Nutrition For Swimmers

Training

Swimming requires serious commitment to training. At the elite level workloads can involve 2-3 daily sessions adding up to 6 hours of training per day. Training commitments are usually smaller at club or school level.

Competition

Swimming is a highly anaerobic sport, with aerobic metabolism becoming more important as the race distance increases. Although each event may be brief, swim meets are usually held over 3 to 7 days, with swimmers typically competing in heats in the mornings and finals in the evening.

Common Nutrition Issues

• Daily Recovery – Strenuous daily training requires a high-energy, high-carbohydrate diet. Swimmers who don't eat enough carbohydrate will not recover adequately between training sessions resulting in fatigue, loss of body weight and poor performance. Additional energy requirements for growth may compound the problem. Swimmers with high-energy requirements need to increase the number of snacks during the day and make use of energy-dense foods. It is good to have nutritious carbohydrate-rich snacks on hand to eat straight after training to start the refuelling process.

• Fluid Needs in Training – High-intensity exercise in the steamy environment of a heated indoor pool, or outdoors in the sun, can lead to moderate sweat losses, which are not obvious when the swimmer is already wet. Smart swimmers bring drink bottles to the pool deck and drink during rest periods or between sets.

• Immune Status – The most important strategy emerging from immune studies of athletes is to keep well fuelled during training sessions. Sports drink during the workout and a recovery snack afterwards help to reduce the stress on the immune system.

Competition Nutrition

Fluid levels and carbohydrate stores need to be replenished between events and between heats and semi-finals/finals. Drink a carbohydrate-containing fluid such as sports drink, fruit juice or soft drink when there is only a short interval between races. Snacks such as yoghurt, fruit, cereal bars or sandwiches are suitable for longer gaps between races, or for recovery at the end of a session. Between day heats and evening final sessions, most swimmers eat a high-carbohydrate lunch and have a nap. On waking, a carbohydrate-rich snack is eaten before returning to the pool.

Written by the Department of Sports Nutrition, AIS www.ais.org.au/nutrition © Australian Sports Commission 2004

Nutritional Preparation For Tournaments and Multiple Heat Competitions

Preparing for a single event is challenging enough, but what should you do if you have to compete in a series of events? Meeting your nutritional needs to compete at your best means you need to consider a number of key factors.

When it comes to tournaments expect the unexpected. Don't just plan for what you hope will happen, plan for the worst-case scenario. For a successful competition, planning is important but flexibility is required. If you only have limited strategies, meal times or a restricted eating pattern then there is a good chance you will be caught out.

Challenges with food timing

General advice for eating before exercise is to have a carbohydrate-rich meal or snack 2-4 hours before exercise. However, in a tournament situation this may not always be practical. The breaks between events may not be long enough for a meal or large snack to be digested. Instead a better strategy might be to have a planned “graze” throughout the day on lots of small nutritious snack foods. Individual tolerance varies however, use the following as a guide:

Time Before Exercise

Suggested Food Choices

3-4 hours

• crumpets with jam or honey + flavoured milk
• baked potato + cottage cheese filling + glass of milk
• baked beans on toast
• breakfast cereal with milk
• bread roll with cheese/meat filling + banana
• fruit salad with fruit-flavoured yoghurt
• pasta or rice with a sauce based on low-fat ingredients (e.g. tomato, vegetables, lean meat)

1-2 hours

• liquid meal supplement
• milk shake or fruit smoothie
• sports bars (check labels for carbohydrate and protein content)
• breakfast cereal with milk
• cereal bars
• fruit-flavoured yoghurt
• fruit

Less than 1 hour

• sports drink
• carbohydrate gel
• cordial
• sports bars
• jelly lollies

NB. A small number of people experience an extreme reaction following the intake of carbohydrate in the hour prior to exercise.

In addition to these guidelines, you should consider:

• The time of day you will be competing.
• Whether foods you would normally eat at those times of the day are going to be appropriate.

Grazing throughout the day may not satisfy your appetite as well as your usual meal plan. To avoid being hungry, plan for a larger snack or small meal at a strategic time, such as the longest expected break.

Challenges with food availability

You've worked out when you are going to eat, but what are you going to choose? Try to find out in advance, what will be on offer to avoid any shocks on the day. The safest option is to take your own supplies.

It's always a good idea to pack a variety of foods and always pack a bit extra. You may change your mind about what you want or you may need to eat more than you expect.

Flavour fatigue

Your exercising muscles aren't the only things that get tired. Your taste buds can get tired as well! Many suitable carbohydrate-rich foods are sweet tasting, however over a long day of competing “flavour fatigue” can set in. Savoury foods often become more appealing. Many savoury foods are higher in salt. This may encourage fluid intake and improve fluid absorption and retention. Therefore, plan to include some savoury foods in your tournament eating pattern.

Challenges meeting high energy requirements

Supplements such as sports bars and liquid meal supplements should be considered if you expect to have particularly high-energy requirements, limited time to refuel or if you tend to suffer from stomach upset during competition.

Challenges with hydration

You've now thought about the foods you are going to eat and when, but don't forget the vital ingredient – fluid! Preventing dehydration is a key to sustained performance, especially when competing for long periods and in multiple events over one or many days.

Tips for maintaining hydration in tournament situations include:

• Drink plenty of fluids from the time you wake up and keep drinking to a plan all day.
• Include carbohydrate-rich beverages such as sports drinks.
• Always have drink bottles handy for regular fluid consumption.

Written by the Department of Sports Nutrition, AIS www.ais.org.au/nutrition © Australian Sports Commission 2004