Performance Nutrition Collective

22/04/2026

🏉⚽ The game might be over…
But recovery is just getting started
Fuelling doesn’t stop when the match ends

👉 MD+1 is where recovery drives adaptation
💥 Why this matters more than you think
That sore, stiff feeling after a game?
👉 it’s not just discomfort
👉 it can affect how well you refuel
Muscle soreness often reflects muscle damage
(sprinting, decelerations, collisions, eccentrics)
When muscle is damaged:
👉 glycogen storage is less efficient
So even if you’re eating carbs…
👉 refuelling can be slower

🔹 What this means
If glycogen isn’t fully restored:
❌ lower energy next session
❌ reduced output
❌ accumulated fatigue

🔹 How to fuel MD+1
🍚 Prioritise carbohydrate intake
👉 don’t underdo carbs
👉 you may need MORE than usual
🍗 Add protein across the day
👉 support muscle repair
⏱ Start early
👉 recovery begins in the first few hours' post-match

🫐 Polyphenol-rich foods (berries, cherries), 🍒 tart cherry, 🐟 omega-3 fats and 🌿 turmeric all support recovery processes
👉 think food-first, not supplement-first

✨ The takeaway
Sore muscles = higher recovery demand
👉 eat more, not less
👉 recover properly
👉 adapt and improve
Because what you do after the game
👉 determines how you perform in the next one
walker7

15/04/2026

MATCH DAY // fuel the performance 🏉

Match day nutrition is all about keeping carbohydrate availability high so you can perform when it counts.

Why it matters:
⚡ supports sprint efforts
⚡ helps maintain decision making
⚡ improves repeated high-intensity performance
⚡ supports recovery so you can back up again

A simple match day framework:
1️⃣ Pre-match meal (around 3 hours before) → build the base
2️⃣ Pre-kickoff snack (30–60 mins before) → top up fast carbs
3️⃣ During the match → maintain energy and blood glucose
4️⃣ Recovery after the match → replace, repair, and reset

The goal is not to “eat perfectly.”
The goal is to fuel for the demands of the game.
Fuel early. Fuel consistently. Recover properly. Then go again. 👊

walker7

09/04/2026

🏉⚽ Match Day performance doesn’t start at kick-off
It starts the day before.
As we move into team sport season, I’m working with more soccer and rugby athletes dialling in their competition fuelling.
Because as competition builds…
👉 fuelling becomes just as important as training

Over the next few posts, I’ll break down a simple framework athletes can apply:
🏉⚽ MD-1 → build the fuel tank
🏉⚽ MD → fuel the game
🏉⚽ MD+1 → recover and go again

🔹 MD-1: Build the fuel tank
The day before competition is about maximising glycogen stores
→ so players start the match fully fuelled
Low glycogen =
❌ reduced sprint performance
❌ earlier fatigue
❌ drop-off late in the match

🔹 What this looks like in practice
🍝 Carbohydrate becomes the priority
Most athletes aim for:
👉 6–8 g carbohydrate per kg bodyweight
Example (70 kg athlete):
👉 360–480 g carbohydrate spilt across the day

🔹 How to structure the day
✔ High carbohydrate
✔ Moderate protein
✔ Lower fat + fibre
✔ No long gaps between meals
—
🔹 Example Day
Breakfast
🥣 oats + banana + honey
Lunch
🍚 rice bowl + lean protein
Dinner
🍝 pasta + tomato sauce + lean meat
Snacks (spread across the day)
🥤 smoothie (milk + oats + banana)
🥣 yoghurt + granola + berries
🍞 toast + nut butter
Pre-bed
🍚 rice pudding + kiwi fruit
🍫 homemade oat slice / muesli bar
👉 steady carbs across the whole day
👉 top up glycogen stores

🔹 Don’t forget hydration
💧 Fluids across the day
🧂 Sodium with meals
Starting hydrated = better endurance + decision making

✨ The takeaway
Match day performance starts the day before
👉 Build glycogen
👉 Delay fatigue
👉 Maintain high-intensity output
Start the game with a full fuel tank.

Next post:
🏉⚽ Match Day (MD) → how to fuel before and during the game

30/03/2026

⚠️ Low Cholesterol Isn’t Always “Elite”

In endurance athletes in clinic, I often see:
Total cholesterol
LDL
Triglycerides
…extremely low.

And everyone celebrates.
“Wow, that’s amazing cardiovascular health.”

But pause.

🧠 Cholesterol is not just a heart marker.
It is a structural and hormonal molecule.

It is required to make:
〰️Oestrogen
〰️Progesterone
〰️Testosterone
〰️Cortisol
〰️Vitamin D

If cholesterol is chronically suppressed in an underfuelled athlete…

We don’t just think “great arteries.”
We ask:
➡️ Is energy intake sufficient?
➡️ Are we suppressing steroid hormone production?
➡️ Is this adaptive or maladaptive?

Very low triglycerides can also signal:
Low carbohydrate availability
Chronic underfuelling
High training load without adequate intake

Context matters.
Biomarkers don’t exist in isolation.

Elite health isn’t about the lowest number.
It’s about the right number for the physiology.

SportsNutrition

23/03/2026

Morning swim. Afternoon swim.
Recovery decides the quality of the second session. 🏊‍♀️

Most double-session athletes think PM fatigue is just “being tired.”
It’s not.

The morning session depletes muscle glycogen.

After training, your muscle is primed to refuel:
1️⃣Glucose transporters move to the muscle surface
2️⃣Glycogen synthase activity rises
3️⃣Insulin sensitivity is elevated

This is when glycogen restoration is fastest ⏱️

Early feeding can significantly increase the rate of glycogen resynthesis compared to delaying intake.

Wait a couple of hours?
You don’t lose the opportunity completely, but restoration slows.

And if another session is coming…
You start behind.

That’s where the 3 Ts matter:
Timing ⏰ start early
Type 🍚 quality carbohydrate
Total 📊 enough to match the load

Afternoon pace drops aren’t random.
They’re often a refuelling problem.

Twice-daily training demands twice-daily recovery.

16/03/2026

The best carb target is the one your gut can handle.
I recently worked with an athlete preparing for race day.
Sensitive gut.
Chronic bloating
Reactive under stress.
History of GI issues.

She calculated her hourly carb targets.
On paper? Perfect. 📊
In reality? Too high for her.

There is no medal for forcing 90g/hr
if your gut can only tolerate 60.

More carbs don't better performance if they’re not absorbed.

The goal isn’t the highest intake.

It’s the highest intake you can:
-Tolerate
-Absorb
-Oxidise
-Repeat under pressure

Push beyond that and you get:
❌Sloshing
❌Nausea
❌Panic pacing
❌DNFs

Textbooks give ranges.
Practice looks at the athlete in front of you.

Sometimes 60g or less an hr wins. 🏁

Individualisation always beats ideology.

09/03/2026

The Triple Threat Adolescent Athletes Face 👇

Adolescent athletes are NOT mini adults.
They are fuelling for THREE simultaneous demands:
1️⃣ Growth & maturation Bone, muscle, hormones, brain development.
2️⃣ Training load Sessions, conditioning, skill work, matches.
3️⃣ Everyday life energy cost School, social life, walking around, thinking, existing.
That’s the triple threat.

So when a parent says: “Wow, that seems like so much food…”
Remember: They’re not just fuelling today’s session.
They’re fuelling:
✔️ Linear growth
✔️ Pubertal hormone development
✔️ Bone mineral accrual
✔️ Recovery between sessions
✔️ Immune resilience
✔️ Brain development

Underfuelling doesn’t just impact performance.
During adolescence, the body is in the most energy-expensive phase of life outside infancy.
When energy intake is too low, that affects development
Adolescents rarely overeat..
More often, they underestimate what growth + training actually costs.
Fuel for growth required. 💥

05/03/2026

🔥 This summer has been next-level hot, and it’s taken me right back to basics.

Fatigue mechanisms.
Thermoregulation.
And how heat adds an entire extra layer of physiological stress to training.

Some of the athletes I’ve worked with this summer have been training in:
🌡️ 37–41°C ambient temperatures, which is honestly wild.

Others, up north?
Lower temps… but 🌫️ much higher humidity and wow, that’s a whole different stress load.

Here’s the part that often gets missed 👇
Heat doesn’t just make training feel harder.
It fundamentally changes what’s happening inside the body.

What heat actually does to performance:
🔥 Accelerates glycogen depletion → earlier fatigue at the same workload
🔥 Drives RPE up sessions feel harder without any change in pace or power
🔥 Reduces central drive the brain downregulates output to protect the body
👉 If it feels harder, it is harder.

So what does this mean in the real world?
Heat raises the cost of every session.
Same athlete.
Same training plan.
🔥 Much higher physiological stress.

Which means athletes training in the heat need:
🍚 more carbohydrate, not less
💧 smarter hydration + electrolytes
🧊 intentional cooling strategies
🛌 greater respect for recovery

Trying to “push through” heat without adjusting fuel or recovery doesn’t build resilience; it accelerates fatigue and maladaptation.
Summer training demands respect.
Fuel it properly.

17/02/2026

😂 Egg ick is a thing.
ALOT of athletes I work with tell me they just cannot do eggs in the morning. Especially post-training.

Good news:
👉 You don’t need eggs to recover well in the morning.
Not ever. Not even a little bit.
In fact, my own kids are way more into “normal food” for breakfast and honestly, it works brilliantly. It’s filling, grounding, and fuels the day well from the start.

If your child (or you) already has one training session banked by 8am, here’s the no-fuss formula I love:
🥣 Design-your-own recovery bowl
No rules. Just boxes to tick.

✅ Carb source
🍚 rice, potato, sweet potato, pasta, wrap
✅ Protein
🍗 leftover chicken, mince, steak, tofu
✅ 2–3 colours
🥕 corn, spinach, capsicum, peas
✅ Finishers
🧀 sprinkle of cheese
🥑 dollop of avo
🥛 Greek Yoghurt Dressing

That’s it.
Warm. Savoury. Balanced. Done.
No egg drama.
No “breakfast food” pressure.

Just real fuel that supports recovery and keeps kids full through the morning.
Egg ick = validated.
Dinner for breakfast = Elite behaviour 😌

08/01/2026

Your DNA is talking… but are you listening? 🧬
A few weeks ago, I introduced this topic and today I’m sharing a real example.
I ran nutrigenomic testing on myself to get a clearer picture of what’s influencing my performance behind the scenes, and to map out both my strengths and vulnerabilities. The insights were wild.
Exploring the “why” behind performance is something I’m deeply passionate about and nutrigenomic gene testing is one of the most powerful integrative tools for that.

My top insights:

🦴 Bone Health – Very High Priority
Genetic variants that impact bone turnover mean I need to prioritise bone-supportive nutrients, recovery, and load-based training.

⚡ Methylation Efficiency
This process influences energy production, inflammation, stress resilience, and even how genes switch on or off all essential for long-term health and performance.

💪 ACTN3 “Power Gene” (RR Genotype full expression)
Fast-twitch dominant built for speed, strength, and explosive performance. No surprise most of my athletic career was spent jumping and sprinting!

💨 VO₂ Max Response
My genes indicate a strong adaptive capacity - meaning I respond exceptionally well to consistent, progressive endurance training (despite hating it lol)

Now, I’ll be using this same testing with my daughter a teen athlete, who’s had a history of glandular fever and is transitioning between sports with completely different energy demands and performance profiles. The goal?

To tailor her nutrition, recovery, and training so she can adapt confidently to new performance demands, stay resilient, and continue moving forward without the setbacks she’s faced in the past.

This is where genetics meets sports science - precision, prevention, and performance 🔥

23/12/2025