Nutrition advice for Football Players

While the average distance covered by a top-class outfield player during a 90-minute match is over 10,000m, at an average speed of over 7km per hour, these figures do not accurately represent the full demands placed on a player. In addition to running, a player must jump, change direction, tackle, accelerate and decelerate, etc., and each of these individual tasks requires an energy input over and above that required simply to cover a similar distance at a constant speed. Scientific investigation has shown that the true demands on a player can be approximated at roughly 70%VO2max. This is based on evidence of heart rate, sweat loss, increase in body temperature, and depletion of carbohydrate stores within the muscles (intramuscular glycogen).