By Page Love, MS, RD, CSSD, LD, PTR, and Ethan Rolnick, Summer Nutrition Intern
Even at the highest-quality tournaments, many racquet sports players may not be taking advantage of all the tools available to enhance their performance. Often, players do not hydrate optimally, don’t eat properly, and don’t fully recover. In fact, many may not realize just how much hydrating fluids and carbohydrate fuels we need. Last issue, we focused on how to assess hydration needs. This issue, we will focus on the most popular and beneficial nutrition, hydration, and fitness apps that can help your fueling, hydration, diet, nutrition, and recovery for improved on-court performance.
For example, there are apps to ensure we are eating the right nutrients to help us perform better. But what about training? There are apps to help players see if they are consistently getting better and developing their skills. But, perhaps most important is recovery. No matter how hard a person trains, they will only get better if they let their body fully recover. There are apps that can let a person know if they are recovering optimally and where they can improve. Plus, users can monitor their sleep, which is a crucial component of recovery.
Wearable Technology
WHOOP is an app and connected device that can track a person’s biometrics 24/7. The app allows users to view their sleep, recovery, and other important health metrics. Furthermore, the app can provide personalized recommendations. Regarding nutrition, there is a daily journal feature where users can log their hydration levels, nutrition choices, and their supplement intake. For example, this app could show a player if they have poor hydration, which could lead to lower recovery scores, a higher resting heart rate, and an increased heat illness risk. The combination of physiological data could give users positive feedback regarding what they consume and how they perform and recover.
Samsung Health-Sweat analysis function is a feature of Samsung Health that works like a sweat loss estimator. It is available for people who have a Galaxy Watch. This analysis measures how much fluid a person loses during a running-type exercise. This function also shows users their heart rate, their steps per minute, and their distance. This can be beneficial to users in many ways since racquet sports players can lose significant fluids during matches. This app can help players know how much water or electrolytes they need post-match, how they should be hydrating before matches, and whether they are dehydrated. The app also can let a player know how much sweat they are losing based on the environment, such as a hot climate or cold climate, or an indoor court versus an outdoor court. Samsung also offers a Health-Workout Detection & Tracking feature: This can track heart rate, calories burned, movement intensity, V02 Max, and heart rate zones, which is beneficial for optimizing training by measuring cardiovascular intensity during rally points. This feature also can track steps and give players recovery insights for better match preparation.
Garmin is a smartwatch and fitness tracker designed for people with active lifestyles. The app has a built-in GPS that can track a player’s position, distance, and speed. This is great for players who want to analyze their movement on the court. The watch also has a heart rate monitor, and on select models there is a pulse oximeter which can measure blood oxygen levels to help players see how they are doing when it comes to recovery and endurance. Lastly, the app has an accelerometer which can detect quick and short movements. All of these functions can be beneficial to racquet sports players for tracking on-court movement, gaining recovery insights, and monitoring training intensity.
Fitbit is a wearable that can measure a user’s heart rate, steps, sleep quality, how active they are, and what foods they eat. The app allows users to monitor calories burned during training sessions and matches. Players also can use the hydration logging feature to input how many fluids they get every day to ensure optimal hydration. Players also can take advantage of the stress and recovery tools such as mindfulness and breathing sessions. And for anyone who is looking for a little extra motivation, they can join group challenges and make new friends through Fitbit communities. Lastly, players can use the goal setting and progress tracking features. To set themselves apart from their rivals, Fitbit focuses on everyday wellness for everybody, not just for athletes. It accomplishes this by showing that health monitoring is approachable, not intimidating.
Food/Nutrition Intake Tracking Apps
Macrofactor is a science-based nutrition and macro tracking app designed to help users optimize their diets. This app uses a dynamic algorithm that adapts to your calorie and macro targets weekly, based on real-time metabolism, body weight trends, and goals. The app can help players ensure they are eating enough to fuel high-quality performance, recovering optimally in between practices and matches, and staying within a healthy body composition range to support speed, agility, and endurance. A cool feature of this app is that it has progress charts, which make it easier to visualize trends in body weight and calorie intake. This could be helpful to racquet sports athletes because it can help them track how much food they are eating and what kinds of food they are eating, which will have a major impact on performance.
Cronometer is an accurate science-based nutrition tracking app that counts calories while also focusing on macronutrients. Users also can track their water intake, energy balance, and certain biometrics like heart rate and weight. Since tennis players lose key electrolytes through match play, this app can help them track and replenish those electrolytes. The app also can help players track their protein, iron, and vitamin intake to ensure they are recovering optimally. Coaches also can take advantage of Cronometer by monitoring their players’ diet and ensuring that they are eating enough high-quality and nutritious food.
See How You Eat (SHYE) is a visual food diary that focuses on mindful eating and healthy habit building by encouraging users to take pictures of their meals. The main goal is to make food tracking simpler and faster for people who do not want to count their calories. The app’s minimalist design and data entry keep everything simple. The app also helps users notice patterns, such as late-night eating or meal skipping. This app can be especially useful for tennis players because they need consistent fuel intake for energy and performance. SHYE can help players track meal timing, making it easier to spot and fix any possible gaps in their nutrition. It also will help them see what they are eating before and after matches, letting the players know what works best for their energy and endurance levels. Lastly, the SHYE app is perfect for racquet sports athletes who want to track their overall health and nutrition but find themselves limited on time.
Macronutrient Tracking Apps
MyFitnessPal is designed to help users track their nutrition, exercise, and overall wellness goals. This app can be especially beneficial for people who want to track their calorie intake and physical activity. MyFitnessPal is unique because it has a huge food database, including restaurant meals and branded products. Users simply access the built-in barcode scanner for easy logging of packaged foods. The app also features a sense of community as users can join forums, add friends, and get support from each other. This app can be useful for players who want to optimize their energy intake and make sure they are eating enough carbs and calories to meet their expenditure needs. The app also can help racquet sports athletes by tracking their fluids and sodium/potassium-rich foods to ensure they will not have any cramps or dehydration issues — especially during tournament play.
Lose It! is similar to My Fitness Pal in that it can help users lose or maintain weight by logging food and exercise. The app also can assist people with personalized health goals. It is beginner-friendly, visually appealing, and is focused on simplicity and accountability. This app can be beneficial to tennis players monitoring their calorie intake vs. calories burned, for logging training sessions, monitoring their heart rate and movement, and viewing caloric and weight trends.
Page Love is an avid ALTA participant and sport dietitian/nutrition advisor for the WTA and ATP professional tours. She serves on the USTA sport science committee, consults with Resurgens Orthopaedics, and has a private practice in Sandy Springs. You can reach her at nutrifitga.com. Ethan Rolnick is a rising junior at Yeshiva University and currently is finishing his dietetic internship.
