James Morehen, Sports Scientist for Nutrition X and Sports Performance Nutritionist at Widnes Vikings, writes his second blog post of a series about pre-game meals, explaining why it is important to get right what you put in your body in the build-up to a big game.

You can view the first in the series here.

Rugby Muscle Biopsy Study

Since performance and fatigue are linked to reduced muscle glycogen, it is common for rugby players to carbohydrate load in the days leading up to kick off, in an attempt to optimise muscle glycogen stores for performance. However, to date, with little research in rugby, it is difficult to say how much carbohydrate is necessary to fuel an 80 minute rugby game. To fill this research gap, our team administered a 3g/kg and 6g/kg carbohydrate diet to half of the team respectively, as previously discussed in the first blog.

In our case the research showed individuals’ saturated muscle glycogen stores at different levels. We observed a spread of glycogen levels across players but on average we can report that ingesting 6g/kg was no better than 3g/kg carbohydrate at increasing muscle glycogen to levels necessary for maintaining rugby game play intensity, when ingested over a 36 hour period prior to kick-off.

It must be stressed however that although average muscle glycogen concentration was the same across groups and all of the 6g/kg players began with high muscle glycogen content, two players in the 3g/kg group began the game with what could be considered low muscle glycogen. Practically, this would have big implications in terms of premature fatigue during game play, detrimental effects on game performance and likely early substitution.

The practical message to take…

Although a 3g/kg carbohydrate load did saturate some players to similar muscle glycogen levels to those on a 6g/kg carbohydrate load pre-game, it did not saturate all of them.

Therefore we would highly advise and recommend fuelling the 36-hour window before kick off in line with a 6g/kg carbohydrate diet. As alluded to above, this is based on the evidence provided from the select players we analysed and the fact that consuming a 3g/kg carbohydrate diet may run the risk of not only entering the game with substantially lower glycogen levels, but most probably experiencing premature fatigue.

It is interesting to note, however, that although we advise a 6g/kg carbohydrate load leading into a game, this is still below the typically recommended 8-12g/kg that has previously been advised for team sport athletes.

Summarising, irrespective to what carbohydrate load the players performed, both groups used similar amounts of muscle glycogen during the rugby game.

Below is a strategic meal plan following a 6g/kg carbohydrate load for 36 hours before kick-off. As I have already mentioned, this is certainly not the perfect plan for everyone, but can certainly be used as a template and dynamically altered to suit individual player needs.

*The below template was analysed through nutritics.com. The nutrient table has been added to show the g/kg for both carbohydrate and protein, but note that this may fluctuate depending on what nutrient analysis software is used and also the brands of foods selected.

Nutrition Strategy – Day before game

Breakfast

1 portion of Coco Pops: 100g

Serving of semi-skimmed milk: 200ml

1 small carton of orange juice: 200ml

1 small white roll w/jam

Snack

1 small pot of flavoured Muller Rice

Nutrition-X Ultimate protein shake: 60g

1 medium banana

Lunch1 bag of Tilda Brown Rice: 250g1 breast of grilled chicken: 130g1 small white roll1 bottle of sports energy drink: 330g

Snack

Nutrition-X Ultimate protein shake: 60g

1 medium banana

1 bottle of sports energy drink: 330g

Dinner

1 bag of Brown Rice: 250g

1 breast of grilled chicken: 130g

1 small white roll

1 bottle of sports energy drink: 330g

Supper

Serving of semi-skimmed milk: 200ml

Nutrition-X Ultimate protein shake: 60g

Carbohydrate Protein Fat Intake 637.8g 206.5g 49.2g g/kg body-weight 6.7 2.2 0.5

GAME DAY

On game day itself, individual players like to consume varying amounts of both fluids and foods. Some players like to consume a big breakfast followed by a smaller lunch with a mixture of low, medium and high GI carbohydrates, whereas others only like to consume a big breakfast as they struggle to stomach food too close to kick off. This is where player preference should really be accounted for to allow minimal disturbance to a player’s match day routine.

For those players that do struggle to consume in the lead up to kick off on game day, below is an idea of both food, fluid and gels combining multiple carbohydrate sources that will allow ~170g to be easily achieved during and around the game.

Game Day Nutrition Strategy

Home made rice and raisin squares: 50g, 1-hour pre game

Nutrition X Energel+: 30g, pre game

Sports drink: during 1st half

Nutrition X Energel: 30g, half-time

Sports drink: during 2nd half

James Morehen is part of the team who have developed Nutrition X’s range of fully tested products, which have become the No.1 choice of sports nutrition for numerous elite athletes, amateur sports people and casual gym users alike. For more information, or to discuss your sports nutrition requirements, please contact James via www.nutritionx.co.uk