DOI 10.14526/2070-4798-2019-14-1-198-206
Nutrition and pharmacological support of athletes training: the problems of science, practices and educational sphere
Larisa M. Gunina1*, Lyudmila V. Kudina2
1National anti-dote center (NADC) Kiev, Ukraine
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6207-1117; [email protected] 2High school for coaches (HSC) Minsk, Republic of Belarus ORCID: 0000-0002-1735-867X, [email protected]
Abstract: Medical-biological and in particular nutrition and pharmacological support of sports training becomes extremely important in the training process. It becomes an important factor of high competitive result achievement. However, at post-Soviet area (the Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus are not the exception) the problem of elite sport provision with specialists, who are able to set adequate goals, in accordance with the specificity of the training process and individual characteristics of an athlete, is very urgent. The main reason for the lack of specialists and the absence of corresponding knowledge among coaches (even highly-qualified ones) is imperfect structure of educational process. Research methods. Information sources analysis and summarizing, experts, athletes, coaches interviewing. Results. The article presents the important role of adequately formed athletes' ration in the process of post-loading rehabilitation acceleration, athletes' working capacity increase. We analyzed the consequences of inadequate use of nutrition and pharmacological technologies in practice of training athletes. We offered organizational steps of different technologies and levels of specialists training in the sphere of sport nutrition and pharmacology. Active work of these specialists in teams of any level, but first of all in national teams, will help to increase the effectiveness of competitive activity. It will help to improve the authority of the country at the International sports arena and preserve athletes' health. The article also considers the problem of a serious anti-dote control during the means of nutrition support use in elite sport. Conclusion. The existing difficult situation in post-Soviet countries is conditioned both by the need for highly-qualified specialists in the sphere of rational nutrition, nutrition and pharmacological support of the training process and the need of coaches for such kind of knowledge, especially among coaches of the national teams and the absence of conditions for such qualified specialists formation. This problem needs solution. It can be realized with the help of organizational steps of the profile Ministries, National Olympic committees, higher educational establishments. It will help to teach the definite number of specialists. They have necessary new knowledge.
Keywords: elite sport, nutrition and pharmacological support, competitive result, athletes' health, certification of specialists.
For citation: Larisa M. Gunina*, Lyudmila V. Kudina. Nutrition and pharmacological support of athletes training: the problems of science, practices and educational sphere. The Russian Journal of Physical Education and Sport. 2019; 14(1): 169-174.DOI 10.14526/2070-4798-2019-14-1-198-206
Introduction
Nutrition is one of the most important factors. It conditions the effectiveness of training athletes and creates necessary preconditions for adaptation reactions. It is connected with constitution formation, the abilities of energy supply
system improvement, motor qualities development. Rational nutrition is able to influence athletes' working capacity. It is able to prevent fatigue development, intensify rehabilitation reactions. Nutrition is also important for fatigue, the state of over-training, organs and functional systems over-
tension prevention [1]. It can cause suspending from the training process. A rational nutrition should be based on the main principles. They provide full life, health preservation and improvement, diseases prevention. At the same time, physiological, sportstechnical and aesthetic demands claimed on the effective training and competitive activity need diets. They differ greatly from simple diets of simple people. People lead a simple life style [2,3].
Nowadays the sphere of new synthetic science - sports nutritiology includes everything that is connected with the main nutrient substances (nutrients) as a part of a regular ration (diet) or additionally, in a form of food (diet) additives. This science appeared as a result of sports pharmacology principles and sport dietology interaction 10 years ago. It is actively develops nowadays [5,6]. It is proved that scientifically directed, competent, individualized macro and micro pharmaconutrients use is able to provide persons' abilities optimization, increase the power of muscle retraction, general and special endurance improvement among professional highly-qualified athletes [7,8]. It is obvious, that balanced ration is the main part in the structure of an athlete's organism provision with the main, necessary substances and energy [1,3,6].
Unfortunately, athletes' nutrition is the sphere, which has a lot of contradictions. It is influenced by hasty decisions, gossip, unsubstantiated advertising, personal preferences. Very often nutrition disorders are conditioned by the life style and inability to eat necessary products at a correct time. The views of a coach and the athlete himself have negative influence. Coaches and athletes think that the main thing in their work is to organize training loads and competitions and nutrition is not important (this is proved by the results of the interview among members of 8 national teams of the Ukraine and 4 national teams of the Republic of Belarus and).Negative influence also has the approach to nutrition of athletes, as it is based on people. They lead an ordinary, not connected with sport life [9]. In this connection competent nutritionist is very important, as he has knowledge in the sphere of nutrition and sport. However, highly-qualified specialists in this difficult sphere of elite sport, science and practice of training athletes
are hard to meet. The system of educational sphere leaves much to be desired for them. Moreover, in terms of the necessity to have the notion of the main peculiarities of the ratio formation in dynamics of the yearly cycle of training (which is typical only for the coaches of the leading sports countries of the world) at post-Soviet area there appears the necessity to give such kind of knowledge to coaches. In Ukraine and Republic of Belarus there is lack of specialists in the sphere of sports pharmacology. Most of all they need specialists, who know the mechanisms of medicinal preparations ergogenic influence (which are not included into the Forbidden list World AntiDoping Agency -WADA) realization [12,13,14,19].
The aim of the research work is to form strategic and tactical ways of the problem solution. It is connected with providing specialists in the sphere of sports nutrition and pharmacology and the role of the coach in modern medical-biological technologies realization.
Materials and methods
Information sources analysis and summarizing, experts, athletes, coaches interviewing.
Results and discussion
Athletes' ration should provide used energy supplementing and the preconditions creation for high level of working capacity, effective rehabilitation processes support, adaptation development as the reaction to the training and competitive loads. But, unfortunately, traditional and actively introduced into common life nutritionists' notions of a healthy food leads to the fact that the ration full of saturated fat causes obesity, cardiovascular and oncological diseases, diabetes [www.nkj.ru/ news/26886/; www.segodnya.ua/lifestyle/food_ wellness/1021028.html].
However, these problems are not connected with the life style and the need of intensively training and competing athletes for macro and micro nutrients. And the lack of fat in their ration may lead to protein, calcium, iron and zinc deficiency in case of diets use, where there is no necessary quantity of meat and dairy products. Moreover, even nowadays not sufficient attention is paid to an optimal ratio
of carbohydrates, protein and fat in the ration of athletes. For example, studying the ration of highly-qualified American swimmers we revealed that their standard ration has 46% of carbohydrates, 16% of protein and 38% of fat. At the same time, the average diet, reasonable for swimmers, demands the following ratio: 60:15:25 [1,11,15,16].
Intensive training and competitive activity, connected with great energy consumption, demands special attention to nutrition as the most important factor. They determined the effectiveness of rehabilitation reactions. This problem is especially urgent in terms of training athletes, who specialize in kinds of sport connected with endurance. Training lessons are held twice and sometimes three times a day and take 4-5 hours. This problem is also important for bicyclists, who take part in long-term races, skiers and biathletes. They start several times during several days and for tennis players [2,17,18].
In terms of often used specialized nutritional supplements for athletes (very often called "sports nutrition", especially among fitnesstrainers) there appears the necessity to know the peculiarities of different biochemical, physiological and pathophysiological processes in an organism during intensive and long-term physical loads. It is also important to know ergogenic character of pharmacological drugs and the drugs used for sports-medical pathology treatment. Steady connection between nutritional supplements and the drugs, created for the definite aims of clinical medicine, couldn't take into consideration important peculiarities of the latter. Organism metabolism during intensive physical loads have the restricted spectrum of use (nosology) and don't correspond with the peculiarities of training periods. Taking into account organizational and technological breakthrough in the sphere of new ergogenic substances creation for sport, we come to the conclusion that modern nutritional supplements are created especially for the conditions of the loads. They very often take into account the mechanisms of energy supply, all metabolic peculiarities of an organism during intensive physical loads. They have a wide spectrum of application and are able to "compensate" almost all metabolic processes in homeostatic balance of an organism support. They
correspond with energetic orientation, volume of training loads in the dynamics of a yearly macrocycle of training. Dietary supplements are widely spread in elite sport. For example, our observations showed that more than 70% of coaches support nutritional supplements use and recommend them. More than 90% of the coaches think that special nutritional supplements use provides training process quality and results improvement. The variety of nutritional supplements, their compatibility with different products and rehabilitation means give a qualified nutritionist the opportunity to present effective programs of intensive training process and competitive activity support with minimal risk of negative consequences. Nutritional supplements shouldn't be used without any control. They are based on some advertisement and the pieces of not specialists advice.
The peculiarities of metabolism revelation during nutrients assimilation at the cellular and sub-cellular level helped to define the athlete's needs for the separate components of nutrition ration, define their optimal ratio. It is necessary for physical working capacity improvement, adaptation to the loads and negative factors of environment, rehabilitation processes of an organism activation.
That is why it is necessary to create specialized nutrition for athletes, special products of the increased nutrition value and also dietary supplements (biologically active food supplement) as important nutrition factors of ergogenic orientation.
Nowadays not all athletes understand the importance of choosing correct balanced nutrition. Although they are attracted by great variety of nutritional supplements for success achievement. According to the studied sources [2,5] depending on the specificity of the kinds of sport, level of competitiveness 40-100% of athletes usually use different nutritional supplements or functional products of sports nutrition. They can be called "ergogenic nutrition means" [7].
However, if an athlete doesn't have deficiency of nutrient substances additional nutrients can have negative influence on physical and functional readiness indices, psychological state of an athlete, his health and quality of life.
Nowadays all aspects of nutritional and dietary supplements in elite sport are regulated by IOC Consensus published in March, 2018. IOC Consensus regulates nutritional supplements use among elite athletes and became a regulating document for a sports doctor and sports nutritionist [10]. This Consensus is an expert testimony with the leading nutritionists' and sports medicine specialists' recommendations. They are based on the detailed analysis of the latest achievements in sports science. It formulates the notion of ergogenic nutrition means. It gives an opportunity to reconsider pharmacological supply system of sports training in European and especially post-Soviet countries, making it closer to world standards.
Strategic directions of Consensus realization are the following: physical working capacity stimulation and rehabilitation processes acceleration, athletes' health preservation during rational and substantiated use of nutrient substances, products of functional nutrition and the separate nutrients.
The methods of motor activity nutritional support should take into account athletes' specialization and qualification, their gender and age-related characteristics and use them depending on the period of training and loads orientation. In terms of doping control improvement it is important to control the following: that sports nutrition products and nutritional supplements, widely used in sport, don't have substances, which are included into Forbidden list World Anti-Doping Agency -WADA [6,7,9,11]. In elite sport athletes can use nutritional supplements. But it can lead to unexpected negative influence on their competitive activity effectiveness. They can be suspended from sport for a long time period. In this connection it is necessary to discuss medical, physiological, cultural and ethical questions for information provision. It is necessary for different nutritional supplements or functional products choice with the evident ergogenic effect [11].
Modern coaches (and modern specialists in the sphere of sports pharmacology and sports nutrition) should know not only conceptual construct, but also be ready to use science achievements for their introduction into practice
of training highly-qualified athletes at all stages of yearly macrocycle. Unfortunately, at post-Soviet area there are no qualified specialists in the sphere of sports pharmacology. Sports nutrition and knowledge that is given to the future coaches during their professional training at higher educational establishments doesn't correspond with world standards and demands.
Organizational steps of a rational nutrition provision and substantiated dietary supplements and pharmacological ergogenic means use in sport.
The considered problem is very difficult and it can be solved only by the group of highly-qualified specialists. Unfortunately, at post-Soviet area management of national teams and the separate elite athletes and also sports schools for children and teen-agers provision is at a low level. Nevertheless, for high effectiveness of competitive process we need complex efforts. A sports doctor should provide life quality and health state, medical control, diseases, traumas and sports-medical pathology treatment. A sports pharmacologist should provide pharmacological support of the training process, chose drugs if an athlete is ill and solve the problems of doping. A sports nutritionists should substantiate energy and nutrition saturation of the rations, their formation, correction in the dynamics of training. He or she should provide safety and effectiveness of dietary supplements use with the proved ergogenic effectiveness. They provide general health level support of an athlete.
Medical departments of higher educational establishments at post-Soviet area provide for the necessary sports doctors contingent. The following specialties don't even exist in Professions classifier of our countries: "sports pharmacologist" and "sports nutritionists". Sports dietology Master's degree program, started in 2017 at a National University of Physical Education and Sport in Ukraine, didn't solve the problem of specialists deficiency as student enrollment was organized without taking into account previous education. Most graduates didn't plan to work in the sphere of elite sport. It shows not high level of organizational notification and preliminary selection.
Organizational problems solution of nutritional and pharmacological factors use of
organized by the federations of different kinds of sport, especially by the federations, which expect to get medals in the Olympic Games.
This problem solution provides high effectiveness of competitive activity as well as a rational training process organization [2]. In order to solve it we will need political willpower, realized elite sport understanding as one of the key factors of Ukraine and Republic of Belarus image formation at the international arena and also regional financing of this direction at the level, which will provide stability of its full-rate and effective work.
Conclusion
Thus, the existing difficult situation in postSoviet areas is conditioned on the one hand by the need for highly-qualified specialists in the sphere of rational nutrition, nutrition and pharmacological support of the training process and the need of coaches for such kind of knowledge, especially among coaches of the national teams and on the other hand, by the absence of conditions for such qualified specialists formation. This problem can be solved with the help of organizational steps of the profile Ministries, National Olympic committees, higher educational establishments, which will help to teach the definite number of specialists, who have necessary new knowledge, for the main physiological functions of an organism support in terms of intensive and long-term physical loads and for competitive activity effectiveness increase and also functional specialists teaching from the sphere of sports doctors-sports pharmacologists and nutritionists, who are able to create highly-individualized health-improving programs of training process support.
ergogenic orientation in sport, first of all elite sport, should be, in our opinion, oriented in several directions:
1. Taking into consideration the needs of sport, including the Olympic Sport, in each country for sports pharmacologists and nutritionists.
2. Sufficient number of specialists training ofthe corresponding profile andqualification on the basis of higher educational establishments in physical culture and sport sphere (sports nutritionist, masters, the second higher education) medical higher educational establishments (sports pharmacologist, Master's degree program).
3. Providing national teams for the specialists, who are able to solve the set objectives and control the effectiveness of their work in terms of the corresponding level of salary.
4. Sufficient financial support of the national teams for providing corresponding pharmacological and nutritional support.
5. Providing the specialist in a national team, who knows modern out-of-training ergogenic means and organizational algorithm of provision (finances: their provision, control, distribution; buying: directly or indirectly, choosing firms and shops, control over anti-dote certificates if it is necessary).
Understanding that it is impossible to solve these problems in modern realias of sport and health safety management both in Ukraine and Republic of Belarus. It is reasonable to offer other ways for this problems solution:
1. Not taking into consideration the specificity of a kind of sport some events can be held:
- lectures organization for coaches and sports doctors of the leading national teams connected with the basis of sports nutritiology (duration: starting from 5 days);
- interactive seminars organization in terms of these lectures;
- lectures and seminars inclusion into the work of such educational establishments as "Higher school for coaches" of the Republic of Belarus.
2. Taking into account the specificity of kinds of sport courses and seminars can be
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Author's information:
Larisa M. Gunina* - Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor, National Anti-dope Center of the Ukraine, 03039, Ukraine, Kiev, Goloseevskiy ave., House 15А, kv. 88, e-mail: [email protected]* Lyudmila V. Kudina - Deputy Head, Graduate School Coaches of the Belarusian State University of Physical Culture, 220092, Belarus, Minsk, St. B. Bierut, House 17/4 Block 128, e-mail: [email protected]