1
Overview

1.1 Introduction

The impact of sports nutrition on an athlete’s performance has been well‐established. Sports nutrition is an important part of the athlete's training and recovery regime. Sports nutrition serves two separate but important roles for the athlete. The first role of sports nutrition is to provide the fuel for how we participate in or train for athletic events. Macronutrients in the form of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats provide the athlete with the energy needed to fuel athletic training and competition, and the micronutrients consisting of vitamins and minerals are needed for their coenzyme and cofactor roles in assisting to fuel these activities. This role of sports nutrition is well‐established and relatively stable across different age strata. Athletes of all ages and capabilities will need to use nutrition to fuel their athletic endeavors. The second role of nutrition for an athlete has more to do with recovery from exercise and the rebuilding of muscle tissues following exercise. This role is also well‐established, but is more intricate and will require a more specialized approach where the athlete's individual nutritional needs to be able to recover and rebuild should be accounted for. The nutritional needs of an athlete will differ depending on the specific sport involved, the type of training, and some specific factors related to the individual athlete. The needs of a 55‐year‐old athlete to recover from a weight training session, for example, are not the same as the nutritional needs of an 18‐year‐old athlete doing the same activity, much like the nutritional needs of a male and female athlete in the same sport are not the same. This book will focus on the specific nutritional needs of athletes over the age of 35 as they seek to train and compete in sports. This group of athletes must balance their nutritional needs with ever‐changing physiological characteristics that impact their ability to recover and perform in their chosen sport. It is through an understanding of the nutritional needs of an athlete for them to be able to train and compete in their sport, knowledge of the physiologic changes associated with the aging process, and the creation of nutrition and supplemental strategies to mitigate some of these effects that someone who works with older athletes can best be able to support their performance. These are the topics that this book seeks to address. The contents of this book will assist the nutritional professional looking to work with a master’s athlete or the athlete themselves to optimize nutritional approaches to positively impact their athlete’s performance while reducing the overall impact of these physiologic changes associated with aging.

1.2 Demographic Data

Athletic participation by older individuals is growing at a rapid pace. The 35+ age demographic is currently a rapidly growing segment of the population, as well as the competitive athletic market. Advances in nutrition, sports science, and healthcare have allowed athletes to train and perform at older ages than ever possible. Adding to this increased awareness of the impact of exercise and activity on longevity and mobility, we see an increase in athletic participation in this age group growing rapidly. The increase in athletic participation is fueled by the reduced attrition of younger athletes as they age, keeping them in the competition pool longer, and the increase in new athletes who take up a sport at an older age. In the sport of Olympic‐style weightlifting, for example, we have seen a nearly threefold increase in the number of competitors at the masters (over 35 years old) age division national championship, with 244 athletes competing in 2015 to 718 athletes competing in 2019. The largest increase was seen in the number of female competitors, who went from 44.4% of all competitors to 58.7% [1]. This desire to train and compete in older age groups presents an interesting opportunity for those working with athletes. An older athletic population has some beneficial aspects: they tend to have both more time and money for training and nutrition. Both factors represent significant barriers to training and competition for younger athletes. Unfortunately, there is also an increase in the likelihood of injuries associated with their athletic participation. This is where the field of sports nutrition can have an impact [1, 2].

1.3 What Is Sports Nutrition?

Sports nutrition is a specialized focus area of the research and clinical field of nutrition. This field of study looks at the physiologic function of the human body in various exercise‐related areas and the role that nutrients and hydration may have in impacting these processes. Sports nutrition is where the fields of physiology, exercise science, and human nutrition meet to impact athletic performance and recovery. The key objective of sports nutrition is to improve athletic performance and increase the longevity of the athlete in their sport. Although sports nutrition is often associated with high‐level athletes like Olympians, professional bodybuilders, or professional athletes, this field of study is not reserved for elite athletes only but rather for anyone looking to improve their performance in their chosen athletic endeavor. Sports nutrition is focused on the nutrients needed to support the body's recovery and repair processes and is an extension of traditional nutrition. Many of the principles of sports nutrition match those for general health, but there are differences in the quantity and timing of nutrients. The nutrients needed by the athlete vary more in amount than the type compared to the needs of the general public, for the most part. Still, often, the need to meet the increased requirements of an athlete looking to perform their best makes dietary planning and supplementation more of a necessity.

1.4 Why Study Sports Nutrition?

Sports nutrition is an important field of study for athletes, nutritionists, coaches, and anybody interested in achieving optimal sports performance. The physical aspect of training represents an essential element of athletic performance. The athlete's training program today can significantly impact future performance, but this is not the only crucial factor the athlete needs to consider [3]. Other factors such as nutrition, rest, technique, equipment, or even psychological state will all play their role in an athlete's overall performance. For anybody working with athletes, addressing the nutritional plan must be considered an important element in performance and be treated as an essential factor in the athlete’s performance plan. Sports nutrition can impact recovery from exercise, tissue rebuilding, the control of the inflammatory process and response, and can even impact the general health of the athlete. Therefore, anyone looking to achieve maximal performance in an athletic event will need to factor an individualized nutritional strategy into their training regime. While primarily focused on athletes, the author would contend that the study of sports nutrition dives into the physiologic functions regarding the utilization of energy optimally by the body. Studying the material contained within this book will carry relevance to everyone, regardless of athletic capabilities.

1.5 What Is a Masters Athlete?

Athletes come in all shapes and sizes. This feature of athletics is what allows for so many people to compete because there is no standard “athlete” in regard to this aspect. We have small athletes who compete in events based on power‐to‐weight ratio, such as in sports like rock climbing. We have larger athletes competing in sports such as professional football, where absolute power and speed are more important, and every type of athlete in between. Athletes can also be found in differing sexes, each with unique nutritional requirements. Additionally, we find athletes in a wide spectrum of ages with youth sports, sometimes starting sports as early as three years old, all the way up to geriatric athletic participants. Sports will often stratify athlete competitions based on many of these categories. Sports, both at the local and national level, can carry age divisions such as youth, junior, senior, and masters athletes. In the sport of weightlifting, for example, youth athletes compete from 13 years old up to 17 years of age. Junior athletes will compete in their age group from 18 to 23 years old. The term senior athlete is typically associated with an athlete in the 24‐ to 34‐year‐old age group (this can get confusing as in the general population, the term senior is often associated with older adults). The term master's athlete is a designation given to athletes competing at the age of 35 and over. There are some variations in these age ranges in other sports, as individual sports organizations will vary in their competitive age categories, but generally, these categories will remain similar. The contents of this book will cover the physiologic and nutritional needs that will impact athletes of all ages but are specifically targeted at master’s age group athletes 35 and over.

1.6 Why Focus on Masters Athletes?

There are numerous intelligent reasons to focus on a population like master’s athletes, not the least of which is that they represent a large, growing sector of the athletic population. This population sector is growing but has either been treated as an afterthought or...