Define Nutrition and Sports - Physical Fitness of an athlete?
The physical fitness and performance of an athlete is affected by both current and previous nutritional status. The capacity for exercise trailing is improved if energy, fluid and other nutrient needs are met on a consistent basis. In sports and exercise, nutrition should be aimed at:
- maintaining ideal body weight and body composition as desired of a particular sport,
- maintaining adequate pool of nutrients,
- providing diet that helps in achieving performance up to one's potential,
- clarifying facts and fallacies related to food,
- introducing athlete to competition diets, and
- encouraging healthy nutritional practices amongst athletes.
Although sports nutrition basics are similar for all athletes, important differences exist for individual athletes in various sports. For example, nutritional needs of a gymnast would be different from a long distance runner and the needs of a tennis player would be different from weight-lifter or judo player.
Basically the intensity, duration and type of exercise training determines what, how much and when to eat. The sports events, as we have discussed in previous sections, are classified as endurance or strength.