micoach
Active Member
5 cricket fitness and nutrition myths
I want you to have a think for a moment. Where have you got your fitness and nutrition advice from in the past?
I’m sure it’s from people you trust. Friends, family, teachers and sports coaches. They probably got their information from similar sources. That word-of-mouth way of passing information is exactly how myths get started and root themselves in ‘common knowledge’.
Thing is, common knowledge isn’t always correct.
So here are my top 5 myths. I have heard them many times from many people but that doesn’t make them true. Experience and scientific research have shown me otherwise. Now I want to show you.
1. Cricket endurance is built up by long, slow jogging.
The theory goes that cricket is a long game. You need to jog for long periods to build an aerobic base so you don’t get knackered while you play. Cricket, though, doesn’t require you to go slowly for long periods. It requires a lot of standing around interspersed with running, sprinting, hitting and throwing. You don’t need aerobic fitness to stand up and you don’t need much to run a 3.
Jogging makes you a better jogger, not a better cricketer. Instead use interval running or circuit training to beef up your endurance. It’s far more specific.
2. You need to eat loads of pasta the night before a game for energy.
Before a marathon runners ‘carb load’ with stuff like pasta, bread and potatoes to keep their energy stores stuffed to capacity. Somehow (probably due to myth #1) cricketers have adopted the same theory.
As we already know, cricket is far more intermittent than endurance running. Building up a reserve of energy is a combination of the right training and good eating all week. No amount of pasta on Friday night can compensate for missing that out. The best advice is to eat healthy all the time and sip a sugar or sugar/protein drink during play to keep stores topped up.
3. Weight training makes you too bulky to play cricket.
We have all seen the massive bodybuilders who look like they have a beach ball under each arm all the time. Logically then, cricketers should not do weight training in case they hulk up and suddenly become unable to bowl.
While this is a good theory it’s totally wrong. Firstly, it takes many, many years and a 24 hour commitment to seriously hard training and seriously big eating to get close to looking like that. The bodybuilders on TV are professionals at the peak of their careers. They are paid to do two things: Eat and train, which they do in mammoth amounts. Every day.
There is no way you will get anywhere near those guys unless you train with weights for at least 5 hours a week (probably more) and eat massive meals every couple of hours while taking steroids.
I consider resistance training essential to all cricketers. You just need to do it in the right way: Train movements not muscles, train the core first, aim for athleticism over size and play lots of cricket.
4. Protein builds muscles
Speaking of gyms, if you have spent any time in one I’m sure you have seen Mr skinny guy sipping on his protein shake in order to grow giant muscles. You need efficient and strong muscles to play cricket so why not down one of those shakes a day to get more powerful too?
It’s a little more complex than that. Protein is made up of the essential building blocks of muscle so you need it to get stronger. You can’t just eat loads of chicken and tuna and expect to become strong though. The building blocks need something to work with and that’s where strength training comes in. Combine protein with regular weight training and a balanced diet and you have a recipe for more strength and power.
5. Fat makes you fat
This myth has got a lot of press recently. An American journalist researched the orgins of the recommendations to eat a low fat diet and found the reasons to be a load of bunkum.
While fat does contain more calories per gram than any other nutrient it is also vital for health. According to research, a combination of fat from healthy whole food sources can reduce inflammation, reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, make you smarter and burn body fat.
The key, like any food, is not to overeat on fatty food but make sure your diet contains a balance of fat from lean poultry, fresh fish, lean beef, eggs (especially omega 3 eggs), avocados, olive oil, nut oil, mixed nuts and milk. The only fat to avoid totally is the man-made trans-fats.
I want you to have a think for a moment. Where have you got your fitness and nutrition advice from in the past?
I’m sure it’s from people you trust. Friends, family, teachers and sports coaches. They probably got their information from similar sources. That word-of-mouth way of passing information is exactly how myths get started and root themselves in ‘common knowledge’.
Thing is, common knowledge isn’t always correct.
So here are my top 5 myths. I have heard them many times from many people but that doesn’t make them true. Experience and scientific research have shown me otherwise. Now I want to show you.
1. Cricket endurance is built up by long, slow jogging.
The theory goes that cricket is a long game. You need to jog for long periods to build an aerobic base so you don’t get knackered while you play. Cricket, though, doesn’t require you to go slowly for long periods. It requires a lot of standing around interspersed with running, sprinting, hitting and throwing. You don’t need aerobic fitness to stand up and you don’t need much to run a 3.
Jogging makes you a better jogger, not a better cricketer. Instead use interval running or circuit training to beef up your endurance. It’s far more specific.
2. You need to eat loads of pasta the night before a game for energy.
Before a marathon runners ‘carb load’ with stuff like pasta, bread and potatoes to keep their energy stores stuffed to capacity. Somehow (probably due to myth #1) cricketers have adopted the same theory.
As we already know, cricket is far more intermittent than endurance running. Building up a reserve of energy is a combination of the right training and good eating all week. No amount of pasta on Friday night can compensate for missing that out. The best advice is to eat healthy all the time and sip a sugar or sugar/protein drink during play to keep stores topped up.
3. Weight training makes you too bulky to play cricket.
We have all seen the massive bodybuilders who look like they have a beach ball under each arm all the time. Logically then, cricketers should not do weight training in case they hulk up and suddenly become unable to bowl.
While this is a good theory it’s totally wrong. Firstly, it takes many, many years and a 24 hour commitment to seriously hard training and seriously big eating to get close to looking like that. The bodybuilders on TV are professionals at the peak of their careers. They are paid to do two things: Eat and train, which they do in mammoth amounts. Every day.
There is no way you will get anywhere near those guys unless you train with weights for at least 5 hours a week (probably more) and eat massive meals every couple of hours while taking steroids.
I consider resistance training essential to all cricketers. You just need to do it in the right way: Train movements not muscles, train the core first, aim for athleticism over size and play lots of cricket.
4. Protein builds muscles
Speaking of gyms, if you have spent any time in one I’m sure you have seen Mr skinny guy sipping on his protein shake in order to grow giant muscles. You need efficient and strong muscles to play cricket so why not down one of those shakes a day to get more powerful too?
It’s a little more complex than that. Protein is made up of the essential building blocks of muscle so you need it to get stronger. You can’t just eat loads of chicken and tuna and expect to become strong though. The building blocks need something to work with and that’s where strength training comes in. Combine protein with regular weight training and a balanced diet and you have a recipe for more strength and power.
5. Fat makes you fat
This myth has got a lot of press recently. An American journalist researched the orgins of the recommendations to eat a low fat diet and found the reasons to be a load of bunkum.
While fat does contain more calories per gram than any other nutrient it is also vital for health. According to research, a combination of fat from healthy whole food sources can reduce inflammation, reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer, make you smarter and burn body fat.
The key, like any food, is not to overeat on fatty food but make sure your diet contains a balance of fat from lean poultry, fresh fish, lean beef, eggs (especially omega 3 eggs), avocados, olive oil, nut oil, mixed nuts and milk. The only fat to avoid totally is the man-made trans-fats.
