Daniel Davey is a performance nutritionist who is working with the Dublin footballers and the Leinster rugby team. He's previously spent time as a strength and conditioning coach, so knows exactly what it takes to be able to perform at a top level.
In the latest video of the Laya Healthcare #BehindTheTeam series, he has been going through what an average week looks like for the Leinster players. There's no doubt that the Leinster squad always fuel up properly before a match.
Davey tells us what the average daily diet of a player consists of:
Leinster players' diet:
Morning :
Porridge with fresh berries, nuts and seeds. Alongside some eggs, mushrooms, grilled tomatoes.
Post training snack -
Potatoes, rice or noodles with a beef or chicken breast stir-fry, bolognese or something similar
Afternoon -
Recovery smoothie with bananas, berries, yogurt, whey and some juice
Late afternoon -
Rice cakes with nut butter, sliced apples and a salad. With a glass of milk
Evening -
A large dinner with fish (salmon), haddock, cod), salad and roast veg
Late snack -
Yogurt, mixed berries and/or nut butter. Some prefer dark chocolate with green tea.
Calorie count per day: 3,500-4,500
The idea of a bolognese being a post-training snack is incredible, considering a hearty ragu would usually fill a normal person. But it's not like they get their food served to them - Davey claims that there's plenty of talented cooks in the squad, with one back row in particular being singled out
Rhys Ruddock tries a lot and posts new recipes. Overall, the team are great for making their own smoothies and stuff like that. It's good to see them take responsibility
When asked about what advice he'd give to the future generation of Irish sports stars , the coach stresses the importance of looking to their Mam and Dad.
One thing I would say more than anything that would help young sportspeople to improve nutrition is to learn from their parents to improve their cooking skills. The easier they can do that, the easier they can reach their requirements.
But what's the one thing that teams can do to help them be successful? Make sure you get your recovery right
What I have learned most from working with Leinster and Dublin is to be consistent. The reason why top players are successful is because they're consistent. There's so many teams who don't even have a consistent recovery snack with them. If you're not consistent with your recovery, you won't get the most out of your training sessions.
If you have flavoured milk or nuts or berries after each training session, you will get stronger and your performance will get better
You can see the full video below:
