Abstract
Athletes are increasingly incorporating resistance training into their conditioning programs in an attempt to enhance strength and power. Adaptation to the resistance training stimulus is influenced by a wide array of variables including the overall training program and training experience of the athlete, as well as their gender and genotype, plus variables like nutritional status. Nutrition plays an important role in three aspects of training for strength-power athletes: fuelling of sport-specific and strength training, recovery from this training, and the promotion of training adaptations, including skeletal muscle hypertrophy. However, it is the impact of various dietary interventions on skeletal muscle hypertrophy that has received the greatest research attention in recent years. Consequently, the understanding of manipulations in protein intake, including timing, dose and quality of ingested protein, have progressed to a point where well informed, evidence based guidance is available. Attention has also been given to the myriad of single or multi-ingredient dietary supplements purported to promote hypertrophy. Less is known about the impact of manipulating other macronutrients and total energy intake on resistance training responses. This presentation will summarise the existing scientific literature relating to manipulation of dietary intake to facilitate resistance training adaptations, including practical strategies to facilitate integration of these interventions into the meal plans of strength-power athletes.