No matter if you are an amateur or a pro figure skater, only owning the best figure skating gear is not enough to improve your performance. After a tiring day at the ice-rink, you may realize that you didn’t have a solid meal. Your body could not consume enough nutrients that made you exhausted. Do remember that nutrition plays an important role to perform in any field.
With a bursting schedule of hard physical exercise, a skater should have a balanced and healthful diet to get success. Proper diet should begin while figure skaters start their training so that they could develop better eating habits together with their daily skating routines. Here are the reasons how a balanced diet could support your figure skating training.
What would happen after training hard:
- You may get dehydrated
- Carbohydrates that are stored in the liver and muscles get depleted. This glycogen is the main source for your working muscles
- Muscles tissues could start breaking down
- As you are in the stress of your figure skating training, tissues could have inflammation and cells could get damaged from it
To avoid these problem, you should maintain few things like-
- Fueling your body: You should treat your body like a car because a car fills up its tank with proper fuel for getting more mileage out of it. In the exact way, you should fuel your body with proper food and nutrients in order to get the best result out of it. you may not want to expire your energy halfway through!
- Fueling your brains and muscles: You should eat a snack about half an hour before your training but the snack must be rich in carbohydrates. This element could fuel your brain and muscles that are essential before you get on the snow or ice for training. When you are going for your pre-practice, it is not good to have a big rice bowl. It may be the reason for cramp. You would need to choose the carbohydrate-rich food that could digest quickly and easily. You would get a better result if you consume food that requires less chewing like bananas or applesauce. This type of food provides enough carbohydrate without cramps.
- Protein helps muscles recovery: You have to get protein after thirty minutes of training. This would help to recover your muscles because protein is full of amino acids that are the foundation of building muscles. You may eat some beans, low-fat ricotta, tofu, eggs, protein shake or cheese. These foods contain leucine or amino acid that is responsible for repairing and growing our muscles.
- Include three macronutrients for each meal: Macronutrients are known as protein, fats and carbs. These three could serve you an important purpose individually. Protein could help for growing and maintaining muscles as well as body tissue, fats could protect the vital organs and carbs could give proper energy. Thus, your body would be healthy and energetic.
- Always remember micronutrients: You should eat about one or two cup of vegetables at your dinner. You may feel stomach discomfort if you eat them before a workout. Eat vegetables like cauliflower, greens, broccoli, and carrots because they could provide healthy micronutrients such as potassium, fiber and Vitamin A & C. all of such things are important to keep you moving as well as feeling your best.
- Drink enough water: You should drink a proper amount of water after 30 minutes of training. Without water, you may face dehydration and this causes dizziness and weakness. You have to rehydrate yourself with enough electrolytes and fluids.
- Calcium and fiber: As a figure skating trainer, you should keep a simple, quick and nutritious breakfast in your daily routine. Many diets are lacking in two nutrients- calcium and fiber. Cereal contains high fiber and with fruit and non-fat fruit like oranges or apples it could provide you the best start of the day. yogurt or fruit as snacks would keep your energy levels higher.
- Healthy immune system: If your body doesn’t get enough nutrients, your immune system gets weak and the chances of becoming sick becomes higher. During your training session, your body loses energy and it needs to be fueled first. A balanced food especially carbs could give you energy and other nutrients would make your immune system stronger.
Mix your meal with the following:
You may eat carbohydrates with-
- Oats
- Brown rice
- Fruits
- Potatoes or sweet potatoes
- Buckwheat
- Pasta
- Quinoa
Powerful proteins are-
- Chicken breast
- Greek yogurt
- Tofu
- Eggs
- Lean-ground turkey
Fabulous fats are-
- Nuts
- Olive oil
- Avocado
- Nut butters
Conclusion:
A balanced diet could be useful for everyone and for a skating trainer, it works like a blessing. A sound mind lives in a sound body and thus, it is important to keep yourself healthy and sound. You would always be stressful and energetic if you could maintain a diet. Never ignore the benefits of it and enjoy your life at full bloom!