Nutrition

Why is diet so important? Traceurs and freerunners make efforts through training, conditioning, and practice to improve performance. A critical link in this process is proper nutrition. Improper nutrition can not only hinder performance, but is a detriment to overall physical health. The macronutrients (water, carbohydrates, proteins, and fats) and micronutrients (vitamins and minerals) can all have major implications if low or deficient. Parkour raises numerous energy issues, such as body weight maintenance, proper nutrition before and after training. So how do we need to eat for parkour?. Lets take a look at what parkour is on a physiological level. Parkour is characterized by high-intensity anaerobic activity interspersed with sub-maximal aerobic work. Traceurs need to rapidly generate muscular force in a quick series of movements. Aerobic endurance is required to assist with recovery between bursts of high-intensity activity and to support performance through several different movements. In parkour the traceur must move his body as fast and as explosively as possible during play, carrying unnecessary weight is costly energy expenditure so staying lean is important. Another problem with traceurs is that they tend too over train and under eat, leaving them listless, tired, sleep deprived and increasingly prone too injury. With this in mind the traceur will get the most out of each training session if they are adequately fueled and hydrated.

Starting with the basics Dr John Berardi outlines 7 simple habits for anyone to adhere to for a good diet. Good Diet Habits: HABIT 1 Eat every 2-3 hours HABIT 2 Eat complete, lean protein with each feeding opportunity HABIT 3 Eat vegetables with each feeding opportunity HABIT 4 Eat veggies/fruits with any meal. Eat “other carbs” only after exercise HABIT 5 Eat healthy fats daily HABIT 6 Don’t drink beverages (soda, beer, etc.) with more than 0 calories HABIT 7 Eat whole foods whenever possible I love these guide lines and they’ve served my athletes and myself well.

The Macronutrients Making up the largest portion these in the right ratio are key to nutritional success

Protein Most foods contain at least some protein. Good sources of protein include nuts and seeds, pulses, lean beef, chicken/turkey, oily fish, free-range eggs and some dairy products (milk, cheese and yogurt). You need 1.4-2.0g per kg of Bodyweight daily to help build muscle!

Carbohydrates Carbohydrates and creatine-phosphate (CP) are the main fuel source used by the body’s cells to replenish adenosine triphosphate (ATP) stores during moderate to intense activities. Good sources of carbs are oats/cereals/grains, potatoes/yams, fresh vegetables and fruit.

Fats Fats are a more abundant source of energy, requiring more oxygen to use up, certain dietary fats are needed for normal organ function, essential fatty padding, nervous system function and other essential uses, thus called essential fatty acids. These come from fish oil capsules, oily fish such as mackerel, sardines, kippers etc also from nuts and some dairy produce.

Eating On The Move, A Practitioners Downfall During those day long session we risk compromising our hard work with poor nutritional habits, small light mainly carb based meals are the order of the day especially if time is short. During a thread where Brad asked for advice on a day long gymnastics event. The advice here is useful for those who cant take an hour or two off to eat a proper meal. Getting in some form of fat and protein during a day long training session would be better than just consuming carbs all day (note that the gymnasts didn’t have that luxury). The other issue is that no one wants to carry around backpacks with food because this can be cumbersome. So sandwich shops and the like are a boon to the traceur on the go. Picking complex carbs is important because eating a lot of high sugar foods will lead to insulin spikes and drops (that sluggish feeling you get after eating too much of mums roast).

Ergogenics/Supplements For those of you that have the money and the rest of your diet sorted supplements are useful for getting that last 5% performance improvement. After you have got your nutrition and workout in order, only then is it time to consider supplementation. For example, taking a fat loss supplement won’t help you lose fat if you are consuming more calories than you are using in a day. Similarly, if you don’t consume enough food, supplements designed to aid muscle growth will have very little effect. Supplements cannot do the work for you. They are not a replacement for discipline and desire. They are something you use in addition to your other strategies in order to speed your progress. Without going into too much detail here are the best two supplements, there are others but I could write a separate article on that alone. The main players; Creatine and fish oils.

Creatine Creatine supplementation improves repetitive, short-term performance. Contrary to nonsense I hear its not a steroid or a drug. Research has indicated that creatine supplementation may produce a slight muscle-building effect, or - more specifically - an expansion in the size of type II (’fast twitch’) muscle fibres. But it wont make you huge aside from gaining a little water weight. Sticking to monohydrate is the best bet, because serum’s and the like degrade quickly in their containers.

Fish Oils Probably the most important supplement you could ever take. 13 Reasons To Take Fish Oil 1. Cell membrane health: EPA and DHA insure that cell membranes remain healthy. This means that the membranes are flexible and contain larger numbers of insulin receptors that are more receptive and responsive to circulating insulin. This results in decreased fat storage in the adipocytes (fat cells) 2. Fish oils turn on the lipolytic genes (fat burning genes) 3. Fish oils turn off the lipogenic genes (fat storage genes) 4. Fish oils diminish C-reactive proteins, a newly identified risk factor associated with various inflammatory diseases, including atherosclerosis, angina, coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke, congestive heart failure, and diabetes. The DHA fraction of the fish oil seems to be one most responsible for that protective effect. DHA also has the best ability to reduce blood pressure 5 . Increase utilization of fat stores from the adipocytes 6. Preferential utilization for energy production once stored in the adipocytes 7. Reduced inflammation from physical training 8. Pain management from the reduced inflammation 9. EPA regulates blood supply to the brain which is essential in maintaining focus in weight training sessions. DHA is important in brain membranes, memory, and cognitive function 10. Fish oils increase serotonin levels (the happy neurotransmitter). Therefore, fish oils will decrease incidence of depression, anxiety, panic attack, and reduce carbohydrate cravings 11. Fish oils will improve your cardiovascular risk profile by lowering VLDL, triglycerides, homocysteine, fibrinogen, and increasing HDL levels. Combining fish oils with plant sterols will improve lipid levels even more than either alone 12. Fish oils can also decrease blood pressure by several mechanisms. These include increases in the vasodilatory compound, nitric oxide, reducing vascular inflammation, blocking the constrictive elements in the vascular wall such as the calcium channels reducing blood viscosity, and inhibiting a blood vessel constrictor (thromboxane). Lipoprotein (a) is another CVD predictor that can be lowered by fish oils (a 19% reduction was seen with natural, stable fish oils and just 4% with a highly purified fish oil) 13. Fish oils are a great stress fighter. Supplementation with n-3 fatty acids inhibits the adrenal activation of steroids, aldosterone, epinephrine, and norepinephrine (catecholamines) elicited by a mental stress, apparently through effects exerted at the level of the central nervous system. Therefore, for the same amount of stress, one will produce fewer stress hormones if consuming fish oils on a regular basis.

 

More About The Author - Will Wayland Will’s academic background, coupled with his ‘under the bar” experience , has proven to be a recipe for success. Will has worked with athletes of all levels, from youth sports to the professional. Will specialises in developing the body for the goal of enhancing performance. Heavily inspired by Russian conjugate sequence system his training methods are used by athletes, bodybuilders, and fitness enthusiasts of all ages and from all walks of life. He has a BSC honours degree and HND in Applied Sports Science from the University of Teesside, and he specializes in the muscular and neurophysiology of human movement and performance. He currently trains, consults, and lectures around the country. You can find him on the net at www.williamwayland.blogspot.com Our intention is for the information here to be used as an open resource, so anyone wishing to use our material on their own websites may do so. All we request is that a courtesy email is sent to us first at parkour@urbanfreeflow.com and that a link back to Urban Freeflow is provided and a credit given to the author of any articles used.

 

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