5 nutrition tips for facilitating your training

Your body disjoints every meal you have nicely and neatly. It uses useable nutrients and stores them for vital processes, whereas unusable substances are excreted. This process is called metabolism. It varies according to the strain you put on your body. Hence, if there, for example, is a long tournament taking place the following weekend and you are already preparing intensively on the court, you should make sure you take in enough fat. Because lasting physical strain stimulates the body’s fat-burning while your metabolic rate increases substantially. On the other hand, in case you continuously despair on too little strength and energy while practicing during an average training week, you might instead lack a balanced intake of complex carbohydrates. You see, telling exactly what your body needs right now, is not easy. Still, there is advice you can use to improve your nutrition, thereby facilitating your training.

Many might know this statement from their respective gyms: Follow up every bench-press session directly with a protein shake, usually enriched with carbohydrates. This way, the body receives missing nutrients as quickly as possible, and your strength workout take its full effect. During the first hour after your workout, the body is exceptionally able to enhance muscle development. Even one hour after training, the metabolism is still running at full blast and is ready to rejuvenate. Now carbohydrates supply the fuel you needed for quick sprints and your service before. Glycogen (a carbohydrate) is one of these fuels, and you can find it indates, bananas, and generally in dried fruits. Grain ranks among the carbohydrate-richest foods. Athletes especially know it from cereal bars. Another invaluable source of carbohydrates is pasta, rice, and bread, as wellas some pseudograins, such as quinoa or amaranth. Also containing lots of carbs, potatoes, oats, and pulses work perfectly as an after-practice snack,too. Maybe you can not eat right after training and therefore prefer a shake. In this case, you may have a smoothie. Just make sure you balance the nutrients well. A smoothie of almond milk, oats, and banana, for example, is easy to make and provides glycogen as well as valuable minerals like potassium and magnesium. Besides, you should enrich your shake or after-workout meal with some protein-rich foods, not excessively, but keep in mind your body is in the muscle-development phase. That means it can transform proteins into muscles rather quickly. Said protein shake usually consists of a wide range of aminoacids. At the same time, you can take those in through protein-rich foods like almonds, cashews, or hemp seeds. To provide your body with invaluable proteins,you may even snack a few oil seeds, for example, pumpkin- or sunflower seeds,after practice.

For a carbohydrate-protein-shake, you could use the following ingredients:
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• 350 ml water or milk (dairy as well as plant-based)
• 1-2 bananas
• Handful of almonds
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin seeds
• 1 teaspoon sunflower seeds
• 2 tablespoons oats

Of course, you can season, polish, and extend this simple basic recipe to match your taste. For example, vary the mix of fruits and oil seeds and maybe add a handful of spinach.

To really build up muscle mass, your body needs an adequate amount of energy. Unfortunately, many fail to take in enough calories, though. If you intend to build muscle mass fundamentally, your body usually needs 200 to 300 more calories than usual. Therefore, cutting calories only harms your energy level. At the same time, make sure you adjust the quality of calories to your body and performance. “Empty” calories, such as sweets like milk chocolate or gummy bears, supply their share of calories, but not the necessary macro- and micro-nutrients. The exact energy consumption varies depending on height, weight, age, and gender. 

A man (45) weighing 85 kg consumes between 500 and 600 calories per 60 minutes of tennis training, depending oni ntensity. A woman (45) weighing 50 kg consumes between 350 and 450 calories per 60 minutes of tennis training, depending on intensity.

Tip: The individual energy consumption varies depending on body fat or rather muscle percentage. Even when relaxed, muscles consume calories wheres burning fat requires lasting physical activity.

Proteins are crucial to building muscles. Ourmuscle fibres consist of so-called amino acids, or rather, amino-acid chains.The cells reproduce reasonably quickly, which makes muscle development clearly visible externally as well. Therefore, to ensure optimal muscle development, a sufficient intake of proteins is crucial. Where you get them from may depend onpersonal preferences. The vital thing is that you make sure the food you consume before and after training contains all essential amino acids.

As mentioned before, amino acids are avital component to build muscles. Thereby, different amino-acid chains fill various roles. Some function as antioxidants and neutralise radicals. That way, they counter oxidative stress which otherwise may complicate your focus on tennis after a long day at work. Many amino acids are heat-sensitive, which is why you should take care of a gentle preparation and should generally not cook protein-rich foods too long. While our body can produce some amino acids itself any time, there remain eight from the over 20 proteinogenic amino acids, which we have to take in via food every day. These are:
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• Isoleucine
• Valine
• Methionine
• Leucine
• Tryptophan
• Lysine
• Phenylalanine
• Threonine
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The following foods especially contain the amino acids Tryptophan, Methionine, Lysine, and Leucine:
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• Brazil nut
• Chickpeas
• Lentils
• Cheese
• Tofu
• Buckwheat
• Walnuts
• Wholemeal products
• Soybeans 
• Cashews
• Pumpkinseeds
• Cocoa
• Oats
• Hazelnuts
• Sesame
• Eggs
• Peas
• Greens (e.g., spinach)
• Broccoli

This advice stands for itself and deliberately at the end: because a sufficient water-intake is essential, not only on average days but especially before and after training. To facilitate your training, you should, for example, not drink water right before the session. A large glass of water on an hour before practice starts is entirely enough to prevent you from dying of thirst. Just make sure to have a sip nowand then during training. This way, you avoid symptoms of dehydration such as headaches, lack of concentration, dry skin, and fatigue. Moreover, if you drink sufficiently, your blood is thinner, which helps your cardiovascular system runs moothly. The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung (DGE) recommends roughly between 1.5 and 2 litres of water a day. According to the DGE, 1 litre can not supply the body with fluids sufficiently, not even if you do not do any sports.If you have fruit and vegetables during the day, the daily liquid intake decreases. Try the advice from above during tennis training and please do letus know whether they facilitated your training.