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Question of the Week (6/24/96)

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Question of the Week

I'm playing a lot of tennis (5-6 times a week). I worry about nutrition, especially during the summer months. I drinking plenty of water on and off the courts and I try to eat a lot of pasta to build up on carbohydrates. What else should I be doing to maintain the proper nutritional balance in my diet?

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Answer

You are right on to be paying attention to your diet. Too often athletes ignore nutrition as a valuable tool in their training. You seem to have two of the areas of nutrition well covered--carbohydrates and water. Carbohydrates, as you correctly point out, are an essential and efficient source of continuous energy. Also, drinking lots of water cannot be emphasized enough as a means of staving off dehydration and keeping the body cooling efficiently. In particular, if you are playing in hot weather, make sure to prehydrate the night before. Players often have trouble with fatigue and cramping the day after a tough match because their body has never really caught up in terms of its hydration level.

Other nutrition areas to keep an eye on are your calcium and iron intake. Calcium aids all muscles in their ability to contract, extend and relax. This includes the most important muscle of all--the heart. Iron not only helps us reproduce glucose into stored energy but also allows the oxygen to be transported through our blood. Make sure any training diet that you are on has sufficient quantities of both of these minerals.

A more obvious area but also one to keep an eye on is your caloric intake. Too often athletes become very obsessed with what goes into their body all the while ignoring how much is going in. On the other hand, during extended competitive periods (several matches or tournaments in a short period), it is important to maintain your body weight. Significant weight loss during training or competition indicates either tremendous water loss or a tremendous drop in caloric intake--both of which will undermine your general level of energy and fitness (and perhaps lead to muscle loss). This is a real thumbnail sketch of what you should be keeping your eye on during or around competition.

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