train to about 70–80% of my younger intensity while weighing about 60–70% of my competitive bodyweight. Through the methods contained in this book, I have been able to maintain a lot of my younger performance while reducing the long‐term health risks I faced in my early thirties. In many ways, I feel more capable at 48 than I did at 38; this is due to the application of many of the strategies contained in this book. I still get injuries and bouts of overtraining, but I am better able to recover from them and perform. I plan to maintain this level of training for as long as possible to maintain a full and active life.
Unfortunately, the development of this knowledge has taken two decades of work and come too late for my Olympic dreams. Thankfully this information can be used by nutritional providers as a roadmap to help other aging athletes to achieve their goals. As the participation in sports by older athletes increases, there is a need to provide those who work with athletes over the age of 35 a handbook that they can follow from start to finish without having to sift through nutritional protocols and strategies that do not relate to this specific demographic. The goal of this book was to assemble the key elements of sports nutrition, as they affect older athletes, into one place to be used as a resource for those who work with older athletes, or for the athletes themselves. Please use the information contained within this book to assist the athletes you work with to achieve their performance goals whatever they may be.
1Overview
1.1 Introduction
The impact of sports nutrition on an athlete’s performance has been well‐established. Sports nutrition is an important part of the athlete's training and recovery regime. Sports nutrition serves two separate but important roles for the athlete. The first role of sports nutrition is to provide the fuel for how we participate in or train for athletic events. Macronutrients in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats provide the athlete with the energy needed to fuel athletic training and competition, and the micronutrients consisting of vitamins and minerals are needed for their coenzyme and cofactor roles in assisting to fuel these activities. This role of sports nutrition is well‐established and relatively stable across different age strata. Athletes of all ages and capabilities will need to use nutrition to fuel their athletic endeavors. The second role of nutrition for an athlete has more to do with recovery from exercise and the rebuilding of muscle tissues following exercise. This role is also well‐established, but is more intricate and will require a more specialized approach where the athlete's individual nutritional needs to be able to recover and rebuild should be accounted for. The nutritional needs of an athlete will differ depending on the specific sport involved, the type of training, and some specific factors related to the individual athlete. The needs of a 55‐year‐old athlete to recover from a weight training session, for example, are not the same as the nutritional needs of an 18‐year‐old athlete doing the same activity, much like the nutritional needs of a male and female athlete in the same sport are not the same. This book will focus on the specific nutritional needs of athletes over the age of 35 as they seek to train and compete in sports. This group of athletes must balance their nutritional needs with ever‐changing physiological characteristics that impact their ability to recover and perform in their chosen sport. It is through an understanding of the nutritional needs of an athlete for them to be able to train and compete in their sport, knowledge of the physiologic changes associated with the aging process, and the creation of nutrition and supplemental strategies to mitigate some of these effects that someone who works with older athletes can best be able to support their performance. These are the topics that this book seeks to address. The contents of this book will assist the nutritional professional looking to work with a master’s athlete or the athlete themselves to optimize nutritional approaches to positively impact their athlete’s performance while reducing the overall impact of these physiologic changes associated with aging.
1.2 Demographic Data
Athletic participation by older individuals is growing at a rapid pace. The 35+ age demographic is currently a rapidly growing segment of the population, as well as the competitive athletic market. Advances in nutrition, sports science, and healthcare have allowed athletes to train and perform at older ages than ever possible. Adding to this increased awareness of the impact of exercise and activity on longevity and mobility, we see an increase in athletic participation in this age group growing rapidly. The increase in athletic participation is fueled by the reduced attrition of younger athletes as they age, keeping them in the competition pool longer, and the increase in new athletes who take up a sport at an older age. In the sport of Olympic‐style weightlifting, for example, we have seen a nearly threefold increase in the number of competitors at the masters (over 35 years old) age division national championship, with 244 athletes competing in 2015 to 718 athletes competing in 2019. The largest increase was seen in the number of female competitors, who went from 44.4% of all competitors to 58.7% [1]. This desire to train and compete in older age groups presents an interesting opportunity for those working with athletes. An older athletic population has some beneficial aspects: they tend to have both more time and money for training and nutrition. Both factors represent significant barriers to training and competition for younger athletes. Unfortunately, there is also an increase in the likelihood of injuries associated with their athletic participation. This is where the field of sports nutrition can have an impact [1, 2].
1.3 What Is Sports Nutrition?
Sports nutrition is a specialized focus area of the research and clinical field of nutrition. This field of study looks at the physiologic function of the human body in various exercise‐related areas and the role that nutrients and hydration may have in impacting these processes. Sports nutrition is where the fields of physiology, exercise science, and human nutrition meet to impact athletic performance and recovery. The key objective of sports nutrition is to improve athletic performance and increase the longevity of the athlete in their sport. Although sports nutrition is often associated with high‐level athletes like Olympians, professional bodybuilders, or professional athletes, this field of study is not reserved for elite athletes only but rather for anyone looking to improve their performance in their chosen athletic endeavor. Sports nutrition is focused on the nutrients needed to support the body's recovery and repair processes and is an extension of traditional nutrition. Many of the principles of sports nutrition match those for general health, but there are differences in the quantity and timing of nutrients. The nutrients needed by the athlete vary more in amount than the type compared to the needs of the general public, for the most part. Still, often, the need to meet the increased requirements of an athlete looking to perform their best makes dietary planning and supplementation more of a necessity.
1.4 Why Study Sports Nutrition?
Sports nutrition is an important field of study for athletes, nutritionists, coaches, and anybody interested in achieving optimal sports performance. The physical aspect of training represents an essential element of athletic performance. The athlete's training program today can significantly impact future performance, but this is not the only crucial factor the athlete needs to consider [3]. Other factors such as nutrition, rest, technique, equipment, or even psychological state will all play their role in an athlete's overall performance. For anybody working with athletes, addressing the nutritional plan must be considered an important element in performance and be treated as an essential factor in the athlete’s performance plan. Sports nutrition can impact recovery from exercise, tissue rebuilding, the control of the inflammatory process and response, and can even impact the general health of the athlete. Therefore, anyone looking to achieve maximal performance in an athletic event will need to factor an individualized nutritional strategy into their training regime. While primarily focused on athletes, the author would contend that the study of sports nutrition dives into the physiologic functions regarding the utilization of energy optimally by the body. Studying the material contained within this book will carry relevance to everyone, regardless of athletic capabilities.
1.5 What Is a Masters Athlete?
Athletes come in all shapes and sizes. This feature of athletics is what allows for so many people to compete because there is no standard “athlete” in regard to this aspect. We have small athletes who compete in events based on power‐to‐weight ratio, such as in sports like rock climbing. We have larger athletes competing in sports such as professional football, where absolute power and speed are more important, and every type of athlete in between. Athletes can also be found in differing sexes, each with unique nutritional requirements. Additionally, we find athletes in a wide spectrum of ages with youth sports, sometimes starting sports as early as three years old, all the way up to geriatric athletic participants. Sports will often stratify athlete competitions based on many of these categories. Sports, both at the local and national level, can carry age divisions such as youth, junior, senior, and masters athletes. In the sport of weightlifting, for example, youth athletes compete from 13 years old up to 17 years of age. Junior athletes will compete in their age group from 18 to 23 years old. The term senior athlete is typically associated with an athlete in the 24‐ to 34‐year‐old age group (this can get confusing as in the general population, the term senior is often associated with older adults). The term master's athlete is a designation given to athletes competing at the age of 35 and over. There are some variations in these age ranges in other sports, as individual sports organizations will vary in their competitive age categories, but generally, these categories will remain similar. The contents of this book will cover the physiologic and nutritional needs that will impact athletes of all ages but are specifically targeted at master’s age group athletes 35 and over.
1.6 Why Focus on Masters Athletes?
There are numerous intelligent reasons to focus on a population like master’s athletes, not the least of which is that they represent a large, growing sector of the athletic population. This population sector is growing but has either been treated as an afterthought or marginalized by much of the community. Sports nutrition texts, for the most part, focus on athletes in their teens through their early 40s. There are chapters and articles focused on older athletes, but not many entire books. In the past 20 years, one of the largest growth sectors in athletic events and training has been in athletes ages 35 and up [1, 2]. This means that a significant portion of the athletic community often gets reduced to a chapter or section of a chapter in a traditional sports nutrition book. Unfortunately, these athletes do not recover the same way as younger athletes. These changes impact the athlete's recovery, rebuilding, and performance, which will lead to significantly differing nutritional requirements compared to the needs of a 17‐year‐old or even a 30‐year‐old athlete. While there are many similarities between athletes in all age ranges, there are also needs for fueling performance and recovery that are significantly different for older athletes. Differences in macro‐ and micronutrient needs, hydration requirements, and supplement recommendations necessitate a deeper focus on this athletic population. Accordingly, it is both the size of the master's athletic population combined with their specific nutritional needs that make this age demographic a segment of the athletic population that should be examined further. This book seeks to fill this gap by addressing the nutritional needs of older athletes as they seem to optimize their performance and recovery.
1.7 What Are the Nutrients Used by Athletes?
The link between nutrition and sports performance is well‐established. While it is understood by many that nutrition is an important consideration for athletes, of all ages, the actual nutrients that the athlete will need and when they will need them are much less understood. This lack of knowledge can lead to miscommunication in the world of sports nutrition. This results in athletes not getting all the benefits of a well‐designed nutritional strategy. One example of this is the general understanding that any athlete looking to put on muscle needs to eat protein. This is true in general but fails to consider the nutritional needs to digest the protein, the other macronutrients needed to help support muscle growth, and the nutrients that may help the athlete perform their training to the highest degree to allow for muscle growth. In this respect simply eating more protein is only one small piece of the sports nutrition strategy. The ubiquitous nature of supplementation in sports nutrition can amplify this concern. Sports supplementation is everywhere, and many supplement advertisements tend to advocate individual nutrients as the “key” to unlocking sports performance potential. Drinks, shakes, bars, powders, and pills are marketed for their ability to potentially help the athlete to perform at their best, but it is less common to hear about the role of supplements as part of a well‐designed nutritional strategy to improve performance. The reality is that the sports nutritional palate is diverse and must be examined collectively. This is not to say that there are no supplements that can directly impact performance, but rather, they must be taken within the context of a well‐planned nutritional strategy. Therefore, any book focusing on the clinical application of nutrition for older athletes should first define the nutrients the athlete needs to be able to perform.
1.8 Macronutrients
The first classification of nutrients needed for optimal performance is the Macronutrients. Macronutrients provide the athlete energy from calories, including carbohydrates, lipids (or fats), and protein. This classification of nutrients carries the term “Macro” because they are needed in larger quantities. These nutrients make up the backbone of a sound nutritional plan. These nutrients can come to the diet from both plant and animal sources. Carbohydrates provide the body, among other things, with the energy needed to perform physical activities. Fiber is a specific carbohydrate category with crucial physiological functions, and is vital to the athlete’s health, and plays an important role in blood sugar regulation but does not directly provide the body with energy for athletic performance. Lipids also have many roles among them: energy storage, the synthesis of hormones, the absorption and storage of fat‐soluble vitamins, and aiding in nerve conduction, for example, through myelination. Proteins serve both structural and functional roles physiologically. Structurally, protein is needed for the growth and development of muscles and the recovery from exercise. Functionally, proteins can act as, among other things, enzymes needed to initiate physiologic reactions. Together, these nutrients comprise the majority of the diet and define the caloric make‐up of the athlete's nutritional plan. We will explore each of these in more detail in Chapter 4.
1.9 Micronutrients
The next classification of nutrients we will discuss is the micronutrients. These nutrients are used by the body to support normal physiological functions along with the macronutrients. The term “micronutrients” is derived from the fact that they are needed in a lower volume for use in the body. Micronutrients can be subdivided into vitamins, minerals, and elements. Many of these vitamins, minerals, and elements are essential to many physiologic processes and are required from the diet. This classification of nutrients does not contain any calories themselves or directly provide the body with energy. Still, they are important in their use as cofactors in the processes where the body derives energy from macronutrients, such as the biochemical process of glycolysis. All these micronutrients carry some function, and most are needed to some degree to assist the body in maintaining health and have roles in athletic performance, although the type and amount will differ for athletes, particularly masters athletes. This topic will be addressed in more detail in Chapter 5 of this book.
1.10 Hydration
Water is essential to maintaining physiological processes. Approximately 70% of the human body is made up of water. Water, whether from consumption or internal production, is important as both a reactant and byproduct of the body's chemical reactions. Accordingly, the balance of water in the body is a critical factor in supporting physiological functions and optimal athletic performance and recovery. There is a direct relationship between hydration and performance, and poor hydration is linked to decreased athletic performance [4]. This carries a particular relevance for the older athlete, who carries a greater risk for dehydration when compared to their younger counterparts. The assessment of hydration and the development of a hydration plan to fuel performance and prevent dehydration will be discussed further in Chapter 7.
1.11 Supplementation
The final element of a nutritional plan that will be discussed will be supplementation. Supplementation refers to the nutritional aids that are used to support the diet to correct any nutritional shortcomings or to enhance performance and recovery. The first of these items, correcting nutritional shortcomings, can also impact performance if the nutrient needed for supplementation is deficient. However, supplementing deficient nutrients does not always translate to improved performance beyond correcting the nutritional deficiency. The second role of a supplement can be those that are used to improve performance by adding specific nutrients that have a known benefit to athletes extending beyond the correction of a deficiency. An example of this is caffeine, which can have the potential to improve athletic performance for the athlete but is not given to correct any deficiency. Issues with supplementation involve potential toxicities from their use and, more commonly, overuse. The quality and source of the supplement are also a concern, as the effects of the supplement may be limited or altered due to poor quality or adulterated products. Overall, supplementation can be an important element of the nutritional programming for a master’s athlete. The topic of supplementation will be discussed in more depth in Chapter 10.
1.12 Overview: A Nutrient Approach to Diet
Now that we have discussed an overview of the nutritional elements that make up an athlete’s performance plan, it is important to give a general overview of how to put it all together. This leads to the question of how we combine all these nutrients to develop a strong nutritional strategy for the athlete. While we will go deeper into this subject in Chapter 11, let us examine an overall structure for our approach. An important consideration in determining nutritional needs for athletes, regardless of age, is a hierarchical structure. This means those working with athletes need to look at the nutrient decisions in the context of how they relate to each other in order of importance from the most important to the least important. This allows the practitioner or coach to prioritize their approach and refine results as they go, with all other recommendations under consideration. If visualized, this structure should resemble a flow chart with the progress of the nutritional evaluation moving from the bottom to the top. The flow chart is a good way to think of it as the bottom is the starting point from which all other nutritional considerations start acting as a base or foundation. From there, we move up the chart, with each step building on the previous one. Nutritionally, we start with the most important nutritional factor and then work toward the overall goal. Moving further up the flow chart, we see further delineations that are less important, than the base, but still vital to hitting peak performance (Figure 1.1).
When working with athletes, I always recommend starting with a conversation about goals. It is important, when working with an athlete nutritionally, that we can determine what the athlete is looking to accomplish, both with the presenting proposed dietary changes and from their athletic career in general. For example, a sports nutritionist or anyone working with a sports nutrition client may have some ideas to improve an athlete's performance. Based on their initial presentation and where the practitioner wants to see the athlete's career progress, however, this may not coincide with the athlete's goals. For example, if, despite the thoughts of the nutrition professional, the athlete is looking to optimize performance while dropping down a weight class, there is likely going to be an issue if the weight loss limits performance, as is the case with many sports. There may be a mismatch between the plans or ideas of the nutrition professional and the athlete, and we need to know from the start if that athlete can achieve maximal performance based on their goals. If there is a mismatch between the nutritional practitioner and the athlete’s goals, adjustments should be made to accommodate the athlete's personal or performance goals. The athlete's goals will always be paramount to those of the nutrition professional and will need to be considered when determining any nutritional plans. Accordingly, every conversation about sports nutrition must clarify the athlete’s goals. Once these goals are established, the coach or nutritional professional has a desired outcome to which the diet can be tailored.
Figure 1.1 Hierarchy of the determination of nutritional needs.
Our next step up the flow chart is to look at the caloric requirements for the athlete to meet their goals. Recently, there has been some debate about whether calories should be the most important factor in sports nutrition, and some will focus straight away on the macronutrient needs. This would be a mistake as caloric requirements serve as an important base and starting point when examining the dietary needs of any athlete. It would be difficult, although not impossible, to accurately determine a macronutrient plan without knowing the intended overall calories the athlete will need. The caloric requirements of each athlete should be personalized and need to consider factors such as the age, the sex of the athlete, and the athlete's weight. The athlete’s goals should also be considered when determining caloric requirements as well. For example, if weight gain, weight loss, or weight maintenance are important, alterations from the base caloric requirement must be made to accommodate these goals.
After determining the caloric needs of the athlete, the next step is to determine the macronutrient breakdown in a manner that will enable the athlete to be able to fuel performance. There are several methods of determining the macronutrient distribution which remain to be discussed later in this book. Still, determining the macronutrient plan needs to start with an emphasis on the requirements and demands of the individual sport being trained for or contested. Each sport will have different physiologic demands and will determine the macronutrient ratios required to optimize performance. For example, an endurance‐based athlete will not necessarily need the same number of grams of carbohydrates as a strength‐based athlete, as the demands of long‐duration endurance exercise demand a lot more fuel from carbohydrates to perform the activity.
After determining macronutrient requirements, the coach or nutrition professional should examine the micronutrient needs, which will differ for each athlete as the vitamin and mineral needs will alter somewhat through aging. After considering calories, macro, and micronutrients, the coach or nutritional professional should focus on hydration, as dehydration can lead to decreased athletic performance or even a potential injury. We consider supplementation only after considering all these previous factors. Supplementation is an important factor; not every athlete will need or should include supplementation. Supplementation should be personalized and have a performance or health‐related purpose. This supplementation should be targeted and evidence‐based to assist the athlete in achieving their athletic goals but should be secondary to dietary efforts. Finally, peri‐workout nutrition should be planned both for training periods as well as during competition. Peri‐workout nutrition is the food and supplements consumed before, during, or right after training or competition that are targeted at fueling performance and recovery. This could be considered to be the pinnacle of the chart as it takes the determination of all of the other elements prior to truly developing a solid peri‐workout nutritional plan.
1.13 Conclusion
This book will be a clinical handbook for those who wish to work with older athletes or for the athletes themselves as they seek to find the method to best fuel optimal athletic performance. The reader, be they professional nutritionist, doctor, coach, or athlete, should be able to use the information gained from reading this book to better assist athletes over the age of 35 to develop the nutritional strategy that will fuel optimal performance and recovery. The contents of this book represent the current state of nutritional information with a focus on clinical application. This means the author’s goal is for the information presented to be used rather than simply learned. The information in this book is by no means a complete representation of the sports nutrition field overall nor a substitute for medical advice. Just as individuals come in all shapes and sizes, they also come with a variety of pre‐existing conditions that must be considered by those working with them. The information gained in the book should be used to aid those working with athletes but not taken as a direct prescription.
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2A Biochemistry and Physiology
2.1 Introduction
An examination of the role of nutrition can have on athletic performance first requires a discussion of the underlying biochemical and physiological processes involved with the metabolism of food and nutrient use in the body. A more thorough understanding of these physiological processes, by which we turn nutrients into the substrate needed to fuel performance or support recovery, will enhance our understanding of the purpose of the nutritional plans we seek to design and allow the practitioner to be able to design a more effective strategy. In addition to the underlying biochemistry, we also need a basic understanding of some principles of exercise physiology and how this relates to how these principles may differ based on the specific athletic events or training we are trying to fuel. It is essential that anyone working with athletes learn about the individual sports being trained for and contested. The nutritional professional must understand the specifics of the athletic event, the intensity of the event, the training involved, and the duration of the event, both in training and competition, to guide their nutritional plan to feed the needs of the athlete. Let us look at the energy systems used in sports; for example, understanding the different energy systems used in sports and the nutrients used to fuel those energy systems can help to target an appropriate nutritional strategy. The goal, for the nutritional professional, is to understand the energy systems and underlying physiology well enough to be able to match the diet strategy to the needs of the athlete's chosen athletic event. If the athlete, for example, were operating primarily in shorter‐duration sports, this would point us in the direction of the type of nutrients we need to include in the plan. On the other hand, setting up a diet loaded with fuel sources for longer‐duration energy systems may be better for someone who trains and competes in longer‐duration events like a marathon. This chapter will explore the physiology involved in the metabolism of nutrients and the energy systems used in sports. The goal here is not an encyclopedic understanding of the subject but a working knowledge a practitioner can use to directly impact the performance of an athlete.
