Eat like a Premier League footballer

You can have all the talent in the world as a footballer but without the proper nutritional support you won’t be as fit as you can be and your performances will suffer.  Footballers have to keep a strict diet to ensure they are at their peak of physical fitness. Long gone are the days of the diets of the famous Tuesday club, pints, curries and pies and a few more pints, the night before a game.

Thanks to Arsène Wenger and a change in mentality in the UK over the past 15 years, Arsenal footballers benefit from one of the best training regimes and diet plans in professional football. Eating right and training well is a core part of the foundation that has shaped Arsenal under Wenger and led to many successful teams and the ability to play fast, attacking football for a full 90 minutes. 

Arsenal are often lauded for their ability to win games late on and that comes from being fitter and lasting longer than the opposition and a lot of that comes down to diet.

Eating right

The key to achieving physical fitness isn’t just in your training regime but in what you eat as well. It’s about striking a balance. Balance in what is going onto your plate and balance in how much. Too much and you’ll put on weight, too little and you won’t have the energy to train/play. The occasional treat or chocolate cake is fine if you can work it in as part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Carbs
Carbohydrates help your muscles as your body will burn carbs instead of protein for energy, giving you the ability to train harder and longer. You need to eat plenty of high glycemic foods which are the best for muscle recovery.

What to eat:
Bread, pasta, rice, cereal and baked. After a training session or match you need something quick so perfect foods are muffins, jam sandwich, jaffa cakes, and bananas/banana.

Protein
Proteins are renowned for boosting performance and strength. Furthermore amino acids are the building blocks of protein, so can be used for building muscle tissue and repairing damaged tissues.

What to eat:
Milk, yoghurt, chicken (poultry), fish and nuts (also a good source of unsaturated fat).

Drink
Isotonic drinks are superior to water for fast rehydration and glucose rich drinks are great during training. The energy within these drinks comes in the form of glucose. Drinking this during training will help your muscles work for longer and drinking it afterwards will help speed up the recovery process of your muscles.

You may have heard of electrolytes and these are in essence the salts that are lost through sweating. You can find them in isotonic drinks and getting them into the system is important as it helps the muscles recover quicker and should keep dehydration away.

Thirst after a training session is an indicator that you’re already partly dehydrated and haven’t taken enough fluid on board. Ideally, it’s best to drink before, during and after a training session but only little and often to avoid stomach upset.

Eating right helps these athletes stay at the top of their game for as long possible. It helps young footballers train harder and for longer which helps them improve and be the best they can be.

However, you don’t have to be a Premier League footballer to eat like one. No matter what you do, eating right and exercising often can help you improve your fitness both physically and mentally allowing you to work harder, concentrate longer and achieve more.