Written by Aitor Viribay of Glut4science, nutritionist and scientific advisor to UCI professional cyclists in collaboration with Crown Sport Nutrition.
Energy and carbohydrate intake before, during and after exercise is a well-established strategy in the scientific literature for improving performance, optimizing recovery between sessions and maintaining health (1–3). However, these recommendations are based on the needs, demands and usual training methodologies of each sport. In the case of cycling, on the road, with a certain volume of training load, both in intensity and duration.
In the current situation we are experiencing, in which the days of quarantine due to Covid-19 pass and the hours on the trainer accumulate, training is planned around double or triple sessions in the day on the trainer, always with a variable load between them. All this entails a new context that, from the point of view of nutrition, does not seem to be fully established.
How much should you eat in indoor trainer sessions? Do you need as much energy as when you hit the road? The answers, although they may seem simple, are not.
What really matters?
We start by understanding what is really important these days, as it will help us understand why we should act in one way or another. Without a doubt, our immune system is, at the moment, the priority. High intensity exercise and a high total workload, together with poor nutrition, hygiene and rest habits considerably deteriorate our defenses (4,5).
To stay strong at the immune level, beyond relying on master potions or promising supplements, we have to ensure an adequate nutritional habit (5). If we also need to train and generate an additional stimulus (the training itself) that places significant stress on our body, the considerations around nutrition must be proportional. Therefore, before analyzing whether you should ingest more or less energy during these days, let's think about the needs of the context and review what really helps us to prevent our immune system from declining. You can review more on the subject in this blog: https://glut4science.com/publicaciones/de-la-ciencia-a-la-practica/nutricion-dias-doble-sesion-rodillo-ciclismo/81
- Avoid calorie restrictions and maintain an intake in line with energy expenditure.
- Maintain a diet rich in micronutrients, fiber, and probiotics.
- Ensure adequate intake of CHO before, during, and after training.
- Adapt the hydration guideline to the demands of training. You can review more in this blog: https://crownsportnutrition.com/hidratacion-en-el-rodillo/
- Do not compromise recovery through adequate intakes of the required nutrients.
- Control the training load.
The nutritional strategy
With this in mind, we can start to break down the nutritional strategy of these indoor trainer days.
Remember that exercise on the indoor trainer generates greater muscle fatigue than road training, since the effort to reach the same relative intensity is greater (6). In addition, the change in the pattern in biomechanics, the conditions of the place where we exercise (higher temperature and relative humidity) and what this entails at the metabolic level, has direct implications on glycogen consumption.
Therefore, I repeat again that we should not underestimate the demands of an indoor trainer session.
In this whole situation, another objective is to maintain body weight and for this, apart from maintaining the workload, adherence to the diet (avoiding anxiety) is decisive. In this sense, eating during exercise, with the metabolic advantages that this entails, helps to improve satiety and weight control throughout the day. Therefore, eating during the indoor trainer session is suitable for, beyond improving performance, controlling weight and body composition.
With all this in mind, the energy need will depend on the intensity and duration of the indoor trainer sessions. Without losing sight of the current recommendations (7,8), we must adapt them to the new situation. How?
- It is important to start intense sessions with an adequate amount of glycogen. To this end, a prior intake of 1-2 g CHO/kg body weight is recommended through foods rich in complex CHO such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, etc. (9). If the session is less intense, 0,5 g CHO/kg of weight may be sufficient. In addition, it is important to add a minimum dose of 20-30 g of protein at each meal.
- If the session is intense and lasts more than 45-60 ́, I recommend ingesting around 60-80 gHC/h with a sugar ratio of 2:1 (glucose:fructose).
- If the session is less intense, my recommendation is to ingest around 40-60 gHC/h through more complex foods to, mainly, ensure satiety and improve weight control.
- Recovery is especially important and as such, should never be compromised. To do this, if the session has been intense, a post-exercise intake with 0,5-1 gHC/kg of body weight and an approximate amount of 25-30g of protein is recommended.
These nutrition guidelines meet the objective of maintaining performance and optimizing adaptations in the different training sessions, as well as improving recovery between them and keeping the immune system as stable as possible.
Therefore, the answer to the initial question is as follows:
On an energy level, it is clear that the indoor trainer generates less expense than a normal training on the road. However, the new context is different from the usual one and factors that we do not normally pay attention to must be taken into account. The relative intensity, per unit of time, of a moderate-to-high intensity session is higher on the indoor trainer and, in addition, there are other priorities such as maintaining a strong immune system and controlling body composition. Therefore, the energy intake around indoor trainer sessions, although lower compared to that of the road, is just as important in its magnitude.
Recommendation with Crown Sport Nutrition products:
- During the exercise:
- Moderated sessions: 500 ml/h with 2 Isodrink scoops + 1 PRO Salts Caps tablet + 1 Energy Bar.
- Intense sessions: 750-900 ml/h with 2 Isodrink scoops + 2 PRO Salts Caps + 2 Energy Gel tablets or 750-900 ml/h with 4 Isodrink scoops + 2 PRO Salts Caps + 1 Energy Gel.
- After the exercise:
- Moderated sessions: 2 Isodrink scoops dissolved in 1L of water + 3 PRO Salts Caps tablets depending on the weight lost + 30g Iso Whey Hydrolysed.
- Intense sessions: 2 Isodrink scoops dissolved in 1L of water + 3 PRO Salts Caps tablets depending on the weight lost + 30g Iso Whey Hidrolized + 1 sachet of 3:1 PRO Recovery (adjusted according to the weight of each one).
AUTHOR
Aitor Viribay Morales – Nutritionist and Scientific Advisor to UCI Professional Cyclists. Founder and Director of Glut4Science (www.glut4science.com)
Instagram: @glut4science Facebook: Glut4Science Twitter: @glut4science
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References
- Maughan RJ, Burke LM, Dvorak J, Larson-Meyer DE, Peeling P, Phillips SM, et al. IOC consensus statement: dietary supplements and the high-performance athlete. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Apr;52(7):439–55.
- Kerksick CM, Wilborn CD, Roberts MD, Smith-Ryan A, Kleiner SM, Jager R, et al. ISSN exercise & sports nutrition review update: research & recommendations. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2018 Aug;15(1):38.
- Burke LM, Jeukendrup AE, Jones AM, Mooses M. Contemporary Nutrition Strategies to Optimize Performance in Distance Runners and Race Walkers. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2019 Feb;1–42.
- Killer SC, Svendsen IS, Jeukendrup AE, Gleeson M. Evidence of disturbed sleep and mood state in well-trained athletes during short-term intensified training with and without a high carbohydrate nutritional intervention. J Sports Sci. 2017;35(14):1402–10.
- Walsh NP. Nutrition and Athlete Immune Health: New Perspectives on an Old Paradigm. Sports Med. 2019 Dec;49(Suppl 2):153–68.
- Mieras ME, Heesch MWS, Slivka DR. Physiological and psychological responses to outdoor vs. laboratory cycling. J strength Cond Res. 2014 Aug;28(8):2324–9.
- Jeukendrup AE. Periodized Nutrition for Athletes. Sport Med. 2017;47(s1):51–63.
- Jeukendrup A. A step towards personalized sports nutrition: Carbohydrate intake during exercise. Sport Med. 2014;44(SUPPL.1).
- Thomas DT, Erdman KA BL. American College of Sports Medicine Joint Position Statement. Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Med Sci Sport Exerc. 2016;48(3):543–68.
