Nutrition and Recovery

One of the biggest overlooked aspects of training is everything you do off the field and the gym. People often overlook the nutrition and recovery aspects of their training which hurts you performance greatly. Through working with Conca I learned the Importance of nutrition and recovery to elevate my performance to the next level.

Why Is Nutrition Important?

Having an adequate diet and drinking lots of water helps massively with recovery, building muscle, and overall health and energy.
A well-rounded and healthy diet includes all the essential nutrients the body needs.
- carbs, protein, fat, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and water
Food With High Carbs: Grains such as bread, pasta, cereal, cracker, and rice.
Foods With High Protein: Lean meats, poultry, seafood products, dairy products, and eggs.
Healthy Fatty Foods: Fish, nuts, eggs seeds, beans, and avocados.
Foods with high fiber: Apples, dried fruits, berries, avocados, beans, and broccoli.
Vitamins and Minerals: Supplementing vitamins D, and C and an multivitamin can help with overall health
Water: Men should consume around 15.5 cups of water a day and women should drink around 11.5 cups.

Why Is Recovery Important?

Resting is when your body repairs itself from physical activity. Emphasizing recovery techniques can help speed the process of healing in the body, allowing you to work out more frequently and lowing the risk of injury.
Recovery techniques include: getting adequate sleep, active recovery, stretching, massage, and nutrition.
Adequate sleep: using tools such as the Whoop is a great way to track your sleep needs
Active recovery: Active recovery speeds up the recovery time significantly. Activities include stretching massaging, and light activity.
Stretching: having a stretching routine will allow your muscles to relax and increase blood flow to the muscles speeding up the process of recovery.
Massage: Massaging the muscles with a foam roller or massage gun is a great way to increase blood flow to the muscle which speeds the process of recovery.
Nutrition: Nutrition supplies the muscles with vital minerals and vitamins which the body needs to repair itself.

Recovery and nutrition tips I've learned and use

Sleep Tracking/Whoop

The Whoop is a watch that tracks your activity and gives sleep suggestions for optimal recovery.
The whoop gives you personalized metrics to help you improve sleep.
- REM sleep is when most of your cognitive and physical regeneration occurs
- SWS(slow-wave sleep) is where your cells regenerate and your muscles repair themselves
- Light sleep is not as restorative as SWS or REM sleep, it's essential to your overall sleep needs.
Improving your quality of sleep by keeping REM and SWS sleep numbers up helps your recovery tremendously.
Things I've implemented to improve sleep.
- Turning off electronics one hour before bed
- Keeping my room dark and at a lower temperature
- Not eating two hours before bed
- Having a sunrise clock which allows for a natural waking process

Conscious of What I'm Eating

Being conscious of what I'm eating and making a diet plan helps recovery greatly.
What I do to have good nutrition
- Making a diet plan
- Meal prepping for the week
- Choosing healthy options when shopping for food and eating out
- Using health-tracking apps which help track calories
- Carrying a water bottle with me to help stay hydrated

Recovery Techniques I Use

Using recovery techniques helps muscle rebuild and makes you feel fresh for activity.
What I do for recovery as an active soccer player
- Ice baths after games
- Hot tub
- Massaging and foam rolling
- Healthy nutrition and hydration
- Daily stretching routine
- Using the Whoop sleep tracker watch

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