danielwoolston.com
Between ice hockey's crushing body checks and intense skating -- hockey demands a lot of energy from its players. Whether you're a professional or amateur ice hockey player, or simply a weekend warrior interested in getting a calorie-burning cardiovascular workout, knowing what to eat before a hockey game plays a key role in ensuring that you play a solid game without sacrificing your energy levels and health.
Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Photos.com/Getty Images
Significance
The prime purpose of eating before a hockey game is to provide your body with the energy necessary to play the game at top form both physically and mentally. This energy enhances your ability to put forth the sudden bursts of speed, as well as endurance, flexibility, power-driven shots and rapid responses essential to successfully playing hockey. Failing to eat properly before a hockey game may cause your body's energy levels to rapidly deplete during the early part of the game, leaving your body weaker and increasing your chances of suffering from excessive fatigue or making mistakes in judgment during play.
lava360.com
Features
The foods you eat before your hockey game can enhance or hinder your body's energy levels, so choose carefully before you begin munching. As a rule, a pre-hockey game meal designed to support adequate energy levels during the game should star carbohydrates and protein.
Prime choices include cereal, bread products, low-fat dairy products, fruits and vegetables. Avoid spicy foods, sugary sodas and fat-heavy foods, since they can sit heavy on your stomach and distract you during the game.
Size
Watch portion size to ensure that you provide enough food to maintain proper energy levels during your hockey game. Aim for your energy-building meal to include approximately 500 to 600 calories and be sure to incorporate a mix of foods. A morning meal might include a bowl of cereal with milk, served alongside a medium banana, a small bagel and a cup of orange juice. Lunch before an afternoon hockey game could include pasta, low-fat milk, a slice of bread and an apple. Generally, your pre-game snack needs to be about 150 calories, which is about the same as a large bagel topped with peanut butter.
danielwoolston.com
Considerations
When you eat before your hockey game is just as important as what you eat. Eating too close to game time prevents your body from being able to break down the energy-producing food fast enough to have an effect on your energy levels during the hockey game. Just as important, eating too far in advance of your game leads you to burn the energy before you even play.
Plan on eating your pre-game meal three to four hours before the start of your hockey game. Consume your pre-game snack approximately one hour before game time.
sports.yahoo.com
How to Keep Energy When Playing Hockey
by Maggie O'Houlihan, Demand Media
Hockey is an energy-intensive game. Players must be able keep a high pace over three 20-minute periods of action. If you find your energy levels dropping during the game, it may be time to change some of your habits. By changing your ice time, food choices, conditioning and sleep habits, you can maintain your energy levels into overtime.
Short Shifts
Hockey is not about endurance but about being able to go at full force on each shift. As you spend time on the ice, lactic acid builds up in your legs, making you physically tired and unable to perform at your best. This has a cumulative effect according to Ken Martel, who studies performance training for USA Hockey. "When a player overextends himself on one shift, it will be more difficult to recover for the next shift and the shift after that," Martel notes. To keep your energy up, limit your shifts to 45 seconds or less.
Foods
Physically, your energy comes from the food you eat. It comes from carbohydrates; 60 percent of your daily calories should come from carbohydrates. The exact amount of carbohydrates will vary depending on your recommended caloric intake, which depends on your age, gender and activity level. For example, a 19- to 35-year-old active male needs 3,000 calories a day, so 1,800 should be from carbohydrates. An active women who is the same age needs 2,400 calories, so 1,440 should come from carbohydrates. Before a hockey game, consume carbohydrates with a low and moderate glycemic index to provide steady levels of glucose to your blood. These can include rice, milk, bananas, orange juice and low-fat yogurt. High glycemic foods such as sports drinks will give you a quick boost of energy and can be consumed during and after games.
sharkspage.com
Conditioning
Keep your energy levels up through conditioning. Types of conditioning that can aid energy levels are aerobic, anaerobic and muscular endurance training. Aerobic conditioning involves training for extended periods at a 50 to 85 percent level of exertion. It might include running, cycling or extended skating sessions. Anaerobic training involves short bursts of exertion, generally no longer than 120 seconds with breaks between intervals. Muscular endurance training involves exerting muscles for an extended period of time, to build up endurance levels.
abcnews.go.com
Sleep
If you have a tendency to stay up all night or to wake up through the night, this can temper your energy whether you are on the ice or not. Traditionally, hockey players have relied on pregame naps to increase energy, but sleep specialists Dr. Charles Samuels says that what matters is total sleep time. Samuel recommends that players maintain a routine where they get a dominant amount of nighttime sleep and only use the nap as a recovery strategy -- and limit those naps to 30 minutes.
offwingphoto.com
No comments:
Post a Comment