How to prepare a sports and food program?

Do you want to get back into sport and eat healthy to get back in shape? Establishing a sports and nutrition program is not easy when you start from scratch. However, having a sports training program to follow is a great way to get back into sports little by little. This will allow you to be regular and progressive in your rhythm. Together, let's discover how to create a sports and nutrition program to return to sport.

State your situation in terms of sport and diet

Before preparing a program, whatever it is, you need to take stock of your sporting level and the way you eat. The objective is simply to know your starting point, to adapt your point of arrival! Thus, you will make the point:

On your sporting level:

Don't be too ambitious or too lazy. The goal is not to hurt you, nor to force too much from the first week. The goal is also not to perform exercises that are too easy for you. There are many sports and some may be more suited to your needs. So take stock of your current sporting activity and your abilities, by asking yourself a few questions, for example, here is a non-exhaustive list:

How many workouts do I do each week?

How long do these sessions last?

What is the level of difficulty of these sessions?

What sport do you practice during these sessions? (bodybuilding, running, etc.)

Do you have any particular pain or contraindications to certain sports?

What are your goals in terms of performance or consistency?

On your diet:

You should neither deprive yourself nor stuff yourself. It is important to know your energy needs and expenditure each day, your morphology, or your eating habits throughout the day. Your tastes are of course important, food should remain a pleasure throughout your sports training program. So, ask yourself a few questions, for example:

What is your daily energy expenditure?

What are your water needs?

What are your protein needs?

What are your needs in electrolytes, vitamins, and trace elements?

How many times do you eat each day?

What is your portion size?

What foods do you like or dislike?

What is the food budget?

Do you have any allergies, intolerances, or contraindications?

Do you take dietary supplements?

Prepare your sports training program

sports training program exercises

In the first part of this article, we will first look at how to set up a sports training program. It will take a little organization and patience, but will pay off when you see yourself moving significantly towards your goals!

What are your sporting goals?

To achieve goals, you still need to have them! So, it is important to set yourself short, medium, and long-term goals. The long term, depending on the magnitude of your goals, can be months or years. Your program will not provide for years of exercise, but you can evolve it over time so that it lasts.

You will use the principle of SMART objectives to be more efficient. SMART is an acronym meaning:

Specific, for example, concerning the duration of your sessions, the number of exercises…

Measurable, they must be quantifiable, you must know when you have reached them.

Ambitious, Acceptable, both ambitious to evolve, but acceptable so as not to hurt yourself

Realistic, so as not to discourage troops along the way

Temporarily defined, to take stock of your progress regularly.

To prepare your program and to meet your objectives, we strongly recommend that you create a Bullet Journal or follow a productivity journal, in which you can list your different actions, and tasks, and notice your evolution over time.

What are your possibilities?

In defining your sporting goals, you will also have to take into account your possibilities and limits. These can be various:

Physical about what your body can handle

Time to devote to it

Energy

Material

Awareness

Budget

By identifying these limits, you will be better able to plan a program commensurate with what you can provide, and therefore, you will set more realistic goals. By noticing your shortcomings, you can also solve them and improve your knowledge of sports exercises, for example, or free up more time and budget.