Overtraining ???

[Davitt Man]

Zulu, do you mean a protein shake? i know alot of the county lads take stuff. Is it ok to take it like are there any side effects to it such as weight gain maybe?

[Zulu]

No none at all, the only thing is it might be a waste of money if your training isn't all that serious. They're very drinkable and handy though, so look for one with a good balance of carbs and protein and mix it with water,milk or an isotonic drink. Having something to eat before training is just as important as having sonmething after training so be sure to make one of these meals a solid meal.

[Davitt Man]

on the day of training i usually get a solid meal at 1pm which is usually pasta or a chicken based dinner then maybe a sandwich at 5.30 before training at 7.30

[AbbeySider]

No none at all, the only thing is it might be a waste of money if your training isn't all that serious. They're very drinkable and handy though, so look for one with a good balance of carbs and protein and mix it with water,milk or an isotonic drink. Having something to eat before training is just as important as having sonmething after training so be sure to make one of these meals a solid meal.

Some of the supplement shakes are packed with carbs as well so be careful which to choose because some act like a total meal replacement.

Like USN muscle fuel dynamic is packed with carbs but to be honest it nearly has too many! I got a free sample can once and you would be very full afterwards. Its like a whole meal and was very heavy IMO.

Something like USN 100% Whey Protein (half the portions if you like) with a small sandwich used to work for me after training. I dont bother with it anymore and instead I try and have a pasta & chicken dish and it works just as good. Also loads of fluids....

on the day of training i usually get a solid meal at 1pm which is usually pasta or a chicken based dinner then maybe a sandwich at 5.30 before training at 7.30

I would usually have a regular dinner (potatos, veg, meat) at around 2 O clock on the day of training and fluids for the rest of the day.
I find that if I had anything like a sambo to eat 3-4 hours before training that I get nauseous and it I often get sick if there is hard running.

I can never eat anything too close to training. Not sure if its my stomach thats weak or that the body is rejecting it but I sometimes find myself "dry reaching" with nothing coming up at all!   

[Zulu]

on the day of training i usually get a solid meal at 1pm which is usually pasta or a chicken based dinner then maybe a sandwich at 5.30 before training at 7.30

I think that's sensible enough DM but like Abbeysider points out it is a personal thing really. There can be no hard and fast rules with these things, what works for one person may not for another. The thing to remember is that achieving optimum performance isn't a matter of doing things right one or two days a week but all week, every week. So eat properly for the level of training you do, the more training you do the more you eat. Get your rest and monitor yourself for signs of overtraining, one of the best ways to do this is to monitor your heart rate as soon as you wake up. Use your local pool for recovery sessions, and work on your flexibility on your own time. And allow yourself relaxation time and a good booze up (if you're in to that kind of thing) every so often. The GAA coach is too anti-drink IMO. Also if your coach isn't periodizing your training try and do so yourself.

[Davitt Man]

a good booze up (if you're in to that kind of thing) every so often. The GAA coach is too anti-drink IMO.

Zulu, what kind of drining habits would you be against? This time of year everyone is trying to get a certain level of fitness behind them, wouldnt they need to scale down the sessions big time in order for that to happen.

[Zulu]

Well no not really. For example if I trained Monday to Friday for endurance and each Saturday I went out on the lash and I did this for 3 months by the end of it my endurance capabilities would still have increased greatly. My drinking in itself wouldn't have prevented me improving my fitness levels. Now don't get me wrong I'm not encouraging drinking at all, but I don't agree with drinking bans for teams. There is no reason why amateur sports men who look after themselves during the week and are training 3-5 times per week can't go out on a Saturday night and have 6-8 pints with their friends. If I were in charge of a serious senior club team I'd leave it up to the players themselves but I'd ask them to be sensible about their social lives rather than being fanatical about it.

[AbbeySider]

Well no not really. For example if I trained Monday to Friday for endurance and each Saturday I went out on the lash and I did this for 3 months by the end of it my endurance capabilities would still have increased greatly. My drinking in itself wouldn't have prevented me improving my fitness levels. Now don't get me wrong I'm not encouraging drinking at all, but I don't agree with drinking bans for teams. There is no reason why amateur sports men who look after themselves during the week and are training 3-5 times per week can't go out on a Saturday night and have 6-8 pints with their friends. If I were in charge of a serious senior club team I'd leave it up to the players themselves but I'd ask them to be sensible about their social lives rather than being fanatical about it.

I disagree on that one Zulu. Im not playing GAA at a serious level but I like to stay fit. I find that a session of beer sets you back a week or so as regards training and fitness. A major session sets me back a lot more.

Drinking alcohol itself stops the body from breaking down vital nutrients that food provides. The food you eat while on the beer or hungover will more than likely be stored as fat rather than energy. Therefore your muscles are not getting the fuel it needs to recover/build when you are on the beer/suffering from a hangover.

Your recovery time slows way down also so I cant see any positive effects of a session of beer. Most lads in my home club got off the beer for 13-15 weeks last year and we won a county title. It was mostly their own choice to do it. You can only get so-fit by by drinking regularly IMO. If you get off the drink you can push on to higher levels of fitness. That said I wouldnt agree with a total drinking ban in the season, a session (within reason, nothing crazy) is Ok now and again but drinking every weekend is out of the question. IMO

[Up the port]

Well no not really. For example if I trained Monday to Friday for endurance and each Saturday I went out on the lash and I did this for 3 months by the end of it my endurance capabilities would still have increased greatly. My drinking in itself wouldn't have prevented me improving my fitness levels. Now don't get me wrong I'm not encouraging drinking at all, but I don't agree with drinking bans for teams. There is no reason why amateur sports men who look after themselves during the week and are training 3-5 times per week can't go out on a Saturday night and have 6-8 pints with their friends. If I were in charge of a serious senior club team I'd leave it up to the players themselves but I'd ask them to be sensible about their social lives rather than being fanatical about it.

I disagree on that one Zulu. Im not playing GAA at a serious level but I like to stay fit. I find that a session of beer sets you back a week or so as regards training and fitness. A major session sets me back a lot more.

Drinking alcohol itself stops the body from breaking down vital nutrients that food provides. The food you eat while on the beer or hungover will more than likely be stored as fat rather than energy. Therefore your muscles are not getting the fuel it needs to recover/build when you are on the beer/suffering from a hangover.

Your recovery time slows way down also so I cant see any positive effects of a session of beer. Most lads in my home club got off the beer for 13-15 weeks last year and we won a county title. It was mostly their own choice to do it. You can only get so-fit by by drinking regularly IMO. If you get off the drink you can push on to higher levels of fitness. That said I wouldnt agree with a total drinking ban in the season, a session (within reason, nothing crazy) is Ok now and again but drinking every weekend is out of the question. IMO

I reckon this time of year its important to scale down or quit the beer for a while just so that you can get to a good level fitness and then after a while during the summer e.t.c you can have your few pints . I find it easier to recover from a session when im fit. But i suppose you have to watch how close to games that you drink

[Zulu]

I disagree on that one Zulu. Im not playing GAA at a serious level but I like to stay fit. I find that a session of beer sets you back a week or so as regards training and fitness. A major session sets me back a lot more.

Drinking alcohol itself stops the body from breaking down vital nutrients that food provides. The food you eat while on the beer or hungover will more than likely be stored as fat rather than energy. Therefore your muscles are not getting the fuel it needs to recover/build when you are on the beer/suffering from a hangover.

Your recovery time slows way down also so I cant see any positive effects of a session of beer. Most lads in my home club got off the beer for 13-15 weeks last year and we won a county title. It was mostly their own choice to do it. You can only get so-fit by by drinking regularly IMO. If you get off the drink you can push on to higher levels of fitness. That said I wouldnt agree with a total drinking ban in the season, a session (within reason, nothing crazy) is Ok now and again but drinking every weekend is out of the question. IMO

While most of what you say is true enough AB I think you're missing my point (or I'm not expressing myself properly). If you want to improve your cardiovascular fitness and you go about it in the proper manner then regardless of what you eat or what you drink your cardiovascular fitness will improve. Your diet won't improve or dis-improve your cardio ability rather it affects your recovery and the body's ability to engage in serious training and of course your weight. Remember that I'm not saying you should drink 8 pints every Saturday what I'm saying is that on weekends if you don't have a game and you want to go out for a meal with the girlfriend and some friends there is nothing wrong with having some wine and a few beers in the club afterwards. That won't undo your fitness levels in anyway whatsoever.
                                                         I often go without any drink for 3-5 months when I'm training seriously but that isn't because the drink in itself would affect me but because I'd need 3-5 days to get back training after a serious session i.e. I'd lose nearly a week of training. The ideal for all people is not to drink at all since alcohol offers the body nothing valuable but as amateur sports people I feel that loosing out on that social aspect of life is something that GAA coaches over emphasize. If your average adult male goes out and has 6 pints over a 5 hour period on a Saturday night he should be fine to train again on Monday and if weight loss isn't an issue then I'd not worry about it too much. In saying that I wouldn't encourage it every week but certainly every second week is fine. The problem arises when fellas drink 12 pints and a lash of vodkas and red bulls, now that's a different story.    

[Davitt Man]

Your diet won't improve or dis-improve your cardio ability rather it affects your recovery and the body's ability to engage in serious training and of course your weight.

Surely if you have a poor diet you will not be able to get the most out of a good cardio session and therefore not improve your cardio fitness. I agree drinking 12 pints and wiskeys or vodkas will affect you big time it will take a toll on your weight as well

[Zulu]

Your diet is important for providing the energy, nutrients and minerals that will allow your body to function to its optimum. But if two lads went on a 12 week training program designed to improve cardio fitness and one ate a very healthy diet and the other ate an average diet, you couldn't say with any confidence that the first guy would improve more than the second guy. At Olympian level everything becomes important because small improvements can be the difference between winning and losing but at club level GAA while your diet and social life needs to be sensible it can be overemphasized. Again I'm not saying forget about eating healthily and drink like a fish I'm just saying that living the life of a monk may do you more harm than good, we all need to unwind every now and again so having a few pints with your friends can be a release for players. Club level GAA needs to lighten up IMO as long as players are sensible there is no harm in a social life.

[neilthemac]

you should not be condoning binge drinking

2-3 pints is more than enough for someone to help enjoy themselves and not impact too much on fitness levels.

rest is the most important thing in any training schedule. your body cannot improve itself in any way without proper rest

[INDIANA]

I agree to a large extent Zulu- i wouldn't have been capable of drinking 6 pints and still can't -but 2-3 is no harm once a week. I wholeheartedly concur that club Gaa needs to lighten up a bit- people aren't professionals and expecting people to live like amateur monks is ridiculous at club level. There is such a culure of training to playing games that i often marvel at these teams that stay off the beer for 6 months, train like demons and then tank come summer time- and wonder what went wrong? They might play a whole lot better if they lightened up sometime.

[AbbeySider]

We all need to unwind every now and again so having a few pints with your friends can be a release for players. Club level GAA needs to lighten up IMO as long as players are sensible there is no harm in a social life.

Id agree with the first part of that Zulu, you need to relax and enjoy life now and again.
However you might think that the at club level, the GAA need to lighten up as regards players drinking etc. I think its the players themselves that have chosen the lifestyle of training and keeping fit and looking after their body. Not that much pressure is put on players these days to get off the drink, its more a players choice.

The game has changed like that in recent years. Things at club level have moved on from the time where you went on the piss after every championship match. Club players at all levels are making that conscious decision. I see it myself at even junior level. I see junior teams in the gym, on diets and training hard. I head a man say; "God be with the days when you played a Junior game on a Saturday across the county and didnt come home until the Monday morning". That day is gone. The game has moved on. Its at a much more professional level nowadays and players individually are always looking for ways to get fitter, eat better and look after their bodys. The pressure is not coming from the hierarchy as players know, to compete at the standard today you need to make certain sacrifices. Sessions of beer and drinking most weekends are part of that sacrifice.