LIVE WEBINAR WEDNESDAY 4 NOVEMBER
15:00-17:00 GMT | 16:00-18:00 CET |  10:00-12:00 EST 
 EARLY BIRD RATE IS AVAILABLE 

Football nutrition: what empties, what refills, and what actually limits a player

The carbohydrate guidelines used in football were derived largely from continuous endurance exercise, while the demand in a match is intermittent and the performance that decides matches is repeated sprinting. Dr Magni Mohr and Dr Jeppe Vigh-Larsen present what is now known about the metabolic cost of a match, about why that cost limits a player, and about what can be achieved between matches, so that recommendations can be reasoned from the mechanism rather than transferred from another sport.

What we will cover:
   How much carbohydrate does a player need on match day?
   What should a player take during the match?
   What does a match cost a player, and when does fatigue appear?
   Why does glycogen limit a player when the muscle still holds measurable glycogen?
   What recovery can realistically be achieved between matches?

Why this webinar

Fuelling advice in football is usually delivered as a set of targets: an amount per kilogram on match day, an amount per hour during play, a window after the final whistle. Targets are useful when the situation resembles the one they were derived from, and they become unreliable as soon as it does not, which in football is most of the time. A player returning from an evening away fixture with a match in 72 hours, a player in extra time, a player in a congested December, and a player in the women's game are not variations on a single problem, and no single number covers them. Adjusting a recommendation to the situation requires knowing what is actually limiting the player, and in football that question is unresolved in a specific and interesting way. This session will harness the underpinning physiology of football to provide evidence-based practical insight. Prof. Mohr's match-analysis and biopsy work established the description of fatigue in football that the field still works from, in men and in women, including extended time and congested fixture schedules. Dr Vigh-Larsen quantifies glycogen by transmission electron microscopy at the level of the individual fibre and of its subcellular compartments, and relates those measurements to calcium handling, membrane excitability and repeated-sprint performance in the same participants. The three parts address the demand, the mechanism and the recovery interval in that order, and a live Q&A closes the session.

Who it's for

Sport dietitians and nutritionists working in football, strength and conditioning coaches, physiotherapists and club doctors, academy and first-team coaching staff, students and researchers in team-sport physiology, and players who want the reasoning behind the advice they are given.

What you'll learn

Part 1: What does a match actually cost a player?

Fatigue in football does not arrive once. Output falls in the minutes following a player's most intense passage of play, it is lower again at the start of the second half, and it declines over the closing stages. Do those three phases share a mechanism? If they do not, which of them can fuelling affect at all, and which requires something else entirely? And what does extra time add to a match that has already drawn heavily on the available substrate?

Part 2: Why does glycogen limit a football player?  

A player finishes a match with muscle glycogen substantially reduced but far from empty, and cannot sprint. Why? Does it matter that glycogen sits in three separate compartments within the fibre, and that the fibres doing the sprinting deplete first? Is the limitation a shortage of fuel, or a muscle that has lost the capacity to contract properly while fuel remains available? And if the whole-muscle number is a poor predictor of what a player can do, what should a practitioner look at instead?

Part 3: What can be achieved between matches? 

How long does restoration actually take, and is a player ready at 72 hours, or at 48? In a three-match week, which match is most compromised, and why? Does protein after a match influence the next match, or is that a carbohydrate question? Does a glucose-fructose mixture help in football as it does in endurance events? And once provision is adequate, do the commonly used ergogenic aids add anything measurable?

Practical questions we will explore

 What does a top-class player actually do in a match, and how does that differ between men and women?

  Which muscle fibre types deplete first, and does the pattern depend on the preceding activity profile?

  What is the time course of muscle glycogen restoration after a football match?

  Why does output fall in the five minutes following a player's most intense passage of play?

  What does extra time add, on top of ninety minutes that has already reduced glycogen substantially?

  What is the relationship between glycogen concentration and performance in football?

  Does carbohydrate ingested during a football match spare muscle glycogen?

  How much carbohydrate is required between football matches, and how soon must it begin?

  Once carbohydrate intake is adequate, do caffeine, sodium bicarbonate or nitrate play a role?

Prof. Magni Mohr

Prof. Magni Mohr's match-analysis work established the description of fatigue in football that the field still works from, distinguishing temporary fatigue following intense passages of play, reduced performance at the start of the second half, and end-of-match fatigue, and attributing each to a different mechanism. His biopsy studies quantified the metabolic cost of match play in men and in women, including extended time, and his applied work covers congested fixture schedules, post-match recovery time courses, thermal strain and the interventions used between matches.

Dr. Jeppe Vigh-Larsen 

Dr Jeppe Vigh-Larsen quantifies glycogen by transmission electron microscopy at the level of the individual muscle fibre and of the intramyofibrillar, intermyofibrillar and subsarcolemmal compartments, and relates those measurements to sarcoplasmic reticulum calcium handling, sodium-potassium pump activity and repeated-sprint performance in the same participants. His work includes controlled manipulations of pre-exercise glycogen availability and of carbohydrate intake during intermittent exercise.
Speakers
2
Number of lectures
3
Video time
90
Reading
0
Exams
0

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What's included?

Football nutrition: what empties, what refills, and what actually limits a player

Live webinar

2 hours of expert context across 3 talks with practical advice. 

Expert speakers

Prof. Magni Mohr and Dr. Jeppe Vigh-Larsen, with Prof. Asker Jeukendrup as host.

Bonus content

Access to recording + bonus resources such as further reading material after the webinar.

Q&A session

Learn by asking your questions live to the speakers during the Q&A session.
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