Rugby Sports Nutrition

In the first category of diet suggestions we should mention that a rugby player must follow a balanced diet which includes a wide variety of foods and carbohydrates as primary source of energy. Excess fat is certainly as harmful as it is in everyone else’s diet so you should never go beyond the limit with fat. Protein helps building muscles so you will need that in order to increase your muscle mass. But again, physical work in general requires that a man should take care that his diet and include good and varied nutrients in his daily meals.

Rugby sports nutrition is a bit more than that though. If you practise rugby yourself, you probably know that weeks and months of competition may leave you drained of energy if you do not take in the good type of carbohydrates which can help you store energy throughout the day. The muscles that you need for performance require a bigger quantity of protein than a postal worker who drives the van for most of the day and empties a few pillar boxes. Regular check-ups will let you know if your body contains and is able to retain the nutrients that you ingest regularly for better performance.

In terms of body mass, a rugby player may need to both increase and sustain the muscle mass. A long time goal for most of the men who take up and practise this sport is to reduce the fat mass as well. This may sound easy but it is not and a very strict diet combined with a certain type of physical activity at the gym are the only combination that can help you balance your muscle and fat mass appropriately.

In order to increase muscle mass in the first training months, the protein – carbohydrate – fat ration should be 50:40:10. If you do this you can help yourself endure the training and give your body exactly what it needs to face the challenge.

The period preceding the competitions comes with a different ratio because the main purpose is no longer building muscles; the muscle mass is there already. The target now is to facilitate speed as well as endurance, so the ratio becomes 45:45:10.