When it comes to Sports Drinks, there are far too many choices!

Which sports drink has the most electrolytes? Which sports drink has the most sodium? Which sports drink is isotonic? What sports drink has the least sugar? Which sports drink is the best for hydration?

And most importantly, what sports drink is the best choice for optimal performance? Let’s have a look… 

What are we looking for in a sports drink?

Ultimately, we’re looking for a product that helps meet our fuelling and hydration needs. Sports drinks should be designed with a combination of different carbohydrates, electrolytes and of course fluid to keep you hydrated and performing at your best. But not all sports drinks are created equal…

Carbohydrate

As a general rule, most sports drinks contain between 6-8% carbohydrate. So, in 100mL of the product (made up to the correct concentration), they contain between 6-8g of carbohydrate. Anything higher can delay the rate your stomach empties which reduces the amount of f...

We lose water on a daily basis. We exhale water when we breathe, we lose water through our skin as sweat and we excrete water in our urine. Without regularly replacing this fluid we become dehydrated. We can’t train our bodies to adapt to dehydration, unfortunately. It’s not something you can become good at. Even mild dehydration can have noticeable negative effects. Let’s take a look…

1. Fatigue

Perhaps the most noticeable effect of dehydration is a general feeling of fatigue. Being dehydrated is often the cause of headaches or headache-type symptoms such as reduced focus, dizziness, light-headedness, feeling tired and low mood. If you are feeling these effects, try drinking more water before jumping straight to taking painkillers.

2. Mental function

As dehydration increases, mental performance decreases. There is a noticeable impairment in short-term and working memory and our visual-motor function. Dehydration also impacts concentration and the ability to make decisions.

Dehydr...

I often see endurance athletes struggling to manage their body composition. They strive to be leaner so drastically cut calories and then suffer for it with reduced energy levels, poor training performance and increased risk of illness and injury...

I despise the word ‘diet’ and don’t even get me started on ‘detox’. The idea of a quick fix is appealing but unfortunately, there is no magic pill for weight loss... 

Diets are often gimmicky, unsustainable and are not going to provide adequate fuel to keep up with the often-high load of triathlon training. There are some very real consequences to inappropriate weight loss such as altered hormones, reduced immune function, impaired growth and development and don’t forget warped psychological state (Yes, being ‘hangry’ is a real thing).

You’ll notice decreased muscle strength, anaerobic power and endurance capacity; none of which are helpful when training or racing. Success as a triathlete in part relies on the athlete carrying his/her o...

I can’t be the only one that’s noticed Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) scans popping up in just about every gym 12-week challenge, or ‘get fit for summer’ promo. These scans are advertised as a ‘new’ and ‘improved’ way to accurately measure your body composition that’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg. But should you be relying on this measure when it comes to achieving your goals?

It’s a BIG NO from us. Let me tell you why…

How BIA works:

This method of body composition measurement relies on different types of tissue in our bodies having different levels of conductivity. The machine sends a small current between the body parts in contact with the machine (either two or four points) and creates a measure of body composition depending on the response to this current. This is where we start to run into issues...

BIA machines with only two contact points (i.e. hand-to-hand, or foot-to-foot) only send a signal between this loop. They don't measure your entire body. Elec...

What is the difference between Nutritionists vs Dietitians in Australia?

We constantly get asked to explain the difference between a Dietitian and Nutritionist. Yes, they’re different and yes we will always correct you when you call us a Nutritionist. Read on to find out why we get slightly offended 😉

Australia currently does not regulate the professional titles ‘nutritionist’ or ‘dietitian’, leaving a wide market for misinformation if you do not do your own research. The media also tends to use the two terms interchangeably, making distinctions between qualifications increasingly difficult.

Read on as we break down the differences between these professions, their relevant qualifications, what they can do for you and what to look for when looking for a professional to help you.

Nutritionist

This term can be the most confusing of the three as there are varying levels of qualifications that result in the title ‘nutritionist’. Nutrition is a three-year university degree, but there i...

Intermittent Fasting; the latest in diet trends. Claiming health benefits from weight loss to prevention of chronic disease. Is it really the answer to the world’s health problems? We take a look at the evidence…

What is Intermittent Fasting?

Intermittent fasting encompasses several different dietary behaviours, all of which focus on controlling the period in which food is consumed. These behaviours dictate a fasting and feeding schedule of various lengths. However, there isn’t a restriction placed on the TYPES of foods consumed during feeding times.

Different Types of Intermittent Fasting:

The three most popular methods that are circulating the health and fitness industry are:

• Time-Restricted Feeding
  Daily fasting for a minimum of 12 hours (the most common fast is 16 hours, with 8 hours during the day to eat, for example only eating between 11am and 7pm).
  
  
• Alternate Day Fasting
  Involves cycling between one day of “fasting” and one day of consuming your regular diet. On the “fasti...

Sleep is essential for general health and wellbeing.

The more we learn, the more we realise that increased sleep duration and quality is associated with better performance in sport and life. The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get between 7-9 hours of sleep each day for optimal health (1). But it’s not clear exactly how much sleep athletes need. It’s been suggested athletes require more – closer to 9-10 hours (2). But duration is not the only factor – sleep quality is also important. Getting the right amount of good quality sleep has some incredible benefits for athletic performance. Let’s take a deeper look…

Recovery

For an athlete, sleep is the ultimate form of recovery. It’s like a big sponge that soaks up fatigue overnight. This sponge assists with the recovery process so we can adapt from and absorb hard training. The bigger the sponge (sleep duration), the more water (fatigue) it can soak up.

We talk about periodising nutrition all the time, but WHAT the heck is it?

And HOW do you do it? 

Nutrition Periodisation is the use of planned nutritional strategies aimed at maximising the results from specific training sessions to improve performance (1). It is just like having a training plan but for your nutrition, where your nutrition is planned around your training to get the most bang for your buck out of it.

Periodising nutrition primarily manipulates our glycogen stores, or our carbohydrate fuel tank.

There are a few ways dietary periodisation can be used:

1. Train low

This is where you train with low glycogen stores. For example, you train first thing in the morning on an empty stomach or you don’t quite top your glycogen stores back up between sessions. This allows your body to learn to run more efficiently on a lower fuel tank. For athletes that train twice or even three to four times a day, chances are they are probably running on lower glycogen stores for some o...

We look at the latest evidence on what cramps are, why we get them, how to prevent them and how pickle juice may be able to help.

What are muscle cramps?

Ah cramps! They make me nervous just thinking about them! Most of us have had one at some point or another but what are they exactly?

A cramp is defined as a painful spasmodic involuntary contraction of a skeletal muscle which occurs during or after exercise. There are actually two main types of cramps:

1. Whole-body cramping, but thankfully these are not as common;
2. Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramps (EAMC). This type of cramping involves individual muscles or groups of muscles and is common in the calf, hamstring and quadriceps. Think a calf cramp as you go to push off the wall in the pool. It typically involves the muscle being used.
   
   

Cramping prevalence has been reported to be as high as 6-20% during Ironman events, 30-50% in marathon runners, 60% in cyclists and 30-50% in team sports.

Although localised and short in duration...

There can be many reasons for feeling tired and exhausted sometimes. Keeping up with the demands of training, getting enough sleep, managing stress, eating well and staying hydrated are all factors that affect how we feel day to day. Meeting our vitamin and mineral requirements is also key to feeling energised. A common culprit to feeling flat for no apparent reason is iron deficiency.

The importance of iron for athletes

Iron is an essential nutrient for a number of fundamental functions within the body.  Iron is important for:

• red blood cell (RBC) production,
• transporting oxygen around the body (via haemoglobin),
• storing oxygen in the muscle (via myoglobin – a special protein responsible for the red colour of muscles),
• energy production systems
• helping to maintain a healthy immune system.
  
  

It’s also an important nutrient for athletes as it plays a key role in aerobic metabolism (the slow and steady type of exercise) where energy is extracted from carbohydrate, fatty acids a...