Article: Placing Nutrition at the Heart of Multidisciplinary Performance Support Models
Article was written by James Morton (PhD) for Leaders Performance Institute
25 Nov 2021
In reflecting on the growth and evolution of performance support models across different sporting environments and cultures, I am amazed that one of the most crucial elements of the performance plan – nutrition – is sometimes overlooked.
Notwithstanding my bias, it is important to remember that it is in fact nutrition that provides the basis of all human performance. It is perhaps no surprise, therefore, that in my conversations with leading performance directors from around the world, I often comment that nutrition should be one of the first and most important hires for anyone leading a new performance programme.
I am going to explain why.
Why nutrient intake impacts performance
Where once our focus was solely on ensuring sufficient muscle fuel stores, it is now accepted that what we eat before, during and after every single training session has the capacity to drastically alter our whole-body physiology, affecting tissues and organs over and above that of skeletal muscle. For example, the timing, type and quantity of both macronutrients (i.e. carbohydrate, fats and proteins) and micronutrients (i.e. vitamins and minerals), alongside total body water content (i.e. hydration status), can all affect the daily function of our brains, gut, kidney, liver, immune system, bones, tendons, ligaments and so on. When considered this way, the importance of nutrition extends far beyond that of body composition or fuelling for game day. Rather, our daily nutrient intake affects our ability to make decisions, execute physical actions and technical skills, withstand mechanical load, fight infection, maintain training volume, promote sleep, reduce injury risk and so on.
