For the average woman participating in a sport, aside from the performance aspect, there is an undeniable aesthetic component that cannot be ignored.  On or off the court, the female athlete of today must be diligent about her nutrition and training so as they line up with all her demands but they also nuture her feminine side.

Much like the men in this series, the following guidelines have been put together to help women perform at their best but special attention has been added to help them look their best, as well.

VOLLEYBALL, SOCCER, TENNIS, SOFTBALL

Performing:                   1-2 days/week

Eating:                          30% more than baseline

Macro Breakdown:         25 to 35% protein

                                    40 to 50% carbs

                                    Fats round out the remainder

Training:                        3 days lifting—varying volume

                                    2 days endurance, 2 days HIIT

                                    1 day functional SAQ type training

Supplements:                One that supports immune function

                                    One that supports recovery

                                    A few that harness alertness and proper cell function

Hydration:                     Critical

Much like the men, these sports are powerful and require strength and endurance to be competitive.  To keep that physique tight, though, while training for an event, eat for the days that you train and cut back on the days that you are less active.  Balancing this may be hard in the beginning so this requires you to be diligent in your tracking of your sport performance versus your prior day eating.  You will find that very high days on training days and very low days on off days does not work very well here.  Your approach should be maybe a ST or 2 difference on training days vs. not instead of large calorie swings between the days.

MARATHON, TRIATHALON, IRONMAN, CYCLING, ADVENTURE RACING:

Performing:                   4 days/week

Eating:                          40% more than baseline

Macro Breakdown:         45 to 55% carbs

                                    20 to 30% fat

                                    Protein round outs the remainder

Training:                        2 to 3 days lifting—Complexes/compounds

                                    1 day functional with lots of BW training

Supplements:                Many that support immune function and antioxidant properties

                                    A few that support recovery

                                    One that supports proper cell function

Hydration:                     Crucial

The focus for a female endurance athlete is to not lose all of her muscle tone while training for an event.  Physique maintenance should also be done in the offseason—not while training.  While for other sports it’s not as critical, for endurance athletes it is.  Once your runs go over 60 min. at a time, you need to stop whatever type of “dieting” you may have been doing prior.  Not having enough fuel for your runs will ensure that you become a Shar Pei by the time of your race and bonk on the runs.  That’s a lose, lose either way so focus on losing weight and lifting heavy in the offseason and eating right and maintaining in the in season.

GYMNASTICS, SWIMMING, RECREATIONAL LIFTER/EXERCISOR

Performing:                   3 to 5 days/week

Eating:                          25 to 40% above baseline—depending on sport/goal

Macro Breakdown:         30 to 40% protein

                                    30 to 40% carb

                                    20 to 30% fat

                                    This is more of a “Zone diet” approach

Training:                        3 to 4 days lifting—Various techniques added throughout

                                    1 day full cross training

                                    4 days/week moderate cardio—you may use sport as cardio

Supplements:                One that support proper cell function/growth

                                    One that supports anti-inflammatory function

                                    One that supports recovery

                                    Some that support immune function

Hydration:                     Important

Here is where having a balanced plate everyday (divvy in 3 on your plate: meat, veggie, starch) helps tremendously.  A more even approach to the three macronutrients keeps your physique tight and helps you to minimize body fat while allowing you to perform effectively.   Muscle development in these sports is essential but staying light and streamlined is just as important so you find yourself having a larger gap between training and non training days.  You may have as much as a 20% calorie difference between the two days so as to fuel your performance but shape your physique on other days.

I think a beautiful, well fed athlete is like poetry in motion.  Healthy hair and nails alongside speed, agility and quickness make an awesome combination.  You do not have to be a jock to be an athlete and you do not have to be just a girly-girl to care about how you look.  Combining the two is hot and is wildly popular in the media since Nike, Reebok and etc. now sponsor so many of the “hot ones”.   

There is still more to come in the series so stay tuned for more.:o)

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Food.  Sleep.  Supplements.  Are they important?  You bet they are!  But they take on a whole new meaning when they are wrapped in to your training program and you are actually trying to elicit an effect out of them.  What you find a lot these days are people who read a good amount of information regarding particular topics and then take the pieces that resonated the most with them and incorporate them into their program.  This is not necessarily a bad practice and many good things can come of it until the pieces you are putting together no longer blend together to produce the training effect that you want.  This happens simply because you lost focus and began trying the latest supplement fad or you adopted the “amazing” food plan of your buddy and neither of these had anything to do with your ultimate goal.

When you know what you should be focusing on with your sport, it makes it so much easier to tailor your food plan and gym life to reflect those goals:

BASKETBALL, SOCCER, TENNIS AND ETC.

These sports are power sports.  At some point in the game (mainly from beginning to end, haha) you are going to perform short, powerful moves that require a major shift in direction or some other form of speed/agility.  You need to be strong, quick, alert and fast to be able to be competitive here.  You also need to have endurance as these games last long.  So you need to be able to come back hard and fast time and time again.  This is no easy feat when you are doing it with the steak and cheese sub you had the other day washed down with two beers.  That’s not going to work so let’s try something else:

Performing:                   2 days/week (maybe you’re in a league)

Eating:                          45% more than baseline

Macro Breakdown:         25 to 35% protein

                                    45 to 55% carbs

                                    Fats round out the remainder

Training:                        3 days lifting—powerlifts abound in here!

                                    2 endurance cardio days recommended

                                    1 day functional SAQ type training

Supplements:                One that supports immune function

                                    One that supports recovery

                                    A few that harness alertness and proper cell function

Hydration:                     Critical

MARATHON, TRIATHALON, IRONMAN, CYCLING, ADVENTURE RACING

These sports are all about the endurance factor.  You must be able to go for long periods of activity without losing speed or effectiveness.  You need staying power here and that’s not going to happen with you eating goos and gels like they are breakfast.  Save those for long runs and race days and focus on a plan that’s going to give you all the food you need to be able to perform time and time again.  The take home message for you:  recovery. 

Performing:                   5 days/week

Eating:                          55% more than baseline

Macro Breakdown:         50 to 60% carbs

                                    25 to 35% fat

                                    Protein round outs the remainder

Training:                        2 days lifting—short, full body romps

                                    1 day functional with lots of BW training

Supplements:                Many that support immune function and antioxidant properties

                                    A few that support recovery

                                    One that supports proper cell function

Hydration:                     Crucial

WRESTLER, MMA, POWERLIFTER, RECREATIONAL LIFTER

These sports are all about muscle and strength.  You need to be able to move your weight around here and it needs to be fast for whatever size you are at the time.  This is where you hear terms like “pound for pound” or “powerful for his size” and etc.  You do not need the same type of endurance above; you need to maintain strength for a long time.  See below for a snap shot of your requirements.

Performing:                   3 to 5 days/week

Eating:                          45 to 60% above baseline (depends on weight class and etc.)

Macro Breakdown:         30 to 40% protein

                                    20 to 25% fat

                                    Carbs round out the remainder (high on ST side)

Training:                        4 days lifting—powerlifts, olympic lifts, BW

                                    1 day support lift that nurture grip, neck, rotator function

                                    3 days/week moderate cardio

Supplements:                Many that support proper cell function/growth

                                    One that supports recovery

                                    Some that support immune function

Hydration:                     Important

What you see here are 3 very different programs for 3 very different sports.  What I normally see are the same nutrition and supplement programs for the very different training programs.  Men tend to take care of their training first, nutrition second.  They try to fuel their needs based on “an as needed” basis and that is a huge mistake.  Again, if you want this vessel to perform for you in the manner in which was meant, you need to give it what it needs when it needs it.  You cannot have a one size fits all type of food/supplement mentality when your training is so vastly different.

Next, I’ll show you how women are a bit different.  We want to mother all over our food and what/how/when we eat but do whatever for training but hope to have a different training result every time.  That’ll be fun!  See you tomorrow when I have a recipe treat for you!  WOOP WOOP!:o)

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