Preparing for The Big Game

Pin It Now! If you are an athlete or a sportsman or woman, then likely you will spend a lot of your time in training trying to improve your reactions, your strength, your running speed, your endurance etc etc. Preparation for a big game is something you should do continuously, but this becomes even more important in the build-up to the event itself and whether you play hockey or sprint, it's very important that you treat yourself correctly in these few days building up to the main event to ensure you are on top form. Here's what you need to do.,p> Rest
Training hard is advisable in the weeks leading up to an event or game. However in the few days before it's better to rest and give yourself some time to recover. Training is something that you can not cram in at the last minute and this means you don't want to suddenly hit the gym hard the night before your game. All this will accomplish is to make you tired and lethargic going into the event and will leave you with sore muscles.

When you train using resistance work this causes tiny tears to form in your muscles – aptly named 'microtears'. These tears are repaired by the body using amino acids that are sourced from the protein you eat, but this means that you need to rest to benefit from the training. Go into a game after training and you'll just be doing so with weakened and damaged muscles and you'll have increased your chances of pulling a muscle. And of course if you train too hard the day before then you'll also risk injury which is the last thing you want to do.

You also need to make sure that you rest psychologically, and it's important that you focus but also that you relax to make sure that you are on top form before the game. If you are too nervous and stressed it will affect your preparation and it will prevent you from getting the good night's sleep that you need to be on top form. If you're nervous then consider using cognitive restructuring techniques in order to help you relax. A great way to spend the night before a game or event is to relax reading a book (to keep your mind off of the event) and then go to bed early after a hot bath.

Diet
What you eat in the few days building up to your event is also very important. For instance if your event is going to last for a long amount of time then you might want to consider using some kind of carb loading. This essentially means that you will be eating carbohydrates in the form of complex sugars so that on the day your body has a wealth of energy sources to plunder to prevent you from tiring out too soon.

Likewise you should also ensure that you drink a lot of water and this can help you to stay hydrated which can further improve your performance and help prevent cramping. Something to avoid doing, however, is to eat anything too high in fat. Fat is very difficult for the body to digest compared to other food groups and this then means that you could risk going into the event feeling bloated and even suffering from indigestion.

Author Byline:- Chad Moreau being a fitness expert thinks online hockey training programs are the best way to get well trained. He also likes to share some of the good training programs on his blog.

Preparing for The Big Game