5 Rules to Fix Your Nutrition for Rugby Performance

Diet and nutrition for rugby players is a huge part of the equation when it comes to becoming your best. Whether you're trying to lose some fat, gain muscle or just perform at your best week in week out these 5 rules should help you cut through the BS and move forward in alignment with your goals

0.00 - Intro

1.05 - Food is Everything

3.09 - Rule 1 (BIG)

5.23 - Story time

10.54 - Rule 2

13.45 - Rule 3

16.27 - Rule 4

19.52 - Rule 5

22.22 - Wrap up.. thank you!

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Transcript

0:00

Okay. Yes. What is going on everybody? Welcome back to the rugby muscle podcast. You're Sherpa in the mountain of rugby strength, conditioning, and nutrition. I'm host as always TJ. And today, as you've seen, we are going to be talking about nutrition. So before we dive into that, do me a huge favor, hit that like button on YouTube subscribe. If you haven't done so already on Spotify, whatever podcast platform you listen to and drop us a quick review. Really does help us out and ensures that you never miss an episode Also would like to hear your comments by hitting the three dots on spotify and adding a comment Or down below on youtube. The comments are also Always appreciated and you can always give your reaction using the comments So let me know if any of these five appeal to you a lot if you disagree Love to hear your opinions in the comments below and if not, just do it Drop me a comment for the algorithm. It really does help out. Now, let's talk about being proactive and what you should be doing with your nutrition. Food facilitates everything, right? It's your ability to train, your ability to recover, your ability to have energy and adapt and essentially become the rubber player that you want to be. Also, plays a huge role in our lives, both socially and like happiness wise. Food is one of the few things where you can do it or eat it. And then as a direct result of that, be happy, right? It's why when people go through breakups, you know, they're sat there eating the ice cream because it makes you feel happy. It's one of the few things that can do that. So it's really important to Keep this in check and be proactive about your nutrition. It's not just about like specific rules or this food being better than this food. I think that's a, that does you a fucking huge disservice when it comes to nutrition. I don't think that really helps you out. I think rather than, than tell you eat like steak instead of mince or eat, I don't know broccoli instead of beans. I think instead what we should be doing is Talking about what you do consistently and how you can make your food and nutrition choices align with the goals that you, you, you are trying to pursue. Now, obviously part of that is going to be tracking your progress along the way and being proactive about it and also holding yourself accountable. All of those things can also be taken care of along with not just these rules, but continual advice and guidance. And, and much, much more when it comes to nutrition and of course a training plan with coaching. I'll put the links to that in the description below. But for the five rules, these are five rules that I use with my clients. It's not necessarily like these are set in stone. These are the ones I give to everyone. These are just General real good guidelines. I I find myself repeating time and time and time again And these are ones I lay out for everyone that works with me rugby muscle And it's not just about performing your best on the field but hitting your goals with your performance And not going crazy in the long term so let's get into these five rules first one is going to be avoid the bandwagon thinking and This is going to be the only one of these rules that is a bit more sort of, sort of like not actual tangible do this or considering a certain type of food or whatever it is this is a lot more all encompassing when it comes to your diet when you're following a diet that's you think okay now i'm following a diet my nutrition really matters but when you're not following a diet You're still following a diet, right? Whether you're being proactive or not, your body is still processing the foods that you're consuming. You're still consuming your food. You're still being influenced to consume your food, whether that be because of a result that you're after, or whether that be because you like the taste of a certain food or because of a certain social situation or because of a, you know, a societal expectation or because of some friends or family that influenced the way you eat. Type of food that you enjoy, or it could be that you walk past something that smells really good and you want to eat it, you know, you're always being influenced and you're always eating food no matter what. So with that in mind, this is why it's best to keep your nutritional approach as simple and I'd say it's easy, but there's always going to be levels to that. So simple as it is. as, as best you can manage. So yes, like tracking food on the surface is kind of simple, right? All you've got to do is continue with your diet, but now you've got to log all of the food that you eat. But you can see where you could argue that it's not necessarily simple because you've got to log all of the food that you eat. But it's really important to have a simple approach will allow you to reach your goals eventually, but also will allow you to stick to your goals. To like set goal when you reach it, but also stick to your approach for the foreseeable future without taking, you know Having to cheat or having to take days off. Cheating like is like people think that's a good thing it's not like cheating is implied by the word right something that you shouldn't do and Like I'm not saying this from a holier than thou I've gone through this where, you know, when I was like 17, 18 was when I first started taking my nutrition seriously. And I can remember all the way through to like my early 20s, still really kind of struggling with nutrition, even though I was probably the most, Proactive in researching what I should be doing with my nutrition. All that ended up doing was allowing me to find different, like, sort of, magic pills that I thought I was supposed to take. So, Keto would be one of them. I tried Paleo. I tried every sort of fucking diet you could ever imagine. I've tried it and I've just never found the most sustainable approach other than, like, just logging your food. And then even then I'll go through long periods where I don't log my food and I just don't. Stick to the nutrition by the rules I'm about to go through and also just by my own, you know Heading towards my own goals, but I remember a time when I was like between 19 and 20 where I wouldn't Like I would be so strict with my nutrition like as far as keto goes and as far as like having the perfect diet plan From like monday to thursday and when friday came around potentially Yeah, pretend mostly friday because i'd have a game saturday. I'd say i'd start to like I'd start to just load up on the food thinking that that would give me energy for Saturday, not knowing that actually I could just have been aerobically fitter. And that led to all sorts of issues where I know, I remember this distinctive time where I was injured and I wasn't playing on Saturdays, but I still did the, actually I didn't do the Friday diet. I would do Monday to Friday as perfectly dieted as possible. I'm talking, you know, really super low carb, if not no carb nutrition approach. And then when the weekend came around, after my Saturday morning session, I would go to Sainsbury's and I would load up, I'm not kidding you, a trolley like I don't think it was the big family trolleys. I think it was like one of the small ones, but it would be loaded full of food of junk food that I would eat that weekend. I'm talking at least one box of cereal. If cereal was on offer, there was like a two for one, or if I just couldn't decide, sometimes it would be two boxes of cereal. It would be a pizza. It would be, a pasta. At least one box of pasta as well usually and, and I would just start loading up on junk. It'd probably be a six pack of donuts or it'd be whatever was on sale in the bakery as well. And I would go to town and this also like had Like talking about it now, like you start to see how saying this stuff out loud makes it seem extreme, not just from a like a nutritional approach, but also from like a mental approach. I remember like there'd be times where I would avoid social situations on the afternoon because I'd want to be eating my food or I would avoid potentially nights out. Or I'd join nights out later or I wouldn't be a like overly spontaneous because I had this food now that I've bought and I want to really enjoy. And probably there's some shame in there and stuff. But the point is that stopped me from getting into as good a shape as I could have and performing at my best. And obviously we're talking about more than just the physical standpoint but also the mental standpoint. And that is why I like much more of an 80 20 approach. I like, I think once you say that it's okay, and you're not cheating when you're, when you're doing these binge episodes and you're, well, you're not binging. You're just proactively having food that is going to not necessarily move you closer to your goal, but is justified because of whatever reason. Now, we're not justifying binging, we're justifying a week away, maybe where you're on vacation with a loved one, And you don't fancy having to track everything, or you don't fancy having to stick to this diet perfectly and stress over getting five different fruits. Maybe it's just one night where you're out and you decide you're with the boys, just gonna have a few beers, and then you're gonna move, go back to your 80 approach the next day. It could also be, you know, on a day to day basis, maybe you need to get some more fuel in for a particularly hard session that you need to recover from or perform. Whatever the case is, it needs to be intentional. And I think it needs to be not on and off the bandwagon. It needs like you're always on the bandwagon, no matter what you're always eating, you're always suffering or benefiting from the consequences of what you are eating. So overall, I think the best way to view this is. To be proactive about Setting some goals and have you know and understand that whatever you're eating is either contributing or not And be pro and be okay with either of those situations whether it's not and that's okay or whether it is And you, you now know what you should be eating, potentially having cues for when to tighten things up. So, you know, you're, you're, you're just being, once you've got in solid habits for your nutrition, there's something to be said for, this is what I do with a lot of the guys that I work with at Rubbing Muscle is, once weight gets to a certain point or body fat gets to a certain point, then we don't have like a specific percentage. We just have, like I'm feeling a bit too fluffy. That's when we start to reign it in. Okay, so yeah, like I said that first rule is always going to be a lot more all encompassing a lot more like Harder to actually completely define, but you get the point. There is no strict meal plan that is going to work for everyone or for you. There is just you're always eating. How can we make sure that i'm eating to hit my goals as best possible with that in mind number two? eating your carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are the fuel for high intensity and sustained activity like rugby. And it's also not just the energy to perform, but also the energy to recover from those efforts. A lot of people think about recovery as protein and they're not necessarily wrong, but recovery is also about having the energy to to go through the process of repairing your body. you know, your fatigued body your fatigued muscles and then replenishing the energy source that you have already or the energy store, sorry, that you have burned through to perform. So carbohydrates bloody important. You see people that say that they can go through on a keto diet and they can either perform like a marathon or a long distance run, maybe because the intensity is too low. Even then it's still, I'd still argue you're going to perform better on carbohydrates. You you've seen powerlifters that do or bodybuilders that do only keto diets. And again, you're working for such a short period of time that maybe you don't need a substantial amount of carbohydrate, but when you're doing rugby, you absolutely do. And I know some people will even play rugby with low levels of carbohydrates in their diet, thinking that they're going to benefit from a keto diet and they're fat adapted and they can play rugby at best their ability. Well, This is not the case. You can ride to work on your bike with completely flat tires. You could even ride it, your bike to work without any pedals. It doesn't mean that that's a good thing and that's what you should do. Everyone that eats a keto diet that plays rugby, I've never seen anyone that doesn't then perform better while, when introducing carbohydrates into that diet. So, carbohydrates are going to be your main fuel source for performance and for recovery. And if you You know, consume enough pre and post training. You're going to be fine I wouldn't overly put a big emphasis on that like specifically carbohydrate wise. We'll talk about this in a second But I think in general you should be focusing on carbohydrates And if you struggle look into food foods that are very easy to eat I'm talking about like cereals not porridge like actual cereals like breakfast cereals sugary foods you can eat those around your training sessions if you want or you can just eat them away as a dessert You There's so many things that you know, high in carbohydrates that are kind of easy to eat that allow you to get in enough. And, you know, if you're getting through enough work with your training and you're getting enough micronutrients with quote unquote healthy food, you don't have to overly stress the healthiness of all of your food. As long as you're getting in enough fiber, as long as you're getting in enough vitamins, you're not, there's no bonus points for only eating those healthy foods. If you, if you're then under recovered. Then I would argue that's not healthy. So make sure you're eating your carbohydrates And that's how you're going to perform at your best next get in enough protein, obviously, we know by now you don't need me to tell you that You know protein is critical for your muscle repair muscle growth all these good things that we're after from our training from Rugby, but also for rugby players because of the impact. I don't know why this camera is going absolutely bonkers Let me see if I can just stop this for a second. It's bloody annoying We're not gonna we're just gonna carry on So anyway, so protein, yeah, we know that it's critical to to grow muscle when you're training in the gym It's also pretty important when you're going through the impacts that you are And taking the knocks that you are as a rugby player. Maybe if you're listening to this offseason, it's not as important But then even then you you might have more of a focus of hypertrophy. So There's enough protein and that's it. It needs to be stated that more is not necessarily better. Like if you're getting in, I'd say around a gram per pound of body weight is you, that's, that's easily enough. I don't even think you need that. I think you, you, you probably need two grams per kilo of body weight. And I even say lean body weight. So if you're like a hundred kilos, but you're 15 percent body fat, That's 170 grams of protein. I don't think you need that much more. You can have a little bit more just to cover your bases. But again, more is not better. Once you've hit that amount of protein that you need, more carbohydrates, I mean more carbohydrates, yeah, more carbohydrates is actually going to benefit you. More protein is not, right? The more protein, the more carbohydrates you have, the more energy you have. For, you know, fueling recovery, fueling your sessions, performing at a higher intensity recovering even faster. Protein is just the building blocks. You need enough building blocks. If you've got enough building blocks to build your building, having extra excess blocks doesn't build that building faster. It's just, it's just spare and you're just gonna piss it out. Whereas if you have more workers on the building, which would be your carbohydrates, yes, now, as long as you've got enough blocks, You're going to build that building faster. So hopefully that makes sense. People always ask me about protein powder. Yes. It's a useful tool. It's a food. It's you don't take protein You're not on protein. It's a food and should be considered as such. Yes. It's processed So is everything else that you bloody eat look go look up a picture of what broccoli actually looks like in the wild It's not what we eat all of the food that we eat by and large is somewhat processed protein powder is no different protein powder is no different than cheese You if you're talking about whey protein, if you're talking about other proteins, again, it's no different than like tofu or whatever processed food. Everything, foods that we eat are processed and that's okay. So yeah, protein powder is a food. Take advantage of it if you need it to help you get in enough protein. Next hydration. Yes. Nutrition is not just food. It's also drink. So when we're looking at hydration, we want to make sure that we're hydration can be massive to perform and your best and also then recover all that good stuff. Mostly for performance, mostly for day to day. Cognitive function as well. Hydration can be absolutely important. It's unbelievably, bleh, it is unbelievable to me how many people just are not hydrated, how much that really does cost them. Easiest way to check if you're hydrated well is obviously your urine color. You're looking for like a pale straw sort of color. And obviously if you're thirsty, Like those are that's another cue obvious cue right that you need to be drinking You should never really be thirsty if you're a proactive athlete like In in the day today, maybe at some points in training you might be thirsty But again, if you're proactive you're gonna be good It's gonna be different for different people how much water you need to to take in but it's not like obviously water is fundamental But it's not the whole picture. We're also, for hydration, we're looking at sodium. Sodium's the most important of your electrolytes now. Nowadays, electrolytes are really, really popular. Sodium's the most important one. I would even say, potentially you could have a hydration drink, but more importantly than that, or as important as that, is going to be salting your food. We've been constantly bombarded recently, or not recently, From probably from like the 90s that salt is really bad for you. Sodium is really bad for you. If you're active It's not bad for you at all. It's just the fact that most people just stop being active You should be salting your food and drinking enough water Most of that is going to that or that is going to take a care of most of your hydration issues Then there is obviously potassium calcium magnesium the other electrolytes that you need to which helped with, you know, nerve function, muscle contractions and overall physical performance. But sodium is the one that you want to look for. I've recently seen that that prime drink that's really popular. If you're, I don't know, you start to feel old when I say things like this, but you youngsters drinking your prime drinks, like, but, and they say it's got the highest electrolyte concentration. That's because the electrolytes in there are bullshit. It's got mostly like potassium and, very low levels of sodium, which is the one that you want. You can also make your own like sort of sports drink just by putting some juice in, mixing it with a few teaspoons of salt and then water and then boom, you're done. Loads of different things that you can do to yeah, stay proactive with your, your, your hydration, but. As long as you're monitoring it, as long as you've are, your pee is the right color and you feel like you're performing well, then you're going to be good. If you're someone that sweats more, obviously you're going to need to have more sodium in your diet or in your electrolyte drinks. And not just post exercise, but also during your exercise and potentially before. So being. readily hydrated before you perform is going to be massive. Not just going, Oh crap, my P's bright yellow in the middle of a session. Or I feel like I'm really thirsty in the middle of my sessions. It's too late then because your body takes time to hydrate itself. So you want to be going into your training, your matches, nice and hydrated. And using the, you know, the, the proactive strategies that we've already discussed. So staying hydrated, bloody important. And then finally use meals. And what do I mean by use meals? I mean, like, I don't believe in snacks. I think meals are how we should be eating. Whether you have two meals a day, whether you have three to five to six meals a day, Every time you eat, it should be a meal that helps you with your hunger levels. That helps you with your organization of your day, not only so that you can get in enough calories or not overeat on your calories, but so that you can be nice and satiated and not go into your training sessions hungry. So you can go into training sessions, nice and full, but also not be like, Uncomfortable because you ate five minutes before a really tough session on a Tuesday night. Obviously that's not the perfect, obviously that's not going to work, right? But then it's about figuring out what works for you. And obviously having some sort of meal after training is also really bloody important. The only time I would say you don't necessarily have to have a big meal before training is if you're, you're training at like six, 7am and you wake up. Very shortly before. Otherwise, I'd always still try and get something in. It's not going to make a huge difference because if you're having training sessions that early, the fuel for that session is going to be already stored in the body from the night before or from the day before. So you're going to be fine. But once you start talking about evening training sessions, yes, you need to feel, you need to figure out when is right for you. Some, some people that I work with, they have to eat within an hour of their training session. It doesn't, obviously, you're not digesting that food and utilizing it as energy during that session. But it's just that feeling of not feeling hungry that a lot of people will need and particularly towards the end of those sessions. Some people can't eat within three hours of a session, so whatever that looks like for you, you utilize that meal. And now whatever approach you can utilize to make you less hungry, to make you throughout the day, and to make you eat according to the goals that you want. So whether you want to gain muscle, you want to be eating a lot, whether you want to be performing well in eating a decent amount or whether you want to be losing fat and eating a little bit less. Utilize the meals and the timing of those meals so that could be, um, what, what, it could be intermittent fasting or it could be eating four square meals or three square meals a day. Whatever works best for you. Utilize the meals to work for you. Cool. That's a wrap for today's episode. Remember nutrition is the game changer for rugby. It facilitates everything that you do and also plays a huge part in your happiness and social life. So you've got to be proactive with it whether, well, you've got to be proactive to succeed. Set those goals, stay on track and then keep pushing. If you found today's teammate who could benefit from it as well. Thank you guys so much for listening. I'll see you in the next one.