Pre-Season Football Camp

NFL training camp and college football camps are underway. The life of a player during camp can be taxing as the days are extremely long and continuously filled with position and team meetings, practice, walk-thru, film study sessions, lift, recovery, treatment, and fueling their bodies to keep up with the demands.

Meals and snacks are structured throughout the day to ensure players are targeting their energy needs to replenish their bodies to be ready for the next practice. Choosing high quality foods like lean proteins, whole grain carbohydrates, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, fruits, vegetables and dairy will provide proper recovery. Recovery nutrition helps optimize performance, manage inflammation, aids in injury prevention, immune function, maintain lean mass and body weight and increases longevity on the field.

Maintaining adequate hydration during the heat is critical for health and performance. Water and electrolyte losses from sweat that aren’t replaced can cause muscle cramps. Some athletes are more susceptible to cramping than others, including salty sweaters. When players begin cramping, a series of questions are asked to determine what caused the cramp. Usually it is caused from skeletal muscle overload and fatigue or more commonly caused from fluid and electrolyte imbalance. If the cramp is from diet, then fluids like Gatorade along with a high-dose of electrolytes are provided, and foods are given if the cramp proceeds. 

To address sweat losses, measuring weight before and after practice can determine how much fluid and electrolytes need to be consumed for rehydration. For general guidelines, each pound of body weight lost in practice requires 20-24 ounces of fluid and one gram of sodium for repletion. Consuming water, sports drinks like Gatorade, hydrating foods such as fruits, vegetables and soups and eating salty foods like pretzels, salted nuts and beef jerky throughout the day can help maintain hydration needs and prevent cramping. 

Having a consistent regimen during camp of recovery nutrition and adequate hydration habits, will transition into the season enhancing performance and ultimately determining wins or losses of games.