Dietary

Step 1 - Fuel your workouts and training sessions

Eating 5-6 small meals a day provides your body with a constant fuel supply. Skipping meals may leave you feeling lethargic as your body is lacking the required nutrients for energy and recovery. Eat balanced meals containing complex carbohydrates, protein, good fats and fibre. Using a quality carbohydrate drink, will keep you hydrated and give you the essential energy you need to train hard, delay fatigue and recover effectively. Training causes you to sweat and lose water. Not replacing this water will cause dehydration. When you are dehydrated your performance suffers. Research shows the best way to re-hydrate/ stay hydrated is to drink an isotonic carbohydrate drink with added electrolytes.

Step 2 - Eat sufficient protein

A lack of quality protein will result in loss of speed, slower recovery and lack of energy. To gain muscle power and speed, extra protein from high quality sources is a must.

Step 3 - Creatine could improve many different aspects of your game

When you exert your muscles, especially during high intensity resistance training, your muscle fibres are naturally broken down. Your body overcompensates for this, so you are able to do the same amount of exercise with less effort next time. This is known as the 'training effect'. The primary source of energy during these high intensity efforts, such as lifting weights, sprinting and jumping is creatine phosphate stored in the muscle. Creatine is also excellent for increasing recovery between sprints, making it perfect for sports like rugby which have bouts of high intensity effort (tackles, sprints, scrummaging etc…) followed by short rest periods.

Step 4 - Extra calories - if you're trying to increase size

The most effective way to get bigger is a strategy combining exercise and good nutrition. It's vital to pay attention to both halves of this formula. If you're completing the correct exercise but not eating adequate calories you'll find it impossible to increase muscle mass significantly. The key is to eat regular meals (every 2 - 3 hours) and increase daily calories to 500 above your weight maintenance figure.

Step 5 - Minimise chances of injury

There is nothing more frustrating than making great progress, only to get injured. It can set your training back weeks, sometimes even months. There is hardly a player nationwide from the Sunday leagues to the Premiership who will go a whole season without picking up a niggling injury. Although, thankfully, these are seldom serious they do interfere with training can impair match day performance and could cause you to miss matches. Ensuring you eat sufficient protein, especially after training and matches, will help your muscles to recover quickly, but you can also use sports nutrition to help protect your joints, ligaments and tendons.