Sports Nutrition

Paul Stridgeon, National Fitness Coach for the Rugby Football Union, has ordered more Coco-Jacks, the winning England International Rugby teams favourite flapjacks, for the England Saxons team to help in their fitness build up to their Churchill Cup Tour next month. Paul, a great advocate of Coconoil Virgin Coconut Oil and Coco-Jacks, believes enhanced performance through excellent nutrition should begin young and he is also feeding Coco-Jacks to the players at the Rugby World Cup Mini Camps.?

Coconoil were invited up to Sale Sharks training ground at Carrington to watch the team train before their clash against Premiership holders Saracens. Nigel Ashley Jones, who is Performance Manager at Sale Sharks said "Coconoil is a fantastic product which is still relative new to the market, the benefits of incorporating the product into the players daily intake helps us gain the edge in sports nutrition. Virgin Coconut Oil is not only a fan of the players but also with the staff at Sale Sharks!"

Coconoil...where do I start? I got into triathlon a bit at 39years old, well began cyling and added a bit of running to my basic keep fit weekly swim. Two years later and after finding out the buzz of actually competeing, I decided to look a bit more into nutrition as I was under the impression you had to eat as much as possible to create the energy required! Also being a vegetarian, I was looking for a source of good fats.

It was then I stumbled over an article on Coconut oil and its various uses. Having tried various high sugar/carb foods and still trying to run on a full belly, I thought I've nothing to lose and bought my first 480grm tub of Coconoil. Gradually I began to find I wasn't craving high sugar foods and drinks and although not looking to lose weight I lost just over 3/4 of a stone (I'm 6ft 4in and was nearly 15 stone). This in turn made my bike run sections a lot better and no longer need a big feed before an event.

That was four years ago and I now regulary compete in various tri's up to and including Ironman, along with running and mountain biking events. One particular time I remember, a team of four of us were doing a 24hr mountain bike event in the middle of Winter through ice and snow, it was about 1 a.m one of my team mates saw me stirring a spoon of Coconoil into a cup of soup, I told him to try some. When he'd done his lap of the course, his report back was, "I don't know what it's meant to do but that was one of my fastest laps!"

The way I incorporate Coconoil in my diet is three dessert spoons into pinhead oatmeal each morning (or porridge oats works the same), which I find digest so rapidly I can swim within 30mins of eating. Having read that Coconoil is the only fat that goes directly to your liver and three spoons daily is all the body really needs for normal day to day activities. I've put it to the test numerous times and it really is the case of if your body doesn't use it, it will expell the remaining oil, without any upset stomachs or uncomfortable situations!

Other uses I personally have adopted are any dry skin areas, muscle rubs, oil pulling ie cleaning the mouth, never use butter or marg for cooking etc. Suprisingly I use it as a chamois cream on bike and although it absorbs quickly into the skin, I've yet to get any saddle sores, but yet to try it over 2 hour cycles. You may also notice I find it hard to stop praising the the stuff once I get going!

On a final note I'll say that over the years of regulary ordering from Garry Stiven's at Coconoil, the service has been second to none along with the helpful advice he has supplied. Give it a go, some might find it an aquired taste, but you soon get used to it and end up craving your daily fix.

Highly successful Super League XV1 team Wigan warriors have been incorporating Coconoil's Virgin Coconut Oil in to their daily diet since the beginning of the 2011 season.

Stuart Fielden of Wigan Warriors and England one of World Rugby Leagues fittest players has been a long time believer in the benefits for atheletes of consuming Virgin Coconut Oil. Stuart has been instrumental in the decision by Wigan's Head of Sports Science, Mark Bitcon, to make sure all the Warriors get their daily quota of Coconut Oil by incorporating Coconoil in all the meals eaten by the players in the dining room at their training ground.

Coconoil's Virgin Coconut Oil is not only a hit with Mark, the players and Stuart who says "I have used Coconoil for the last 2 years and have found the many benefits ranging from weight loss, enhanced immunity and increased performance. I use it pre game to help boost energy levels and to help recovery. The best thing is you can cook anything in it and it is still healthy". It is also vey popular with Wigan Warrior's Head Chef Pauline Edridge who enthuses "I cook every meal with Coconoil for the players. We use a variety of cooking methods and Coconoil is by far the best cooking oil in terms of producing large quantities of quality meals for our squad".

Mark who is one of the UK's leading Elite Sport's Scientists also works with elite athletes from other dsiciplines says of Coconoil's Virgin Coconut Oil "Coconoil is an excellent product that our whole squad uses. Definitely a must for all elite sportsmen and women".?

Gavin Allinson is a certified Sports Nutritionist and gives his guide on how to eat like an Olympian. Allinson says virgin olive oil is best for salad dressings but the frying pan needs coconut oil to boost immunity. Click here to read the full article which is featured in the Mail Online.

Coconoil met Head Chef, Paul Garner at Sale Sharks training ground - "The Coconoil product helps give us the nutritional edge over our competitors".

Along with 17 other crews, the Tiger Team (Richard and Helena) are taking part The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge 2011, which is scheduled to start on Sunday, 4th December 2011 just outside the harbour of San Sebastian de La Gomera, a small island just west of Tenerife in the Canary Islands.

The finish is just outside Port St Charles, Barbados, some 2,549 nautical miles away as the petrel flies. As they're rowing a big cat not a bird, their actual route will be up to 1,000nm longer, as they will initially head south to pick up the trade winds, and will also likely be blown backwards from time to time.

Mixed 2-person crews mostly take anything from 60 to 90 days for Atlantic crossings, and this is heavily affected by the weather conditions. In fact, it has been suggested that only 30% of the crossing speed is attributable to rowing activity. The Canaries to Caribbean route is MEANT to benefit from trade winds at this time of year, but 9 times out of 10, the prevailing wind doesn't prevail. The record for married couples is 53 days, which is impressive, and Tiger Team have no intention of flogging themselves in order to try and beat it! Yes, it's a race, but think of them like the fun runners in the London Marathon. They are, after all, in a tiger.

And as people often ask, no, they won't be stopping off anywhere en route for supplies (apart from anything else, if they came across any land en route they'd be quite seriously off-course), no, there isn't a yacht along side them all the time, or really any of the time, and no, they won't be rowing in a group with the other boats. Whether or not they'll be rowing in the buff is for us to know and you to wonder about.

For those who are interested and don't already know, as at November 2011, there have been 295 successful ocean rows, mostly by Brits, mostly of the Atlantic and mostly in pairs. So far 72 women have rowed an ocean, and 3 married couples have done so (two American, one British). A great many more statstics can be found on the website of the Ocean Rowing Society.

"Coconoil Virgin Coconut Oil is one the most versatile, effective completely natural nutritional sports supplements that I recommend to all my players. Coconoil is a wonderful energy source for building lean muscle and stamina as well as having health giving properties that keep my players training and playing to full potential all season. Awesome!!"