I’ve received many questions about preparation for tournaments and matches.
One of the key questions I’m asked time and again is about maintaining energy levels during a tournament or for an evening match when you’ve been at work all day and have little time to eat and travel to your match.After all, if you’re running out of energy on court, there is no way your muscles will continue to function as they should, which will inevitably lead to a reduction in performance levels.
For the record, I am not an expert on diet and have no intention of commenting on food groups above and beyond my simple knowledge on this subject. If you want professional knowledge then seek out the professionals in your area.
Eating is vital to a sportsperson’s performance. The foods you eat and when you eat them can seriously effect your performance on court. The problem is, you may not even consider diet as a contributing factor and just put a defeat down to having a bad day or other “excuses.”
During the few tournaments I played, I always made sure I ate well a few days before the due date. Remember, in those days, I didn’t have a coach to advise me. So, on many occasions I got it wrong. I can remember going on court at 8.30 in the morning and losing heavily. All I could think about at the time was how not to throw up on the court as my breakfast continued to travel north and south! It wasn’t a pleasant experience. For years after that, I refused to eat breakfast, and that made matters worse.
I knew it was important to drink a lot during a tournament and league matches but again, did not receive any advice on what to drink. Water was fine but I wasn’t getting the correct nutrients to aid my recovery. I ate bananas when I could and that was probably the only good food I had.
Science and food has made tremendous leaps since my tournament days and now the worlds best sportspeople depend on diet and sports supplements to train and compete at the highest level. During the last five years, I have been watching and discussed diet supplements with many specialists both in and out of the sports arena.
You may be aware, there are many brands of supplement of the market these days to assist sportspeople and bodybuilders to train harder in order to achieve their goals. No, I’m not talking about banned substances such as steroids, but scientifically proven and legal supplements that are accepted by the Olympic Committee.
There is one brand I’ve got to know a lot more about over the last five years as I use their products myself. I use their energy drink in between games when I’m playing league matches and immediately after the match has finished to help with my recovery. I also use their protein drinks and bars to help me get sufficient daily protein which is a problem for me being a fussy eater. This brand is MaxiMuscle.
The ideal is always to eat a good, well-balanced diet. The problem here is practicality. We’re all very busy and the time prior to us taking to the court is usually filled with all sorts of jobs like putting the kids to bed, getting home from work on time, rushing around to get changed etc. Inbetween all of this, we’ve got to eat. If you’re like me, you’ll probably find that your overall food intake is insufficient to sustain you correctly. This means you’re not getting the correct balance of foods to fuel your body for the tasks it has to perform. Therefore any training or additional exercise is undertaken at some expense. I was one of those people who was struggling to meet my daily requirement of calories – my muscles were slowly wasting away and I didn’t know it.
When I was training in the gym, my goal was to improve my strength, power and to put on some lean muscle. The problem for me was that I was not eating sufficient protein in my daily diet. Whilst my results were improving in terms of ability to undertake the exercise, the overall results I wanted in terms of how I looked did not materialise. It was only when my personal trainer analysed my daily diet that we found the answer.
As my diet improved, helped tremendously by supplements, the harder I could train and surprise surprise, I began to achieve my goals. Eating the right foods had to become a discipline in order for me to achieve my goals.
I mentioned before that I am a fussy eater (partly due to allergies), which has been a considerable burden all of my life. Because of this, I relied heavily on supplements to achieve my goals, although not to the extent that I would choose supplements over a meal. I just made sure I used supplements in between meals, frequently.
Here’s What I Recommend For Badminton Players And Why
As we are all different and our bodies need different things depending on our diets, it’s important that you ensure you are getting sufficient carbohydrates for energy, and protein as it helps with muscle building. Bear in mind that every time you train or play, you are breaking down muscle fibres. The new, stronger muscle fibres need the right food to grow.
1) Viper – this is a great energy drink that I always carry in my bag. It’s great for a pick me up. You can use pre-game, during the game and after the game to aid your recovery.
2) Promax – I use both the powder to make delicious milkshakes and the meal bars. They are really tasty and I take the bars everywhere I go. If I’m feeling hungry I eat a Promax meal bar. I use the milkshakes after I’ve taken some Viper so the protein travels through my system quicker by piggy-backing on the energy drink. The two combined have really helped me recover faster.
3) I also use the multivitamins to ensure I get as many good nutrients as I can, because I’m not a great eater.
A number of years ago I met with the owner Zef and his team. He has since added more well known and highly trained dieticians to his team to ensure that the level of exertise in his company is one of the best in the world.
As you know, I rarely recommend any products to you as I prefer to keep my blog purely badminton related. However, with my recent article on goal setting and your many questions I thought the introduction of this subject fitting.
Who are
Maximuscle is the UK’s leading sports nutrition company, helping thousands of gym users and sports people achieve their goals, both male and female!
They produce a range of highly effective research-supported sports food products that deliver what they promise. Maximuscle have assisted amongst many others British & Irish Lions, England Cricket, London Wasps, Fulham FC, Josh Lewsey, Shane Williams and Stuart Broad.
Their products are totally ethical and drug screened to the Olympic committee’s very stringent ISO17025 testing to ensure no banned substances exist in every single batch.
Learn how to tone up and get into shape, lose fat, increase lean muscle or boost energy through their free award-winning 64 page catalogue. There are also handy online tools such as calorie counters, training tips and meal planners that also help you to achieve your goals!
The products will benefit anyone that is active or playing sport, it is not just for bodybuilders! There is a lot of information about the various products and I have used others aside from the ones mentioned above. But, it all depends what you wish to achieve and whether you have issues with your diet like me which means you need to find alternative food sources. Initially, if you do think you need additional help, then I’d recommend sticking to the products I’ve already mentioned.
Special Offers
Every now and again, I receive offers from MaxiMuscle and I usually, but not always, buy the products, depending on my stock levels. MaxiMuscle regularly have offers on and as I was writing this article, I thought you may as well benefit too.
To find out what they are offering this month (they have excellent buy one get one free offers from time to time) cick the logo below to visit their website:
Hi Chris
Many thanks for your comment.
There is a saying…”there are two types of pain in this world – the pain of self discipline and the pain of regret. One weighs ounces and the other weighs tonnes.”
Few players have the self discipline required to get up so early and make a meal in order to ensure the best preparation for an event.
With such busy lifestyles, sometimes it’s impossible to get a meal at the right time. That’s when you really need to think of alternative forms of food that will assist your body.
I discussed supplements with a personal trainer recently. He thought that they had their place in training because, in general, people do not eat the right foods to help their body train and recover.
Badminton players are no exception here. They/we are rushing around trying to get out of the house for a match. The last thing on our minds is getting the right foods hours before the match. Consequently, we usually consume something we shouldn’t and it sits heavily on our stomachs. Or, we don’t get anything at all and will “get our dinner” after the match. Either way, the body cannot respond as well in a match because there is insufficient fuel available to perform for longer periods.
Eating high carbs before an event is known as stacking. There are a number of thoughts about this. The problem with it is your body recognises what foods you are giving it and compensates. Therefore, this results in additional production of insulin to counter the larger sugar intake. The final result of this is that the body balances the sugar with insulin and therefore returns to a stable postion.
Food and your reaction to food is very personal. Stacking may have worked for you and it’s worth a try. For others, it may have a negative effect.
Thanks again for your comment Chris.
To your success in 2010.
Paul
Intersting post Paul, I agree that somtimes protein supliment can be a great benifit. When i used to play a lot i used protein shakes to help. i found the greatest benifit i obtained was not from supliments or shakes but from simply eating a high carb meal two hours a match. Dont forget to include warmup time! Even if the match started at 9:00 id have to get up at 6:30 to start cooking. I can see why many people are put of this meal but if you want to win it has to be done.
More or less the first blog entry I don\’t like. It\’s not cause it includes advertisement, but it lacks information.
You got a nice long start there, but it leaves you there with the question, whats really needed to consume during/before/after badminton. The maximuscle part is incomplete, too. Nothing about what products you use or would recommend for badminton.
This way only a small percentage of readers can benefit from the article.
Hi Timo
You raised some very good points and I do feel I need to address them.
This is an important subject and I was initially trying to get a simple message across because i know how much food can have an impact good and bad on performance.
It’s a one-off article because I feel that the Maximuscle website has so much information. Therefore I wanted to keep the article as an introduction and let the Maximuscle website provide more detail.
In my haste to get the article out and help you get something valuable, I neglected to be the ultimate host and guide you. For that I’m sorry.
I am glad that you brought this to my attention and as a result I’ve added more content to the article.
What I do need to consider here is that what works for me because of my situation is very different for you and other readers. Because of this, I’ve only talked about the three products I use daily and really do need to leave the additional research to the individual.
I’ll be back next week with another article and have another 6 in planning at the moment. I’m also very close to completing the outline of a huge video program which is going to take some time to shoot and edit but the initial videos will be available in a matter of weeks.
Thanks again for your feedback.
To your success in 2010.
Paul