• Author / Uploaded
• Fook Ngo

Citation preview

2 This booklet will contain general nutrition guidelines which will help you maximize your training and performance in the ring. It contains information regarding foods and fluids to consume throughout your training camp to improve your performance whilst decreasing body fat and helping you to make weight.

It’s not just about making weight It’s about being fuelled to perform at a high intensity as well as being able to recover from hard training sessions. This can be difficult when you’re training two times per day and in a negative energy balance. Impaired recovery can lead to decrements in performance as well as an increased risk of injury and illness. The guidelines here will ensure you are fuelled for training without compromising making weight. This isn’t a drastic plan to lose weight dramatically over a short period. This isn't something we promote at Boxing Science. Like all our approaches to training it's based on scientific evidence and planned and delivered in a deliberate and systematic manner.



Fuel, Train, Recover, Make Weight, Perform Contents

Carbohydrates

3

Protein

6

Fats

9

Fluid

11

The Diet Plans

14

Fight Week

33

Off-Season Alternatives

34 _

3

Carbohydrates Carbohydrates are the main fuel source used for high intensity exercise. Eating carbohydrates at strategic times throughout the day, phase of your camp as well as before a fight is essential to perform at high intensity.

Type Carbohydrates can be broken down into 2 forms; simple and starches. Simple carbohydrates are generally absorbed quicker than starches because they have lower fibre. Starchy carbohydrates generally have a higher fibre content which slows digestion, helps keep blood glucose stabilised and make you feel fuller for longer.

What Does This Mean for My Performance? When you’re trying to make weight think about eating higher fibre carbohydrates to fuel training sessions. On fight night you should consider eating lower fibre simple carbohydrates. _

4 Timing Eating starchy carbohydrates 3 to 4 hours before high intensity exercise will give you enough time for the meal to be digested and top up your fuel stores. Whilst eating simple carbohydrates 30 mins to 2 hours after exercise, especially after the 1st session if you’re training twice per day, will help restore carbohydrates and get you ready for the 2nd session. Decreasing your carbohydrate intake on rest days will ensure you keep your body fat in check.

What Does This Mean for My Performance? After a hard conditioning session, eat a simple carbohydrate meal within 1 hour. This will help you replenish your energy stores quickly. However, there will be times when this approach won’t be optimal. Eating a starchy carbohydrate meal like brown rice or a bowl of porridge oats 2 to 3 hours before training will provide you with energy throughout your training session.

Planning Increasing your carbohydrate intake around high volume sessions like sparring or interval training drills will help you keep fuelled. Alternatively decreasing your carbohydrate intake around lower volume sessions like technical work is a good idea. Typically, 4 to 6 weeks out from a fight is when your training volume will be largest. Whilst 1 to 2 weeks before a fight is when you’ll taper and lower the volume of training. Prioritising carbohydrate intake during these high volume weeks will help your performances in training. And decreasing carbohydrate intake 1 to 2 weeks before a fight help you lose the remaining pounds. _

5 Prioritising carbohydrate intake during these high volume weeks when performing hard double training sessions at around 3-4g per kg of body mass will help your performances in training. In addition decreasing carbohydrate intake 1-2 weeks before a fight to 2g/kg will aid you to lose the remaining pounds.

How Much? A meal containing 40 to 80 g (160 to 320 Kcal) of starchy carbohydrate 2 to 3 hours before a heavy session is good practice. If you’re training early in the morning, eating a high carbohydrate meal before sleep will keep your carbohydrate stores elevated. You can always top up with a light snack or piece of fruit before training. Eating a meal with around 30 g of carbohydrate 2 to 3 hours before a lighter session like weight training, recovery run, shadow-boxing or technical work will help you to control your weight.



_

6

Protein Protein is an essential nutrient which plays an important role in recovery from exercise – it helps muscles repair and grow. When boxers make weight, they are often in a negative energy balance. When cutting foods out of a diet, carbohydrates are often restricted, increasing the likelihood of gluceneogenesis. Gluceogenesis – is the synthesis of glucose from non-carbohydrate sources, like amino acids (protein) and glycerol (fats).

What Does This Mean for My Performance?

If you’re restricting carbohydrates your body will try to create glucose by other means. Typically, you’ll break down proteins and fats. If you don’t eat enough protein it can lead to a loss of lean muscle and performance impairment. This means boxers and combat athletes need to eat more protein compared to population guidelines. If you increase protein intake, it will help you recover from training, keep you feeling full and help maintain muscle mass.

Type Protein is formed by multiple amino acids. There are two kinds of amino acids; essential and non-essential. The body cannot synthesize eight amino acids and are deemed essential. These essential amino acids are mainly from animal sources. Non essential amino acids come from plant sources. These are poorly absorbed unless two plant sources are combined. A protein bioavability chart shows that animal sources of protein (casein and above) are better absorbed and used compared to plant sources. These are the sources of which we will get the majority of our protein from.

_

7 What Does This Mean for My Performance? You’re probably limited by how much you can eat, so you’ll need to select foods with the biggest impact. By carefully choosing protein sources above 75 on the bioavailability index you’ll be giving your body the best chance to repair and grow your muscle.

Planning Throughout a training camp a boxer will typically require a large amount of protein, usually between 1.5 to 1.8 g per kg of body mass per day. However, at certain periods this may rise to 2.2 kg when in a period of heavy weight training or during periods when you’ll incur a large negative energy balance (2 weeks before weigh in).

How Much? There's an upper limit of 20 to 30 g of protein per meal. Any less will not fully synthesise protein and any amount higher provides little benefit. Eating 20-30 g of protein every 3 to 4 hours will help maintain muscle protein synthesis. The image below shows different examples on what 20 g of protein looks like. (Adapted from Close with the England RFU)

_

8

What About Protein Shakes? Throughout a training camp a boxer will typically require a large amount of protein 2g per kg of body mass per day to increase recovery from training as well as to build and protect muscle from breakdown when making weight. Many boxers will be able to eat the amount of protein they need without the need for protein supplementation. However, in some circumstances you might need a protein shake. If this is the case it's paramount that the product is batch tested by a company like informed sport in the UK. These companies are examples of those, who batch test their protein supplements.

1. MSC NUTRITION PROBIOTIC WHEY http://www.msc-nutrition.co.uk/shop/probiotic-whey/ 2. NUTRITION X BIG WHEY http://www.nutritionx.co.uk/big-whey-318-p.asp

_

9

Fats The main roles of fats are to act as an energy source for moderate to low intensity exercise as well as a vitamin carrier for fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K which have critical roles in health and performance. Fats improve food quality because they taste good and provide various food options. During boxing training, in particular sparring and high intensity interval training, carbohydrates will be used as the main fuel source. During low volume weight training and technical boxing work like pad work, footwork, shadow boxing and skipping, fat contributes a large amount of energy to fuel this type of exercise.

Type The two main types of fats are saturated and unsaturated (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated). Guidelines suggest that saturated fats should contribute to 10% of our daily calorie intake whilst unsaturated fats should contribute to 20% of our daily calorie intake. Some sections of the media have deemed saturated fats as bad and continually describe them as dangerous to health. The media, however, have taken this out of context. Saturated fats play an important role in hormone production, whilst unsaturated fats have many beneficial effects including reducing coronary heart disease.

Figure 1 fat sources

_

10 Planning When training volume and intensity are decreased like on rest days and when tapering before a fight, fat intake can be slightly increased whilst the carbohydrates are reduced. This offers an energy source for the body without breaking down protein. When training volume and intensity is increased fat intake can be decreased whilst carbohydrate intake is increased.

How Much? Research has found no performance improvements with fat intake greater than 1 g per kg of body mass. In some situations fat intake might be slightly higher when carbohydrates are low to offer additional energy for training. Alternatively, prolonged periods of fat intake below 20% of daily energy intake is likely to have adverse health effects and be detrimental to performance by not supporting the absorption of fat soluble vitamins.

_

11

Fluid Water makes up around 70% of body mass and constitutes roughly 75% of muscle and 10% of fat mass. The human body has two fluid (water) compartments intra-cellular and extracellular. Extracellular fluids flow between cells which includes blood plasma and fluid that hydrates the spinal cord nerves and the brain. Inadequate water consumption (negative fluid balance) can affect exercise performance. Just 2% dehydration can affect cognitive function leading to decreased performance in and out of the ring.

Type Water should make up almost all fluid consumption throughout the day whilst milk and isotonic energy drinks can be ingested in and around training to improve performance and aid hydration.

Timing Rehydrating first thing in a morning is a good habit due to fluid restriction overnight. Having dry mouth can promote illness because salivary immunoglobulin function, which is important to fight infection, is low in this state. Drinking water, little and often throughout the day and when exercising should reduce the chances of you being in a negative fluid balance.

What Does This Mean for My Performance? Poor hydration practice will affect your reaction time in the ring as well as reducing your immune system function which will increase your risk of illness. Dehydrating beyond 2-3% of your body mass, has been shown to reduce the space between your brain and skull. Therefore, sparring and fighting beyond in a negative fluid balance could result in significant brain injury. WARNING: You will get sweaty during this program, as Callum Beardow displays above! _

12 Planning Drinking water throughout the day and during training is important. Drinking 500 ml of milk after training, on its own or as part of a smoothie will aid your recovery. Energy drinks also play an important role during hard training or when you’re feeling unwell.

How Much? An average 75 kg individual should be drinking at least 3 litres of water per day. Milk tea coffee (with no added sugar) and sugar free drinks are included in this amount. For individuals larger (80-90kg) 4 litres will be adequate whilst smaller individuals (50-60kg) should be looking at 2 to 2.5 litres. During hot days' water and electrolyte intake will need to be increased due to increased insensible water loss. Increasing water intake up to 3-5 litres and adding salt to drink and food will help promote hydration. Ingesting electrolyte tablets or electrolyte drinks like milk, coconut water and isotonic energy drinks will aid fluid absorption.



_

13

_

14

The Diet Plans In this next section of the Boxing Science Nutrition Handbook will outline the diet plans to fuel your performance and get you leaner than ever. The diet plans are structured to support the Boxing Science training program. The diet plans will ensure you to have the right foods at the right time to fuel your workouts, reduce body fat, maintain muscle mass and boost recovery. Before we start, here are some basic tips for getting the most out of your diet plan.

Keep a Food Diary A food diary will help you record what you’re eating. You can jot this down in a diary or on a piece of paper, but probably the best way to do this is to use MyFitnessPal. You enter the food and the calories you’ve expended in each session (from your heart rate monitor) and let the app calculate your energy balance.

Prepare Your Food Prepare meals in advance to reduce the likelihood of having meals late, not having all the ingredients available, cheating on the diet or even skipping meals. Preparation is the key to success in any domain, especially for your diet.

Try Variations Try different variations of each meal with the similar ingredients, calories and macro nutrient breakdown. This will help keep your diet fresh and exciting, rather than being bored from eating the same foods. Eating the same foods on a daily basis can also lead to micronutrient deficiencies. During these diet plans you can rotate certain foods just make sure that you do this by keeping the macronutrients and kcals of the day the same. For example, swap 120g of broccoli for any green vegetables, add in different coloured peppers, and leafy green vegetables during salads, change 120g of chicken for turkey, change white potato for sweet potato, change your fruits i.e. bananas, for apple, pineapple, mango, kiwi, pear.



_

15 We’d would also suggest that you rotate oily fish such as salmon, trout, mackerel with red meat sources including steak, lamb and beef mince day to day. However, be aware that depending on the fat content of these foods the calories will vary therefore choose the leanest cuts of meat you can and if you need to add some fat to increase the calorie and fat content of your meal add in a tsp to a tbsp of olive oil, avocado oil or a condiment such as hummus, guacamole, feta cheese to your meal. Make sure you log this down so your calories and macro nutrients for the day stay the same.

The Diet The diet is a 3 phase plan, targeting different calorie intakes and macro nutrient distribution. These phases will give you different nutritional stimuli to make sure you keep losing body fat, maintain muscle mass and keep you energised throughout your camp.

_

16

Managing High and Low Days During a training camp not every day will be the same due to changes in your training volume and intensity. Therefore, it is important that you manipulate the energy you consume accordingly. For example, a 12 round sparring session and a high intensity running session will require a greater energy demand than a taper of a light speed work session. Furthermore, a rest day will require less energy than a training day. Despite the need for reducing calories to reduce weight some research has indicated that increasing carbohydrate intake considerably for a day or multiple days whilst dieting can have some benefits helping you lose extra fat whilst retaining a greater amount of muscle over a longer period of time. Just make sure that you use this day or days wisely for harder training sessions that are not close to your weigh in date.

Calorie Deficit To lose a maintainable amount of body fat without compromising performance you should be aiming to have a deficit of 250-800 kcals per day from your daily maintenance kcals to make weight. This reduction in kcals should equal an average 1-2 pound loss of body fat per week. If this is higher during the first week do not panic it is just muscle glycogen that you have lost as well as body fat. However, if you do lose over 2 pounds per week for more than 2 weeks then you may want to increase your food intake with some fats such as small handful of nuts and seeds, ½ avocado, or swap from low fat to full fat dairy in your diet plans. Keep track of your weight if you do this to ensure you are staying in the target ranges of 1-2 pounds per week. On the other hand if you are not losing this much body fat per week we would suggest you increase your training volume or stop cheating on your diet. Please see below how we would recommend you structure your high and low days.

High Days

On training days that you know will require a greater volume and intensity for example a last hard spar in camp/ conditioning session increase your carbohydrate intake pre training session by 40% and in your post workout meal by 40%. _

17 This is to help fuel the work required whilst helping glycogen resynthesis following the training session to improve recovery minimising risk of illness. In practical terms this would mean increasing your bowl of porridge from 50-70g of oats and increase your portion of pasta from 60g - 85g. If your weight loss is comfortable and on target you could also consume a carbohydrate drink such as Lucozade or vita coco coconut water during the training session due to glucose consumption during exercise increasing brain function especially when swirled around the mouth due to receptors signalling to the brain extra energy.

Low Days On training days which require less volume and intensity for example during a de load week to help adaptation reduce your carbohydrate intake by only consuming carbohydrates in the pre and post training meal. This will also be the same if you only train once compared to twice in the day. Reduce your carbohydrates in your pre and post training meal around the workout you have missed or not taken and save them for your other training session. On rest days reduce your carbohydrate intake earlier on in the day at breakfast lunch and early morning snack whilst keeping carbohydrate intake normal at dinner in order to provide energy for your training session the following day.

Recovery Days On recovery days which require less training volume and intensity you will need to reduce your kcal intake slightly mainly in the form of carbohydrates. I would do this by reducing your carbohydrate intake at breakfast and in a pre-workout meal. For example swapping scrambled eggs on toast for a vegetable omelette or swapping a bowl of wholegrain cereal and yogurt to a yogurt with fresh berries. However, if you are lacking energy or feeling ill on these days you may want to drop your protein intake from your pre workout meal/ snack and post workout meal/ snack and keep carbohydrates the same to replenish muscle glycogen for the following days training. _

18 High Day or Multiple Days.

At some point during a training camp when training becomes more intense, fatigue can increase as well as the risk of illness. During this time, typically 4-6 weeks out from a fight increase your calories by 200-400 kcals per day (200kcals for 50-70kg boxers, 400 kcals for 70kg+ boxers). Ideally these extra calories should come from carbohydrates to fuel your training sessions. 200 kcals= an extra 50g of carbohydrates 400 kcals= an extra 100g of carbohydrates to fuel your training. These should primarily come from the sources you’re already consuming. However as long as you stick to the kcals for these 2 days your weight should remain on schedule. In addition, these high days should be placed on hard training sessions and not rest days with minimal exercise.

What About If I Have A Surprisingly High Day? If at some point during your training camp you have a slip up and you indulge in too many kcals and carbohydrates you can do two things. Increase your training volume and intensity after the high day whilst keeping your normal kcals the same for example, extra volume in your strength and conditioning session or extra rounds sparring/ bag work. The ideal way to do this is calculate the amount of kcals you consumed on your surprisingly high day above the 200-400 kcal allowance and burn these off using a heart rate monitor. The second thing to do would be to keep your training the same but reduce your kcal intake for the next two- three days by the amount you consumed over the 200-400 kcal allowance. I.e. you over consumed by 900 kcals therefore over the next three days you need to reduce your food intake by 300 kcals per day. Please note this can be very difficult therefore try to not go over your allowance.

What About If I Have A Surprisingly Low Day? If you have a surprisingly low day during the training camp for example you performed extra conditioning/ sparring than you anticipated, or you didn’t have enough time to eat you can do two things. If you feel fine and performance in the gym is good carry on regardless or make up for the low day either later at night or the next training day. An example of this would be that you were too busy at work in the day so you didn’t manage to eat your lunch. At night you could consume your lunch as well as your dinner after training and before bed or the following training day increase the portion sizes of your foods to make up for the lost 400-500 kcals you missed at lunch the previous day. As we have mentioned previously this is why it is very important that you track your diet using my fitness pal.

_

19 Suited to your weight category This plan is structured from energy expenditures from boxers on the Boxing Science program, and should help boxers achieve a small negative energy balance to ensure weight loss. Pages 25-27 Pages 28-30 Pages 31-33 Pages 22-24 For optimal results, we have set a limit to what your body mass should be prior to each phase. Below is a table with your target weights relative to your fighting weight. If you are above or below the phase limit, please see the FAQ’s (Page 22-23) Pre-Phase 1 target weight = 10% Above Fight Weight

60-70 kg

50-60 kg

70-80 kg

80-90 kg

Pre-Phase 2 target weight = 8-5% Above Fight Weight Fight Week target weight = Below 4% Above Fight Weight

Target Weights for Each Phase



Fight Weight (kg)

Phase 1 10%

8%

5%

4%

49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81

54 55 56 57 58 59 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 83 84 85 86 87 88 89

53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87

51 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85

51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84

Phase 2

Phase 3

Fight Weight (lbs)

Phase 1 10%

8%

5%

4%

108 110 112 114 116 118 120 122 124 126 128 130 132 134 136 138 140 142 144 146 148 150 152 154 156 158 160 162 164 166 168 170 172

119 121 123 125 128 130 132 134 136 139 141 143 145 147 150 152 154 156 158 161 163 165 167 169 172 174 176 178 180 183 185 187 189

117 119 121 123 125 127 130 132 134 136 138 140 143 145 147 149 151 153 156 158 160 162 164 166 168 171 173 175 177 179 181 184 186

113 116 118 120 122 124 126 128 130 132 134 137 139 141 143 145 147 149 151 153 155 158 160 162 164 166 168 170 172 174 176 179 181

112 114 116 119 121 123 125 127 129 131 133 135 137 139 141 144 146 148 150 152 154 156 158 160 162 164 166 168 171 173 175 177 179

Phase 2

Phase 3

_

20 BEFORE YOU START,,, Disclaimer and Extra Information Nutrition is a very important but complex area for Boxing and Combat Sports. If done incorrectly, making weight can become potentially dangerous and damaging to the athlete. This handbook is a guide to help you make weight better and safer. However, without monitoring body mass and athlete behaviours, Boxing Science or the author do not take any responsibility for a boxer or combat athlete in failing to ‘make weight’ for competition. Furthermore, our nutritional advice is supported by scientific research granted by ethics committees. Therefore, this disclaims Boxing Science from any unsafe methods performed by athletes in an attempt to make weight, as well as consequent injuries or harm during competition. This is a guide for boxers to become more educated on nutritional methods to help fuel their performance and make weight safely, however, it is advised that athletes should seek professional advice and guidance when taking part in a structured diet plan. Here are some of the common problems we face with athletes and we offer our answers to help you through the process.

What if I am more than 10% over my fighting weight at the start of camp? We would advise you to not start an 8-10 week training camp above 10% of your fighting weight because this will potentially lead to reduced performance in training as well as increasing the risk of injury. If at 15% - please contact our team and we can help you kickstart your diet to get in shape for the programme.

What if I am more than 5% over my weight on fight week? If you are over 5% from your fighting weight 1 week before you compete and don't have a qualified nutritionist to guide you, we would advise you to postpone or to fight at a higher weight category. A severe weight drop without professional support will increase your risk of severe trauma as well as reducing your performance in the ring.

How can I track my progress? We would recommend you weigh yourself in the morning on the same day once per week to track your progress. In addition, we would also recommend a body composition assessment by an ISAK qualified anthropometrist or sport scientist. _

21

_

22

Phase 1 Note: During this phase you may see a higher weight loss at the start compared to the end this is due to changes in your muscle glycogen following the lower carbohydrate intake. Make sure that you are prepared during this phase by cooking the meals according to the grams section. A few grams difference every day can be the difference between making and failing weight, therefore it is imperative that you buy a digital weighing scale to weigh your food.

_

23

Phase 2 Note: During this phase your training volume and intensity should be increasing whilst dropping calories. This is the most difficult phase for making weight. If you do not see a change in weight for two weeks after this change you may need to drop calories lower (reduce carbohydrates in your dinner) or you need to do more training volume and intensity in the week. As previously mentioned you can rotate your foods such as vegetables, meats and fish to avoid micronutrient deficiencies. Just make sure that you track your food on my fitness pal so you are still hitting the macronutrient total at the bottom of the page.

_

24

_

25

Phase 1 Note: During this phase you may see a higher weight loss at the start compared to the end this is due to changes in your muscle glycogen following the lower carbohydrate intake. Make sure that you are prepared during this phase by cooking the meals according to the grams section. A few grams difference every day can be the difference between making and failing weight, therefore it is imperative that you buy a digital weighing scale to weigh your food.



_

26

Phase 2 Note: During this phase your training volume and intensity should be increasing whilst dropping calories. This is the most difficult phase for making weight. If you do not see a change in weight for two weeks after this change you may need to drop calories lower (reduce carbohydrates in your dinner) or you need to do more training volume and intensity in the week. As previously mentioned you can rotate your foods such as vegetables, meats and fish to avoid micronutrient deficiencies. Just make sure that you track your food on my fitness pal so you are still hitting the macronutrient total at the bottom of the page.

_

27

_

28

Phase 1 Note: During this phase you may see a higher weight loss at the start compared to the end this is due to changes in your muscle glycogen following the lower carbohydrate intake. Make sure that you are prepared during this phase by cooking the meals according to the grams section. A few grams difference every day can be the difference between making and failing weight, therefore it is imperative that you buy a digital weighing scale to weigh your food.

_

29

Phase 2 Note: During this phase your training volume and intensity should be increasing whilst dropping calories. This is the most difficult phase for making weight. If you do not see a change in weight for two weeks after this change you may need to drop calories lower (reduce carbohydrates in your dinner) or you need to do more training volume and intensity in the week. As previously mentioned you can rotate your foods such as vegetables, meats and fish to avoid micronutrient deficiencies. Just make sure that you track your food on my fitness pal so you are still hitting the macronutrient total at the bottom of the page.

_

30

_

31

Phase 1 Note: During this phase you may see a higher weight loss at the start compared to the end this is due to changes in your muscle glycogen following the lower carbohydrate intake. Make sure that you are prepared during this phase by cooking the meals according to the grams section. A few grams difference every day can be the difference between making and failing weight, therefore it is imperative that you buy a digital weighing scale to weigh your food.

_

32

Phase 2 Note: During this phase your training volume and intensity should be increasing whilst dropping calories. This is the most difficult phase for making weight. If you do not see a change in weight for two weeks after this change you may need to drop calories lower (reduce carbohydrates in your dinner) or you need to do more training volume and intensity in the week. As previously mentioned you can rotate your foods such as vegetables, meats and fish to avoid micronutrient deficiencies. Just make sure that you track your food on my fitness pal so you are still hitting the macronutrient total at the bottom of the page.

_

33

_

34

Fight Week Despite the hard work being done, fight week is the most important stage of training camp. This is the time you need to make sure everything is done correctly and systematically, there's little room for error in your training and nutrition. Every fighter is different, it requires close contact with a nutritionist or team member to guide you to your fighting weight. Therefore, we are unable to put together a methodical plan to help you make the weight. However, here’s a guide to what you should consider and different methods we use with boxers to make weight.

Manage Your Carbs Training volume and intensity will be reduced for the last two weeks of training camp to taper for your fight, meaning your energy intake needs to be reduced. When cutting calories, we select the carbohydrates to be cut down. Plan to have your carbohydrates around your training window to fuel for your sessions and help you recover. • 60g of uncooked brown rice 2 hours before sparring. • 60g of uncooked brown pasta 2 hours after sparring. When you finish training 2 days before fight day, a non-carb ketogenic diet should help you lose 1-2 pounds from water retention.

Low Residue Diet Around 3 days before a fight we can help lose the last 1 to 2 pounds by following a low residue diet. Following this diet isn't optimal for health, however it can be optimal for boxing performance by reducing food in the gut. This will help make you lighter whilst reducing gut discomfort. Eat the foods in the low residue food table in small amounts in the 2 days prior to weigh in.

_

35

Post Weigh-In Refuel Following the weigh in it is highly important that you increase your carbohydrate intake considerably to load muscle glycogen in order to increase your performance in the ring. Due to being on a calorie restriction for a long period of time your appetite will decrease therefore it is important that you consume carbohydrate dense low fibre foods. For example, basmati white rice, white bread, white pasta, fruit juice, milkshakes etc.

This will provide you with energy without making you feel very full. For an estimated amount of carbohydrates, you should consume following a weigh in you need to consume 1-2g/ kg of body mass immediately after the weigh in and 10g/kg of body mass for the 24 hours following the weigh in. This would equate to 60g of carbs immediately after a weigh in and 600g of carbs throughout the day before the fight for a 60kg boxer. Please see below a practical structure of how this would be achieved.

Weigh-In Day Pre Weigh In Snacks

Banana, Carbohydrate Mouth Rinse, Small High GI Snacks to maintain blood sugar levels

Immediately after the weigh in.

500 ml chocolate milk, 2 slices of bread and a banana.

2-3 hours following the weigh in.

Large bowl of white pasta, such as Spaghetti Bolognese with a slice of garlic bread.

Before bed

1 fruit yogurt, 1 large bowl of cereal with milk

Fight Day Breakfast

Large bowl of porridge with fresh fruit and honey

Lunch

Large bowl of basmati white rice with sweet chilli chicken stir fry vegetables

Pre-Fight Meal large bowl of white pasta with green pesto turkey and broccoli

Snacks

Fruit yogurts, cereal bars, bananas, Lucozade etc

_

36

_

37

Off Season Alternatives Our philosophy is that boxer's should be training all year round, and not just from camp to camp. This is because to make major physiological and technical adaptations you need to be consistent and professional in your approach to training. Our nutrition plan is primarily designed to keep you fuelled for training because this is obviously the stimulus for adaptation. If you stop training, you’re missing out on a huge window of opportunity to train even harder than you would during a fight camp. You could make some excellent gains in strength, fitness and technical ability during this time period. And importantly, if your opponents are having a break, then you’ll already be getting an advantage over them. But you need to ensure your eating well to fuel these sessions and recover from them - if you let your nutrition slip you’re not maximising this opportunity. Another downside is that even if you’re still training and you let your nutrition slide, or you let it all slide and stop training and make poor food choices then you could gain excessive weight. When you eventually come back to training you’re not going to be able to exercise at the same intensity and if you try and do it you increase your risk of lower-limb injury because of the extra force you might be putting through your detrained body. But most importantly, heating a well-balanced healthy diet is good for you and you don’t always need to be switched ‘on’ or ‘off’ a diet as a boxer.

Here are your portion sizes.. ● ● ● ●

Your palm determines your protein portions. Your fist determines your vegetable/salad portions. Your cupped hand determines your carbohydrate portions. Your thumb determines your fat portions.

_

38

Breakfast guide After seep it’s important that you Kickstart muscle protein synthesis as soon as possible with at least 20 g of protein, that’s why a key focus of our breakfast options are based around high quality protein sources such as eggs, high protein yoghurt, chicken sausages and oily fish. You’ll also notice that there’s some good source of fat here too in the form of eggs, yoghurt, oily fish and seeds and nuts. Sometimes boxer's are frightened to include fat in their diet but high quality sources of fat are important to overall health and wellbeing so it’s very important to keep them in the diet and the best time to include them is at breakfast. In terms of portion sizes follow our guide above and our recommendations below. Breakfast Wrap: 1 portion of eggs, 2 portions of baby spinach and 1 tortilla wrap. Baked Eggs 1 portion of eggs, 1 portion of spinach, 1 portion of baby tomatoes - place in a muffin tin and bake until cooked through. Greek Yoghurt with Muesli 1 portion of yoghurt, 1 portions of muesli (carbohydrate) Chicken Sausages, Tomatoes and wholemeal pitta 1 portion of chicken sausages, 1 portion of spinach, 1 portion of tomato’s and 1 wholemeal pitta Eggs and Mexican beans 1 portion of eggs, 2 portions of beans and Mexican flavour spice mix to taste Sardines/Mackerel on toast 1 portion of fish, 2 portions of wholemeal bread toasted _

39

Post Training Snacks These examples provide you with the key ingredients required for fast recovery, especially if you’re training twice a day. Of course you can continue to use your favourite recovery drink/shake but we believe in the power of food and so most of our examples are based around quick and easy to prepare snacks. The key to recovery for boxer's in weight categories is a good source of protein for regular training sessions and the inclusion of a good source of carbohydrates after hard sessions or the first session of the day if you’re training twice a day. In your recovery snacks try to minimise the amount of fat as this will slow down digestion and absorption of key nutrients, low fat dairy based products are ideal options at this point in time. For after training snacks we recommend you have: • 1 fist size portion of protein • 1 palm size portion of carbohydrate • 1 palm size portion of vegetable/salad (if at all) 1 portion of cottage cheese and 1 portion of wholemeal toast 1 portion of overnight oats 1 portion of turkey, 1 tortilla wrap and 2 portions of salad 1 portion of flavoured Quark cheese 0.5 portion of dried fruit and 1 portion of cottage cheese 500 ml of skimmed milk or 1 protein shake (make as recommended) Half bagel and 1 thumb of low fat soft cheese _

40

Main meals: Lunch and Dinner In the table below we have provided you with options for your main sources of protein and carbohydrate along with vegetables and salads. We’ve also included some sauces and spices to have with your meals so you can mix and match foods with different spices depending on your preferences. This will enable you to be more flexible and create with meal planning. The recipes for the sauces are below. As an example, you might have chicken breast (1 portion), sweet potato (2 portions), spinach (1 portion) and red pepper (1 portion). Each protein source is high quality and low fat (apart from eggs). Carbohydrates are mainly low glycaemic index and packed with micronutrients, and the bean options deliver an extra source of protein and fibre. Vegetables and salads are easy to source, store and cook with as well as being nutritionally dense. Without fruit and vegetables our risk of illness becomes heightened and our performance in the gym can decrease due to not being able to utilise the macro nutrients such as carbohydrates and protein effectively without the micronutrients in the fruit and vegetables. The sauces and spices we have provided as examples are low calorie and will enable you to add variety to your meals or use as base to add other flavours to keep your dieting as interesting as possible. The idea here is to mix and match according to your access to food, allow you to create a base for a shopping list and make good food choices when it’s difficult to do so. For your lunch and then again for your dinner we recommend you have: • • • •

1 portion of protein 2 portions of vegetable/salad 2 portions of carbohydrates for lunch and 1 for dinner 1 portion of fat (mostly cooking oil here)



See your options table on the next page….

_

41

Treat yourself…. don’t cheat yourself. During the off season when you don’t have a fight date planned it is important that you take some social time to relax and reduce stress. Having a meal out with friends and family can be a good way to do this. However, we at boxing science like to give you the best possible advice of how to do this without impacting on your performance and physique. During the off season we can allow some so called cheat meals however the key to doing this is during certain times. We advise that during the off season you have 1-2 cheat meals per week any more and this can lead to binging and increasing your body fat over the 10% mark of your fight weight. We would recommend that you place your meals on training days and not rest days and preferentially on your hardest or double training sessions. For example for the boxing science boxers who take part in our sessions on Tuesday and Thursday we would advise having 1 cheat meal on each day whilst reducing carbohydrates in 1 meal. A good idea would be having pasta/ rice at lunch then after training at dinner going out with some family/ friends to a restaurant and having 1 main meal of any kind such as burger and fries or a pizza instead of your dinner (please note this is a main meal and not a starter, main meal and dessert). On the other day we would recommend that our boxer craves their sweet tooth with a dessert treat after training for example reducing the fruit in your post workout snack/ drink and having a chocolate bar, ice cream or slice of cake/ pie and custard. Please note that for every other meal during the training week we advise you to stick to the nutrient dense foods listed above. _

42

_

.

43

Upgrade Your Programme Get the full Boxing Science Experience with our brand new online coaching service… With our growing reputation – we have had the pleasure of working with athletes and coaches all around the world. We have delivered various types of remote packages – and trialed how we can deliver a personal yet affordable service for people wanting to gain the full Boxing Science experience.

We’ll Help You Adapt… The online programme fits with our training philosophy – that it’s not a ‘one-size’ fits all approach. The TLAC programme is a fantastic tool but we realise that our audience may need to adapt to suit their situation, training history or environment. This programme will allow our coaches to help you make these adjustments effectively.

We’ll Keep You On Track… We also realise following a programme on your own maybe difficult – that’s why we will have weekly check-ins to see how you’re progressing. We will encourage you to send over your heart rate data and videos of your lifting techniques.

Monitor Your Progress We have introduced some monitoring methods for you – however this can be better managed and analysed in digital formats. We will be providing our monitoring tools on Excel and google drive to help you get more out of the programme. _

44 We Won’t Keep You Waiting … Many mentoring services use top-level coaches that are often busy – leaving members waiting days for a response. However, we will be managing the process so you will get your answer straight away! We will be having 2 x 3 hour windows per week dedicated to answering your questions. Plus, we won’t be overloaded as we are limiting ourselves to 10 members per coach – with 20 spaces available in total.

Face To Face Contact You maybe the on the other side of the world – but that doesn’t mean you can’t have face-to-face contact with coach. We will be having group video call drop-in sessions that will include Q and A’s, demonstrations and educational workshops.

your

Continue The Journey…. As you can imagine – developing a programme like TLAC 3.0 can take a lot of time and effort – which may leave people waiting around ready for their next programme. The online coaching programme will guarantee your next programme to start when you’re ready so you can continue the journey to world-level fitness. The Online Coaching programme is suitable for athletes, coaches and PT’s. Here are some of the people who have benefitted from our programme in different ways. “Having the help of boxing science remote programme has been massively beneficial to Lewis Crocker’s development. Having the structure and plan for every stage of camp is so important and it has certainly made him a faster, stronger, powerful athlete”

Ray Ginley – Boxing Coach “Despite being based in Sheffield; I find it difficult to attend Boxing Science sessions due to work commitments. However, I have benefitted from individual programmes that are structured in an understandable format – I feel fitter and stronger than ever”

Muma Mweemba – Professional Boxer “Boxing Science have influenced my practice for almost three years now both as a coach and as an athlete. Their remote packages are great and I certainly recommend it to athletes and coaches as they are raising the bar for all combat athletes”

Shannon Lawson – Amateur Boxer and S&C Coach _

45 Your Coaches Your coaches will be Danny Wilson and Dr Alan Ruddock. Both have a lot of experience in boxing – working with over 200 boxers from schoolboy amateurs all the way to world champions. Most importantly – we’re pretty nice guys J

So …. Here Is Everything Involved… •

•

1-1 Coaching through WhatsApp

o

2 x 3-Hour Windows Per Week (however, you can message us anytime)

o o o

Individual programme adjustments

Zoom drop-in sessions – live Q and A Demonstrations on how to use monitoring tools Educational workshops

Access to monitoring tools

o o •

Weekly tasks / goals

Weekly Group Video Call Drop-In Session

o o o •

Feedback on sessions / lifting techniques

Programmes sent out in Excel format so able to log training loads Access to google forms to monitor wellness

Rolling Programme

o

The journey doesn’t end after TLAC 3.0 – we will send you an updated programme to continue your training process.

o

Individual adjustments will be made towards your training needs.

How it all works? We will be taking our first group for online membership on the Monday 13th August 2018. Our first zoom online chat will be on Wednesday 15th August – teaching you how to use the monitoring tools for the programme. First payment will be on the 13th August 2018 – then payments will be a standing order of £40 on the 30th of each month to Boxing Science. You will be assigned a coach for 1-1 WhatsApp support – however will have access to both Danny and Alan through the Zoom online chats.

REGISTER YOUR INTEREST BY E-MAILING US – [email protected] _

46

The Authors Lee Rickards BSc, MSc, ASCC – Boxing Science Nutritionist – Sheffield United Nutrition Consultant and Strength and Conditioning Coach Lee Rickards is a nutrition consultant and sport scientist currently working at Sheffield United Football Club and with professional combat sport athletes competing for regional, national and commonwealth titles. Lee is an UKSCA accredited strength and conditioning coach (ASCC) and an accredited body composition analyst by The International Society for the Advancement of Kinanthropometry (ISAK). Lee was awarded his Bachelor of Science in Sport Science for Performance Coaching in 2013 and Master of Science in Sport and Exercise Science two years later at Sheffield Hallam University. Lee has now taken on a PHD in Polyphenols and Recovery from Exercise.

Danny Wilson BSc, MSc, ASCC – Boxing Science Co-founder and Strength and Conditioning Coach Danny is a UKSCA accredited Strength and Conditioning coach and has an Undergraduate and Master’s degree in Sport and Exercise Science from Sheffield Hallam University. Danny co-founded Boxing Science in 2014 following building the successful Boxing programme at Sheffield Hallam University where he has coached over 100 boxers as a strength and conditioning coach. Danny has prepared many boxers competitive bouts, including IBF welterweight world champion Kell Brook, WBA Bantamweight champion Jamie McDonnell, Kid Galahad, Anthony Fowler and many more aspiring professional and amateur boxers. He is also the lead for sport science services to England Boxing and is an England Boxing Level 1 qualified coach, enabling him to volunteer at Sheffield City ABC. Danny is also a regional strength and conditioning coach for England Golf, working with Yorkshire U16’s, U18’s and working with national level players. Danny has other experiences in youth and professional standards across a range of sports, including internships at Sheffield United, Sheffield Eagles and Chesterfield FC.

_