Gymnastics is a physically demanding sport that requires you to be on your A-Game with fueling and nutrition to stay healthy, full of energy, and injury free. Because of this, it is important to understand how to fuel and when to fuel in order to train and perform your best.
Many gymnasts understand that they need to eat 3 meals a day, but did you know that you also need to eat multiple snacks throughout the day, including at practice in order to meet your energy needs and support your training and recovery?! Especially in the summer, when practices are long and often overlap with at least one major mealtime, mid-workout snacks and meals are so important to fuel your body properly.
When does a gymnast need to eat?
Eating a snack mid-workout can be beneficial for performance and can help maintain the high energy levels needed to perform well throughout practice. Oftentimes, gymnastics practices last 3-5+ hours at a time, which is too long to go without eating and replenishing carbohydrates. It’s common to see a decline in the gymnasts energy, mood, focus, and performance around the 90-minute to 2 hour mark, which is when a snack is needed to refuel their energy stores.
Depending on the age, level, and intensity of gymnastics, most gymnasts who's practices are 3 hours or longer will benefit from a performance nutrition strategy that incorporates mid-workout refuel.
Most gymnasts would benefit from eating a carbohydrate rich snack (15-30g) every 60-90 minutes if the practice is longer than 4 hours. This is in addition to eating a well balanced breakfast!
Incorporating a mid practice snack is crucial, even if the practices are less than 4 hours long. If a gymnast is practicing 3 hours at a time, they can still benefit from taking a short break to refuel about halfway through practice.
Eating mid-practice snacks are the best ways to maintain your energy levels and stay alert, focused, and full of energy and power. They are the secret weapon that will keep you performing at your best even after 3-4 hours of tough drills and conditioning!
What should a gymnast be eating during practice?
During a practice, it is important to refuel with easily digestible carbohydrates, as these are what are going to be giving you the energy to keep going throughout the rest of practice!
What If We Don't Get A Break?
Since the gymnasts likely have little time for a snack break or oftentimes aren't allotted a break in the middle of practice, it’s important to prioritize a snack that can be easily digested and turned into usable energy quickly. Simple carbohydrates like grains or fruit are going to be the gold standard to meet the gymnasts needs in the middle of practice. Foods high in protein, fat, and fiber, while are all important nutrients for a gymnast, are much slower to digest than more simple carbohydrates and can slow down the amount of time it takes to feel energized from the snack. Additionally, if you struggle with stomach challenges (upset, cramping, nausea, needing to use the bathroom), too much of these nutrients are likely to be the culprit.
Some of my favorites to enjoy mid workout include:
1 snack bag of Pretzels and a cheese stick
1 snack bag of Goldfish or Cheez itz
1 Rice Krispie Treat
2 packages of fruit snacks
1-2 pouches of Go Go Squeez
Handful of dried fruit
Fruit cup
1 Banana, Apple, or 2 Clementines
Fruit juice and crackers
Muffin
Sport Beans or Chews
Popcorn + Fruit
Honey stinger waffles
Uncrustables or a ½ of a PBJ sandwich
12-16oz of Gatorade or Powerade
All of these options have 15-30g of carbohydrates in a serving, so they make great options to eat during practice that are easy on the stomach and won’t leave you feeling sluggish or too full. It may take some time to find what snacks work best for you
What If I Get A Short Snack Break?
If you are lucky enough to get a snack break, the types of foods you pack will likely depend on both the length of your practice and how your individual body reacts to food during a workout.
As previously mentioned, gymnasts with practices that are 3 or 3 1/2 hours long and offer a snack break will benefit the most from a simple, high carbohydrate snack like grains and fruit.
For those gymnasts with practices that are 4 to 5 hours long with a short snack break around the half way point, you may find it helpful for your energy and hunger to incorporate a little bit more of a balanced snack that includes a little bit of fiber and protein.
Some of my favorite snacks that fit this performance plate include:
Crackers, grapes, and cheese cubes
Pretzels and hummus and clementines
Breakfast biscuits/bar, fruit leather, almonds
Apple, peanut butter, teddy grahams
Yogurt parfait with fruit and granola
Protein energy bites
DIY snack mix (with your favorite grain snack or dried cereal, dried fruit, and nuts or seeds)
How should I fuel during a lunch break?
Whether you’re at the gym all day long, are at a camp, or you have a 2-a-day practice with a break in the middle, you will need to refuel with both high-carb snacks during longer stretches and will benefit from more of a complete meal during that break. When workouts last all day, your energy needs are going to be extremely high (with very small recovery windows), so it is crucial to eat a little bit of something every chance you get.
Quick carbohydrate snacks are not going to be enough to sustain your energy all day - they are just meant to “top off” your energy levels in between meals. That being said, you should still eat a full lunch if you are provided with the time to do so! The best way to build a lunch plate is to use a performance plate as your guide!
Carbohydrates are still your main focus when building a lunch plate, but you will also want to include small amounts of protein, fat, and fiber as well to help satisfy your hunger and help kickstart the recovery process.
Some examples of a mid-practice lunch may include:
Turkey sandwich with 2 clementines
A burrito bowl with rice, veggies, salsa, avocado, and your favorite meat
Spaghetti and meatballs with a side of fruit
Chicken alfredo with a side of fruit
Tuna sandwich with a side of grapes
If you have at least 3 hours between practice sessions, you should prioritize a recovery meal as soon as possible at lunch to allow adequate time for digestion, and then follow it up with a pre-practice carbohydrate rich snack 15-45 minutes before your second session of training. This pre-workout snack could be graham crackers, pretzels, Goldfish crackers, or a fruit cup.
Anything I should avoid eating during a lunch break?
Performance fueling is all about strategizing how you can best prepare for a workout as well as optimizing recovery. To do so, it is best to eat a variety of foods (especially carbohydrates!) and understanding nutrient timing (protein is much better to eat after training than as a pre-workout snack!).
So often, I have gymnasts tell me that their coaches or parents encourage them to bring "healthy" foods to the gym (read lots of vegetables). However, a meal like this eaten in the middle of a workout is actually a recipe for disaster!!!
Vegetable-dense dishes like green salad are not an ideal mid-workout lunch.
While a salad is nutrient dense, it is not energy or carbohydrate dense (meaning you could not possibly eat enough to refuel in the middle of a long practice) and is packed with fiber, which while it is an important nutrient for gymnasts to include in their diet, but not in the middle of practices. Fiber is hard and timely for the body to digest and it can't be turned into energy very quickly and can cause GI distress if eaten in large quantities before returning to a workout.
Additionally, salads and other meals where the main component is non-starchy vegetables should be avoided at lunch because the body is needing to replenish all the carbohydrates it utilized during practice! Salads typically do not have large amounts of carbohydrates, which is why they make a better side item as opposed to a whole meal for training purposes.
The most dense source of energy that your body can us in a short period of time use is going to be 1st and foremost grains and starches (and 2nd, fruit). A salad will likely leave a gymnast feeling sluggish, hungry, and with a stomach ache...which is a recipe for poor performance during that second practice of the day.
Gymnasts typically have very high energy needs, and it is nearly impossible to meet those needs if you aren’t eating enough carbohydrates, protein, and fat. Many people think that because salads are full of vegetables, that they must be a good pre or post workout meal… that’s not always the case!
Again, carbohydrates are going to be a priority whether it is a mid-practice lunch break or your first recovery meal of the day - your body needs that energy!
Bottom line…
Eating during training doesn’t have to be complicated, but it is necessary! There are plenty of quick snacks that are shelf stable that can be paired together to create carbohydrate rich snacks that won’t upset your stomach during training. By prioritizing mid-workout snacks you are helping your body maintain its energy levels, which will leave you feeling stronger, more powerful, and able to finish out practice strong!
Remember, while mid-workout snacks are super important for successful training sessions, they should not be your only meals throughout the day and you should make sure to eat a balanced breakfast, lunch and dinner to help fill those gaps and meet your energy needs for the day, which will help you recover more efficiently and effectively and reduce your risk for injury.
When you skip meals, avoid foods, and don't make performance fueling a priority, you can't expect to get the most out of your summer training. It's not just about giving 100% when you're in the gym, but also making what you do outside of the gym a priority. This is the best time of the year to start learning more about nutrition and implementing fueling strategies that have you feeling and training your best.
The Fueled Gymnast Academy is the is the simplest way for busy gymnast (and those who feed them) to learn the ins and outs of fueling their body as a high level gymnast so they can
have more energy, reduce the risk of injury, and perform their best
AND
feel confident and empowered to make their own food choices (and not just have someone tell them what they have to eat)
Fueling your body doesn't have to be a guessing game. And you don't have to figure it out on your own.
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