​Eating for CrossFit Competitions: A Guide to Nutrition
 
With the CrossFit season officially underway and a few local competitions popping up, now it's time to nail your competition nutrition. Our priority is that our everyday nutritional requirements are met but adding to this is where sports nutrition should come into play.
 
When it comes to competitions, you know that your training regimen and skill level are both important. But what about nutrition? What you eat can have a huge impact on your performance during a competition. For the aspiring athlete, understanding nutrition is key to maximizing your potential in a competition.
 
The Basics of Competition Nutrition
When it comes to eating for competitions, the basics remain the same—you want to make sure you’re eating healthy and getting enough calories so that your body has enough energy to compete. For CrossFit our main goal is to maximize your performance, which means you want to provide your body with a good fuel source.
 
Carbohydrates are the main fuel source when training, as competition intensity goes up, so does the need for carbohydrates. If you deprive your body of carbohydrates your performance will be compromised. It’s also important to make sure you’re hydrated before competing. Dehydration can be a major factor in fatigue during competitions - so make sure to drink plenty of water in the days leading up to your competition for optimal performance!

​Competition Day Meal Plan
It’s important to make sure you have a meal plan in place for competition day itself. It’s best to keep your For comp day I would be looking to have a solid meal with anywhere from .5-1g/kg/BW of carbs for your morning meal and then competition day snacks around 60 mins before your workout. Have some carbs 40-80g post workout (30-45mins). Consuming carbs prior exercise will ensure your maximising glycogen storage and assisting on performance.
 
Competition day snack ideas Cereal, Powerade/Gatorade, Oats, Pikelets, Wrap, Honey, Berries, Sour patch kids/ lollies, Raisin Toast These are all great options for competition day snacks.
 
Liquid meals could be a good option here if the turnaround time for events is under 1 hour. If it is over an hour, you could still use liquids like Powerade or Gatorade but also using things like honey, or maple syrup on pikelets.
 
A little secret is pickle juice; this can potentially reduce the risk/ chances of getting cramps.
For a multiple day competition after the last event of the day is when you want to start adding back in whole foods protein and fiber but keep carbohydrates a main priority to help the body refuel and recover for the next day’s competition. Meals relatively light on this day since heavy food can lead to lethargy or stomach upset during events.
 
Bare in mind on multiple event days, sugary snacks could give you an initial boost of energy but leave you feeling sluggish later on in the day when your blood sugar crashes.
 
Supplements may be beneficial for serious athletes (especially those competing at high levels) to consider taking supplements such as beta alanine, protein powders or amino acids before competitions. Beta-alanine enhances performance by increasing exercise capacity and decreasing muscle fatigue
 
This can help aid recovery after tough workouts while providing extra energy when needed most.
 
Nutrition is key when it comes to performing well at competitions! Be sure to stock up on nutrient-rich whole foods prior to competition day and keep meals light throughout the event itself. Don't forget about hydrating properly too - dehydration can be detrimental when performing strenuous physical activity over long periods of time! With these tips in mind, there's nothing stopping anyone from reaching their peak performance level come game time! Good luck out there!
 
Corey Colombini
Sports Nutritionist

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​WITH THE CROSSFIT OPEN FAST APPROACHING YOU DON’T WANT TO THROW ALL YOUR HARD WORK IN THE GYM OUT THE DOOR WITH POOR NUTRITION.

Keep reading for some tips to get the most out of your CrossFit Open experience.

The CrossFit Open consists of very high intensity within short time domains, which makes fuelling correctly a key factor for success.

​As exercise intensity goes up, so does our needs for carbohydrates as a fuel source. If you simply don’t eat enough carbohydrates for training or competition it could interfere with glycogen repletion and performance for your next training session or competition. 

Insufficient carbohydrates = Insufficient fuel = Poor/ average performance

Carbs
Evidence suggests that 4-7g/kg/bw per day is enough for the average person.
Depending on the individual.

Pre-training
Before training and exercise maximising glycogen storage to assist performance. The focus is optimising carb intake. A good amount as guidance is  0.5-1g/kg/bw.

Protein 
Evidence suggest 1.6-2.2g/kg/bw optimize muscle growth. The total amount of proteins through out the day is a priority but the way you distribute it can enhance Muscle protein synthesis.
I suggest aiming for 4-6 meals per day with protein in it and evenly spreading out the protein servings between them all.

Fats
Lower fat and fibre intake around training and competition. Both options take too long to digest and isn’t ideal.
There are still a few weeks so practise and see what works for you, every individual is different. I advise not to try any new foods on the day of the wod to avoid any gi issues and stomach discomfort.
At the end of the day its about the community getting together and having fun.

Night before
Carb rich meal, moderate protein fat and plants.

3-4 hours prior (main meal
Carb rich meal easily digestible, moderate protein and low fat (sandwich, spaghetti/ pasta).

1-2 hours prior (snack)
Carb rich snack easily digestible, moderate protein and low fat (bagel, crumpets, pikelets, fruit).

<1 hour before (pre wod)
Top up carbs, quick absorbing, low fat, and fibre (carbohydrate based drinks).

1-2 hours post
Prioritise protein and carbs add plants (wholefoods).

Most importantly - fuel up and HAVE FUN!
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Hello everyone. My name is Nathan Cook. I am a member at CrossFit Urban Energy Burleigh and am an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Accredited Sports Dietitian. I thought I would use the first part of this blog as an opportunity to introduce myself if you haven’t met me yet.

I graduated from a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2018, completed my additional training in 2019 to become a Sports Dietitian and then quickly returned to University to begin my PhD where I am two-thirds through investigating how to measure and manage food waste in hospitals more sustainably (e.g. measuring waste on scales and sending food waste for composting). My recreational athlete history is a mixed bag with AFL, surf lifesaving, gym and now running and obviously CrossFit. As a dietitian outside of my PhD my goals are to educate active populations on sports specific nutrition information using scientific evidence and behaviour change techniques. 

This month I thought I would start with carbohydrate requirements for exercise. It is important to remember that everyone’s needs will be different from the recommendations in this blog and it is best to see a sports dietitian for a personalised approach. Please also note these recommendations do not take into consideration those with blood glucose regulation issues such as insulinaemia and diabetes.

The availability of carbohydrates to be used by the muscles and central nervous system during exercise is important for when optimal performance is desired. Some sessions you will do in training will have low and or high carbohydrate needs, and therefore require low and or high carbohydrate availability.

Basically, you want high amounts of carbohydrate availability for high intensity sessions such as a Tuesday night strength and metcon piece in a 1-hour class, and low availability for a Monday night gymnastics or Thursday night weightlifting session. 

This is otherwise known as the concept, ‘fuel for the work required’, whereby we appropriately fuel for the sessions requirements. To put this into context you would feel a lot different at the end of typical Urban class versus the gymnastics session where there is not a lot of heavy breathing, plenty of breaks, and less intensity, therefore less carbohydrate would need to be available to the working muscles and therefore consumed in the day/s prior, compared to a combination of heavy squats, machine calories, burpees, running, and wall balls. 

To display the recommendations for carbohydrate intake I have made a few tables. You can view a prettier version of the below tables on my instagram @developmentdietetics 


​Table 1. Daily needs for fuelling and recovery ​

IT HAPPENS AUTOMATICALLY AND KEEPS US ALIVE, BUT MOST OF US NEVER ACTUALLY THINK ABOUT HOW WE ARE BREATHING.  

Did you know that the way you breathe may lead to pain and tightness in your body? Poor breathing habits can lead to neck pain/tightness, jaw pain, headaches, midback and lower back pain/tightness, pelvic floor pain, shoulder and hip impingement, increased stress levels and decreased athletic performance.

The average human takes 22,000 breaths per day. That’s a lot of reps to be performing poorly and a lot of opportunity to create a change. 

What is optimal breathing and why is it important? 

Known as diaphragmatic breathing, uses the diaphragm (our main breathing muscle that sits underneath the ribcage) to expand the rib cage and abdominal cavity 360 degrees. It enables the body to take in adequate oxygen (inhale) and get rid of carbon dioxide (exhale). Diaphragmatic breathing is the foundation to be able to create sufficient core stability which is extremely important throughout exercise and our daily movements and activities. 
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Increasing our diaphragmatic breathing capacity can enable increased athletic endurance so we can perform better for longer, less tightness in the body and enhanced quality movement. 
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What is non-optimal breathing?

​Also known as “stress or chest breathing” predominantly uses the accessory (smaller) muscles in the neck to “lift” the rib cage and suck air in. This shallow breathing only into the upper chest enables less oxygen intake and causes overuse of the neck, chest, and shoulder muscles leading to tightness and pain. Chest breathing can cause overarching of the low back on inhale and the inability to create core stability. It can also trigger cortisol—the stress hormone—to kick in. 
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This type of breathing should be utilised only when needed during hard aerobic activity (as oxygen demands are increased) but NOT be the primary method for getting your oxygen in through day-to-day life. 

How do we address this?

First try this test:

1. Start by lying on your back with the knees bent up and feet flat on the ground.
2. Place one hand over the chest and one over the belly button 
3. Take a few breaths here and feel which hand is moving more
4. Ideally most of the movement should be felt in the bottom hand and we don’t want the collarbones to be moving up towards the chin.

This test can be used as a breathing exercise:
Imagine you have a balloon inside your abdominal cavity and as you breathe in you want the balloon to expand 360 degrees (the front, back and sides of your torso).

This may seem strange or challenging at first, but it just takes practice and consistency. The diaphragm is a muscle and like any other muscle it needs to be trained and the more it’s trained the more endurance it will build and easier it will feel.

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