Metabolic Demands of a Professional Football Player

Task 2 – Describe (P3) or explain (M1) the concept of energy intake and expenditure in sports performance.

Sports nutrition is the study and practice of nutrition and diet as it relates to athletic performance. It is concerned with the type and quantity of fluid and food taken by an athlete, and deals with nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, supplements and organic substances such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats. It is essential to maintain a healthy, well-balanced diet combined with athletic training to reach maximum performance potential.

Fatigue in athletes may be thought of as presenting on a continuum: More transient states that last hours or days (as in overreaching) to chronic states that may take months of rest or reduced activity, as well as other interventions, to resolve (Derman et al., 2000). Moreover, repeated, exhaustive, successive exercise may increase the risk of chronic immunodepression (Castell, 2003). Along this continuum, Budgett (2000) recognizes a fatigue state termed Unexplained Underperformance Syndrome (UPS), defined as "persistent performance deficit despite 6 weeks relative rest". This time frame differentiates UPS from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), a hallmark of which is symptoms lasting at least 8 months. As in UPS, Overtraining Syndrome

Altitude training is practised by endurance athletes who train for several weeks at high altitude, Over 2,500 metres above sea level, or at intermediate altitudes due to the shortage of suitable altitude training locations. Even at intermediate levels the air still contains approximately 20.9% oxygen, but partial pressure of oxygen is reduced (West J., et al, 1996)

1. Soccer is one of the most demanding of all sports. The game is played on one of the largest fields of any sport, for the longest sustained time and with the least amount of breaks. Players in a soccer team are in continuous activity as they compete for loose balls, move to encourage teammates, rotate positions and run to make a space or test opponents. Running, jumping, sprinting movements in relation with sudden changes of acceleration and route outweigh the play. The power of the game ranges between low-level activities such as walking or jogging to ones of high intensity such as sprinting . This is what is known as intermittent exercise. The rhythm of soccer is dynamic and constantly changing, which is a characteristic that divides it from other endurance sports , this suggests that in order for a midfielder to successfully endure for the entire 90 minutes all three energy systems assist in different stages although the ATP/PC system is dominant.

Maximum oxygen uptake V˙O2 peak is classified as the highest rate at which oxygen can be taken up and utilized by the body during severe exercise. It was one of the main variables in exercise physiology and regularly is used to specify the cardiorespiratory fitness of an individual.1 However, there are several physiological functions such as; cardiovascular, respiratory and metabolism [tissue] that all impact how oxygen intake and consumption is used within the body. It was proven that patients who had chronic obstructive lung disease, had a limited exercise capacity. Whilst normal, young subjects had a larger ventilatory reserve, due to maximal exercise capacity in this population had a disadvantage of a

“In our study a very highly significant increase was observed in pulmonary function parameters of competitive runners than sedentary controls. Competitive runners had higher mean of percentage value of Forced Vital Capacity (FVC) (P=0.0034) 2.70 ± 0.40, Forced expiratory volume in first second (FEV1) (P=0.0066) 2.49±0.56, Maximum Voluntary Ventilation (MVV) (P=0.0045) 140.64 ± 20.77 and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) (P=0.0037) 8.35 ± 0.88 than controls. However there was no significant difference in FEV1/FVC ratio (P=0.1337) between the study

The world’s greatest sport, Soccer has competitors of all ages and abilities. To make it to the top and become an unbeatable player, several participants train at intense levels starting at young ages. The higher levels of play cause for more demand of fit players which in return requires a soccer player to at high levels of play, the demands of soccer require a player to be extremely fit both aerobically and anaerobically. In a 90-minute match, older, elite males run between 8 to 13 km and expend about 800-1500 calories, as shown in studies. The type of activity during a game includes high, moderate, and low intensity running, accelerating, jumping, tackling, and many other movements that require high amounts of energy (Bangsbo, 1991; Bangsbo, 1994; Hawley et al., 1994). Numerous researchers have taken it upon themselves to examine the performance of elite players with the use of carbohydrate (CHO) due to the fact since soccer includes short, bouts of high intensity exercise for a prolonged period of time. For example, Saltin (1973) found that players with low glycogen stores at the start of a game covered 25% less distance and ran at a much slower rate. Balsom (1999), furthermore found that those players, who began the

Identified in a CNN news article, Amanda Gardner explains that the defects of obesity have been shown to decrease sports performance and also academic performance eventually harming long-term college and career choices as early as kindergarten. According to this web news article, "In boys and girls alike who entered kindergarten with weight problems, we saw these differences in math performances emerge at first grade, and the poor performance persisted through fifth grade," says lead researcher Sara Gable, Ph.D., an associate professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri-Columbia." As shown through scientific and health research, obesity has harmed our physical and mental well-being without any respect for age

The fictional athlete’s diet at this point can be considered balanced, but more biased towards CHO due to preference. The current approximate macronutrient ratio is 50% CHO, 20% protein, 30% fat. Most of his CHO intake is from high-glycemic index sources due to preference, and meal frequency is four times per

Rama: Hi, fine. Yeah, I was busy with some new projects that coming this year, that’s why when you called me last time, I was not in office because I had have a meeting with other division in headquarter office.

An additional follow up study conducted by Zoll et al. (2006) used the same training protocol once more on 15 male long distance runners. This particular study dubbed this training protocol “Training High, Living Low” despite the lack of atmospheric pressure change. The subjects were divided into two groups. Prior to training all subjects were tested for first and second ventilatory thresholds (in normoxic and hypoxic conditions

Zubac, Ivancev, and Karnincic conducted a similar study in 2015, when they investigated the relationship between hypohydration and reduction rate of body mass (ROR) of elite youth amateur boxers. Additionally, the researchers observed the commonness of hypohydration and ROR between elite youth boxers. The 24 participants for this study were national team members of Croatia, Hungary, and Germany. Respondents were required to be a current national champion, have international boxing experience, and have participated in at least 25 fights. The researchers followed the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) hydration test parameters. All subjects provided a urine sample first thing in the morning on the day of the competition. This gave the researchers the urine specific gravity (USG) to determine the hydration status of participants before the competition. Researchers used a questionnaire that was previously developed, tested, and validated by Aritoli et. al., (2010). The questionnaire asked participants about their competitive experience, the weight class they were participating in, and the body mass they reduced prior to the competition. Researchers also collected measurements and proportions of the participant’s body. Researchers calculated the ROR by taking the athlete’s reported average value of body mass for each weight class category (WCC) and dividing it by the athlete reported body mass reduced prior to the competition. Data were analyzed using

Prior to becoming professional, his raw natural talent was enough to distance him from the pack He was skilled and physically developed to achieve greatness, (Clayton and Fisher, 2013). His physical makeup differed from most, his body’s ability to effectively use oxygen was quite amazing. According to the case study, his VO2 efficiency level

Football has always been a sport about strength and size. Players would use their strength and size to hurt other people to score a few points. For this reason, Football has become a very popular sport in the United States for many decades. However, since football is based on a person’s size and strength, many coaches around the world have begun to plump up their players to make them more hard-hitting and threatening causing teams to have an advantage over other the teams. With many teams trying to obtain the same goals, many football players have become overweight throughout the years. The main reason for this enlargement of players is due to the diets that players consume daily.