We spoke to INEOS TEAM UK Head of Human Performance Ben Williams on the importance of weight management in an America’s Cup campaign and the advice he gives to our athletes to ensure they gain or lose weight in the right way.
To catch up on this series read our previous features by following these links:
- Maintaining muscle mass & strength
- Biological clocks
- Supporting the immune system
- Training adaptations
- Hydration
Hi Ben, for the final part of our series we are taking a look at weight management. To start, can you explain why managing our sailor’s body weight is so important to our team’s success?
Firstly, we are a weight restricted sport. We have to weigh in as a crew at an average weight of 90KG per person.
Across our squad not everyone has a job that is bias towards physical output like the grinders who produce the power for sailing. Our helmsman and wing trimmer, for example, don’t drive any power banks and as such would be a compromise of kilograms if they were to be that heavy when those producing the power for the boat need to be big and powerful.
This drives some of our body weight allocation. The afterguard (helm, wing and pilot) are all required to be light so we can get our grinders heavier and more powerful.
Then bodyweight itself is split into lean and fat mass. We want our populations lean, healthy and not carrying excess body fat as, again, this could be distributed amongst our grinding populations in lean mass.
In terms of health, both these elements provide a challenge. We want our afterguard light and lean but also robust, healthy and available so they are not getting sick or injured. Restricting intake programs can sometimes impact health markers so we have to be diligent in how we reduce athletes’ weight whilst mitigating against things like “relative energy deficiency” (REDs) which can impact performance both physically and cognitively.
We want our grinders, however, to be big and powerful so they can absorb the load of long days on the water avoiding injury as well as not carrying excess body fat. The challenge here is to fuel training and performance but not too much that the athletes gain excess weight. It is also about understanding when to fuel them, as they are burning through 5000-6000kcals a day they often get hungry. Finding the appropriate food/fuel sources for the task in hand is important.
© HARRY KH
Working with partners such as Science in Sport (SiS) and KX help us understand all of these challenges and provide bespoke intake programs as well as health and fuel supplements to support performance.
What is some of the advice you give to ensure the sailors gain or lose body weight in the right way?
I would say firstly you need to understand the goal. If we want to increase an athlete’s strength and power then we focus on developing the correct periodised training program and marry that up with appropriate fuelling for each training session, as well as a food program that will optimise recovery and growth.
On the other hand, if we want to reduce an athlete’s body weight we will develop a schedule that’s safe for the athlete as well as a fuelling strategy to help them reduce. We may use strategies such as fasted cardiovascular training as well as a small calorie deficit over a block of training to achieve this, whilst increasing their immunity support and monitor metrics to make sure they do not overreach.
Essentially, we periodise their training and make sure we are not rushing the process and putting our athletes at risk.
How does the advice change over the course of the campaign – do the sailors expend more calories in or out of competition for example?
It all depends on what phase we are in. If we are doing long days on the water then the priority is to develop the boat and as such our goal is to fuel the sailors to ensure they don’t hit the wall after six hours of grinding and ensure they can recover ready for the next day. To help with that they may use home-made snacks by Chef Nick Holt as well as carb drinks and gels from SiS.
If we are developing race fitness on the water then it’s likely that the training will be more intense and sailors will require more support for that density of activity. For this we may add stimulants like SiS caffeine gels and shots as well as buffering agents like SiS Surge.
If we have a block of land training each session will have a recommended fuelling and recovery strategy to optimise the outcome of that session.
© Harry KH
If we are approaching weigh-in we may shift focus to squad body fat and customise individuals intakes to ensure we weigh-in for racing.
Essentially, we use food and supplements to drive the health and fitness outcomes of our athletic program. Depending on the phase this could be focussed on health and immunity, body weight, strength and power or recovery, amongst other elements. My key take away would be to understand what you are trying to achieve and make sure you have the correct health support, fuel and recovery to succeed.
The INEOS TEAM UK squad is fuelled by Science in Sport's newly launched Performance Solutions programme, a ground-breaking sports research and nutrition service designed to elevate elite teams and athletes to the next level of performance. Read more here.