Optimal nutrition for swimmers: how to improve your performance
The world of swimming: hours in the pool, double training sessions and the constant hunt for perfection. Discover how sports nutrition can boost your performance.
Swimming
Endurance and muscle strength
Sports nutrition
Optimization of nutrients
New strength
Improving performance
As a swimmer, you spend many hours doing your laps in the pool, counting the tiles or otherwise distracting yourself. You often train once or even twice a day and complete 5-12 training sessions per week. After just one month of training, however, you will notice a certain exhaustion. Here are some ways you can use sports nutrition to optimize your training efficiency, energy and nutrient intake to get back to full strength.
Nutrition before training
Studies show that the performance of swimmers is significantly better if they have a snack before training instead of eating nothing. If it’s been a while since your last meal, low blood sugar levels can affect your concentration and reduce your coordination in the water. To prevent this, it is important to have a snack before training. This helps you to be more alert, focused and energized so that you can train better.
If your training takes place in the morning, your glycogen stores should already be full from a carbohydrate-rich meal the evening before. In this case, a snack from the category “15 to 30 minutes before training” is sufficient (see table). However, if you train in the afternoon and have more time, snacks from the categories “30 to 60 minutes” or “1 to 2 hours” before training are suitable.
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Time frame |
Snack options |
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15 to 30 minutes before training |
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30 to 60 minutes before training |
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1 to 2 hours before training |
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Don’t forget to plan a drink with your snack to start your training well hydrated. Suitable drinks are water, juice and sports drinks.
Bad choice just before training: snacks with a high protein content can interfere with digestion and provide too few carbohydrates. Protein, on the other hand, is an ideal post-workout snack.
Fluid and energy intake during training
When exercising in water, you often don’t realize how much you are sweating because your skin is already wet. It is important to drink regularly during each training session to replace the sweat lost. Dehydration can lead to discomfort and affect performance in the pool. Both your physical and mental abilities can suffer as a result.
You should already be well hydrated before training. Take a water bottle with you to every workout and drink every 10-15 minutes during the workout.
What to drink:
- Water: up to 1 hour of training
- Sports drinks: 1-2 hours of training
Water is ideal for training sessions of up to one hour. During intensive training sessions of more than an hour, carbohydrates help you to train longer and more intensively. The right sports drinks provide an optimal combination of sugar, water and electrolytes that are quickly absorbed into the bloodstream. Sugar provides energy for the muscles and electrolytes are essential for muscle contraction.
Nutrition after training
After training, it is crucial to properly nourish the body in order to regenerate, repair and rehydrate it. This is particularly important within the first two hours after training, ideally in the first 30 minutes after training. Without sufficient replenishment, the body begins to break itself down. You also become more susceptible to illness and miss the best opportunity to regenerate your muscles.
Your post-workout recovery snack plays a crucial role in the regeneration of your muscles. It should contain both carbohydrates and protein.
Carbohydrates are important to replenish your muscle stores quickly, especially if you have short recovery times between training sessions. They are converted into sugar, which provides your body with energy. Protein, on the other hand, is crucial for repairing and building your muscles. It is broken down into amino acids, which are essential for building muscle. When your body releases insulin to transport the sugar to your muscles, it also takes the amino acids needed for muscle repair with it.
It is particularly important for people over 40 to ensure that their snack contains an additional 5g of leucine. This amino acid supports protein synthesis in the muscles and helps to counteract age-related muscle loss.
Sufficient fluid intake is crucial to restore the fluid balance after training. Water is the best choice to keep your body hydrated and get the best results from your training.
It can be difficult to eat directly after training, as intensive training often curbs your appetite. In such situations, liquid recovery snacks such as a protein shake with a banana are a practical option.
It is also important to eat a full meal within two hours of the recovery snack to continue to provide your body with sufficient nutrients, carry out repairs and ensure adequate hydration.
Conclusion
Sufficient fluid intake before, during and especially after training, as well as a snack with carbohydrates before and a snack with protein after training increase training efficiency and accelerate recovery after training. People over 40 should consume 5g of leucine after training. These measures not only increase training efficiency, but also support long-term health and muscle development.
