Eating for Better Volleyball
By Ryan Maloney
(Ryan was the Strength & Conditioning Coach for the Fredonia State Volleyball team from 2007-2009)
As a student athlete you’re under a great deal of pressure to perform on the volleyball court and in the classroom. Bodies, minds, and spirits can all take a beating from August through November as the wear and tear of the season accumulates. All students need ways to reduce stress in their lives, but the need is much greater for student-athletes.
If stress isn’t dealt with in a timely manner, the stress hormone cortisol becomes elevated. Athletes with higher levels of cortisol have a more difficult time burning fat, slipping into deep sleep, staying adequately hydrated, and recovering from games and practices. Simply put, if you want to feel better, look better, or perform better, you need to decrease your stress. One of the quickest ways I’ve found to accomplish this is to improve the quality of the food you put in your mouth.
Physiologists estimate that 40% of all stress in the typical North American is due to nutritional stress. Nutritional stress is the body’s stress response to food that is void of nutrition and/or foods that require a large amount of energy to digest and assimilate – refined, unnatural ones. Having been a student at Fredonia, and having lived on campus all four years, I can tell you that most of what students eat in the dining halls wreaks havoc with their bodies. When we eat processed foods, much more blood needs to be drawn to the stomach to aid in digestion. I think we’re all familiar with the energy shortage after eating a big meal… because if the stomach needs all the blood, there is less for the brain and muscles. Now think about how big an effect that can have on your volleyball game.
To decrease stress and increase performance levels, we need to eat foods that require only one step to assimilate and use as energy. For example, by eating a pasta lunch before practice you consume large amounts of starch, or complex carbohydrates. Unfortunately, your body can’t immediately use complex carbohydrates as fuel… they first need to be broken down to simple carbohydrates. Fruits, vegetables, and certain whole grains (brown rice, quinoa, amaranth), have a much better ratio of simple and complex carbohydrates for performance that don’t weigh an athlete down. Likewise, muscles need the amino acids found in protein to recover from physical exercise. While eating a piece of chicken will give you some needed amino acids, the chicken requires extra steps to be used as energy, whereas leafy greens have amino acids that can be used immediately. This isn’t to say chicken is in any way unhealthy, but it shouldn’t be your primary source of protein.
Included after the article are lists of foods that are stressors to the body and those that aren’t. They aren’t meant to be complete lists but simply act as a guide for your food choices.
Nutrition can get very complex but as with most things, simpler is better. I always come back to the words of journalist Michael Pollan: “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” If you eat real, whole foods, not very much of it, and mostly from plant sources, you’ll always have a good diet. Simple.
Although I’m no longer directly involved with FSU Volleyball, I still miss the team a lot and want to help in any way I can. So always feel free to contact me if you have any questions about nutrition, performance training, or anything else as you prepare for the season.
Cell phone: 716-867-5758
E-mail: jrpmaloney@gmail.com
Good luck!
Ryan
De-stressors – Eat more of these!
Carbohydrate (from fiber) | Carbohydrate (from sugar) | Protein | Fats |
Beets | Apples | Beans | Avocado |
Bell peppers | Apricots | Lentils | Coconut |
Carrots | Bananas | Peas | Nuts |
Celery | Berries | Seeds (any) | Pumpkin Seeds |
Cucumbers | Cherries | Sprouts | Flaxseeds |
*Leafy greens (all) | Grapefruit | Buckwheat | Hemp seeds |
Seaweed | Grapes | Quinoa | Olive oil |
Squash | Kiwi | Rice | Coconut oil |
Tomatoes | Melon | ||
Zucchini | Oranges | ||
Pineapple | |||
Plums |
Stressors – Eat fewer of these!
Carbohydrate | Protein/Fat |
Breakfast Cereals | All Dairy |
Pasta | Pork |
Refined Wheat Flour | Poultry |
White Sugar | Shellfish |
Candy | Peanuts |
Coffee | |
Artificial Sweeteners | |
Soft Drinks |