So sports nutrition is all about dodgy powders and energy bars that your dog would bark at eating? Don’t be so sure.

If you are riding regularly and trying to push your body it will benefit from some nutritional help. Sports nutrition doesn’t always have to be about powders and potions. We take a look at two simple drinks, cherry juice and chocolate milkshake that can improve your recovery.

Cherry picking

British cycling athletes have been using cherry juice from company CherryActive as part of their preparation for and during the successful World Track Championships in Majorca.

Nigel Mitchell of the English Institute of Sport who works with British cycling on its nutrition strategy explains “We were looking at the best way to support the riders and in particular to get the pursuit team to go faster. To go faster they needed to train harder but with that there is a risk of overtraining. We tried to develop a really good nutritional package as part of the broader recovery package with good physio support”.

The idea of a drink was particularly appealing to Mitchell and to the riders: “It was a novel way of delivering water soluble antioxidants. I liked the approach of a juice drink instead of tablets or powders. The riders really liked the taste and the concept”.

British Cycling took a very thorough approach to preparation for the worlds and with so many new strategies in place every piece of the jigsaw is important. “It’s way too complex for us to say how much of a difference cherry juice made because of all the different strategies we had. It was the whole recovery package that made the difference but I do know the riders really liked it and the principle of it is really sound for cyclists”.

  • Sep 24, 2015
  • Category: Sports
  • Comments: 0
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