Joshua… maintains his carb intake
THIS phase we’re in now, we’re tapering off the training. At this stage, carb intake is important for most athletes to ensure they are well fuelled before competition, but uniquely in combat sports we have to cut down the carb intake to make weight, for some fighters everything is reduced. Josh doesn’t have to worry about making weight so he can maintain a good carb intake throughout. The weight-cut is the most carefully managed part of camp for any non-heavyweight boxer. During the training camp we like them to eat 6-8g of carbs per kg of bodyweight per day, so for Josh that’s 650-850g of carbs per day (from complex sources like rice, pasta, breads and grains at meal times and simple sugars before and after training sessions from fruits, milkshakes etc). We’d hit 8g per kg or more for a big day, when the running, strength and conditioning and rounds of sparring go up and the intensity is high, but on a tapering week it would go down to around 4g per kg, though for most boxers making weight it would be down to 2g or less. It’s a huge amount of food at times, but the key thing is to have small, frequent meals that are nutritious and energy-dense.
Next: Lesson 4 of 4 – Get sufficient protein
Mark Ellison RSEN
Performance Nutritionist
@ElliNutrition
