A narrative review of basketball athletes‘ recovery strategies needed to perform throughout the season has been published in Sports medicine. Most of the papers include evidence-based considerations such as massage, compression garment, hydrotherapy, and cryotherapy, as well as nutritional strategies and sleep. Here, we will introduce excerpts while focusing on the nutritional strategies of the recommendations set forth in the conclusion.
Nutritional strategy during the season
carbohydrates
- As an energy requirement, take 5-7g / kg per day.
- If you have more than 8 hours until the next game, take 5-7g / kg (as a daily requirement) of carbohydrates per day, and if you have less than 8 hours until the next competition, muscle and liver glycogen. To supplement storage, take 1.0-1.2 g / kg of carbohydrates every hour for 4 hours.
protein
- Ingest 1.2-2.0 g / kg daily to promote recovery, including optimizing the rate of muscle protein synthesis.
- Ingest 0.31 g / kg every 4-5 hours to evenly distribute protein intake throughout the day.
- Ingest 30-40g of protein before sleep to promote recovery.
- Gelatin containing 15g of collagen peptide or vitamin C may support collagen synthesis, but further research is needed.
moisture
- If you know how much you sweat during a practice or match, or if you take a short break between sessions, drink 1.0-1.5 L of fluid for every 1 kg of weight loss. In other cases, if the session interval is 24 hours or more, take it voluntarily at meals / light meals.
Things to consider during the expedition
- There is little evidence to support nutritional recommendations for reducing jet lag.
- Create a room service food guide based on the hotel’s room service menu to help athletes make informed choices.
- Specify high-carbohydrate foods, high-protein foods, vegetables and fruits, and moisture with the help of hotel food service staff.
- Keep snacks and moisture on hand while traveling by plane or bus.
- Accommodations promote continuous feeding throughout the day, thereby aiming to optimize muscle protein synthesis for glycogen supplementation and recovery.
- Support staff should research the restaurants around the hotel in advance to show healthy menu options. Also, when serving post-match meals, consider a catering company with a wealth of experience in delivering to the arena. The extensive experience of those vendors can make the post-match meal process simpler and more efficient.
Recovery method during the season (support tool)
- Basketball athletes should have at least 8 hours of sleep.
- More sleep and a nap are recommended during a tight schedule or after an expedition.
- Support staff should be aware that both training and match stress can affect nighttime sleep.
- Coaches need to consider strategies to increase the amount of time available for sleep, especially the timing of training sessions and the time spent the next day of the game.
- Not changing the training hours may help reduce fluctuations in bedtime and wake-up times.
- Regular sleep monitoring and feedback may help optimize sleep.
- Avoid exposure to blue light after a night match or use a blue shading filter on your electrical equipment.
- Consider providing a comfortable and convenient rest / sleep area in your home arena or facility.
The above is an excerpt of nutritional strategies and sleep recommendations. In addition to the above, the paper provides recommendations for “compression garment and massage” and “hydrotherapy and cryotherapy”. Among them, for example, for massage, it is necessary to make it short (5 to 12 minutes) instead of long (15 minutes or more).
Documentary information
The original title is “In-Season Nutrition Strategies and Recovery Modalities to Enhance Recovery for Basketball Players: A Narrative Review”.[Sports Med. 2021 Dec 14]
Click here for the original (Springer Nature)
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