Sport Nutrition and Recovery for Athletic Performance

IDR138 Exercise Physiology

or

IDR143 General introduction to Exercise and IDR144 General introduction to Sports

On successful completion of the course, the students should be able to:

• Explain sport nutrition recommendations for athletes participating in different sports.
• Understand how nutrition and sleep is related to athletes’ athletic development and performance.
• Describe different dietary and sleep assessment methods.
• Understand how different physical and mental recovery methods may influence sports performance.
• Demonstrate knowledge about subjective and objective assessment of athletic recovery.
• Discuss possible consequences of limited recovery, such as overtraining, low energy availability, and burnout.
• Discuss possible ethical and practical dilemmas.
• Reflect upon and convey advantages and challenges with different recovery methods to athletes and coaches.

In this course, students learn how sport nutrition and sleep may impact athletic development and performance for athletes participating in different sports. Furthermore, the students are introduced to different physical and mental recovery methods and the possible effect these methods may have on athletic performance. The course also covers topics related to assessment of diet and recovery and possible consequences of limited recovery.

• Energy availability, as well as variety and quality of food for athletic development and performance
• Effect of intake and timing of carbohydrate, protein, and fat for athletic development and performance
• Sport nutrition supplements
• Nutrition and sleep for recovery
• Assessment of diet and sleep
• Physiological and mental recovery
• Active, passive, and proactive recovery methods
• Subjective and objective assessment of athletic recovery
• Practical dilemmas (e.g., recovery for all athletes on the same team, individual preferences, sponsors' requirements)
• Possible consequences of limited recovery (e.g., overtraining, low energy availability and burnout); development, management, and prevention

The course is taught as a combination of lectures, group work, case discussions, and individual tasks. A selection of oral and written tasks will be mandatory.

The expected workload for the average student is 135 hours.