With the winter break coming up its a time to rest and have fun but its also a time for growth and development particularly for age group (9-14) and youth (15-20) swimmers. When a swimmer is training or active constantly the body is doing more of a patch up job than focusing on development. So as soon as a swimmer hits a break the body will look to fully recover and develop, something we encourage with the breaks. So don't be surprised if your swimmer grows over the 2 weeks at a rapid rate. As we want this to happen we want to encourage growth and development as much as possible and as we are a clean club and do not support the use of drugs here are some tips on how to do this.
1 Sleep - without having to get up for morning training this is a period where you can take advantage and use your bodies natural recovery time to its fullest.
2 Diet - Proteins are the building blocks of every cell in the body and the body will fully reproduce its self every eight months, so these are a vital macro - nutrient for recovery and development. For these to work their magic you need to aid them in absorption by making sure you get the correct minerals and nutrients in to aid the proteins do their job. So plenty of veg of all colours, mainly green but yellows, reds and oranges are vital to break the greens down. The government say 5 a day but this is too low, Ideally it should be 9 a day and broken down as 7 veg 2 fruit, 8 a day is 6 and 2, 7 a day is 5 and 2, 6 a day is 5 and 1 and 5 a day should be 4 and 1. A portion is the size of your fist. Swimmers should be consuming between 1.8 and 2.2 grams of protein per kilo of body weight.
3 Hydration - As with competition if you do not stay hydrated your body cannot perform and that includes the performance of repair recovery and development. Check your pee, clear is over hydrated, where you wont feel hungry and therefore not get the nutrients in to develop, orange pee go and put your head under a tap instantly you are very dehydrated and could be causing damage to vital organs. Straw coloured pee is just right.
5 Squat - The squat is a total body exercise and so hits the CNS (central nervous system) this in turn will release natural HGH (human Growth Hormone) and encourge development of the body. Its also a good way to keep fit during the break and work on that explosive power for starts and turns. There are loads of variations of squats you can do to keep it interesting so do 10 sets of 10 over the day and mix it up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3ux1w1xiPE
and finally
6 Hot Baths - the hot water increases the bloodflow around the body and this in turn helps take the nutrients to where they are needed quicker and helps remove any byproducts away.
So enjoy your break rest recover and develop ready for a cycle 2 and get your entries in for the galas especially County Championships in February
P.S. Chocolate, sweets and crisps are not proteins nor do they contain any nutrients!!!!
