Rise Nutrition

Rise Nutrition I'm Jay Short, a Registered Dietitian and Performance Expert. Join the community for research, recipes, tips & more.

I created Rise Nutrition to bring you a different type of nutrition coaching that is focused on you & your goals.

06/02/2026

There's a hydration mistake that quietly costs soccer players the second half. And it doesn't feel like a mistake when you're making it.

Most players think hydration happens on the sidelines. Drink some water at halftime, sip between subs, call it good.

Research tells a different story. In a study on elite athletes, decision-making was 7% slower BEFORE exercise began in players who arrived dehydrated. The mental cost was already locked in before the first touch. Once the game began and they did drink, performance partially recovered. But the first 15 minutes were already compromised.

Pre-game hydration status predicts in-game drinking behavior and performance more than sweat rate does. The fluid you drink the day before sets the baseline and plays a big role in the fluid you compete with.

Save this for tournament season. Full hydration guide link in my bio.

06/01/2026

Two soccer players on the same team, same uniform and same training session. Despite all that in common, one can lose ten times more sodium per liter of sweat than the other.

That's why one walks off the field fine and the other is cramping by the 75th minute. It’s the same overall conditions but different physiology.

Now there are a lot of factors that can contribute to a cramp but this is one of them.

The simplest awareness check costs nothing. Have your athlete wear a dark training shirt to their next session and after training, look at the shirt. White streaks around the neck, arms, or back means significant sodium loss. That one piece of information changes everything about what to drink going into summer.

Tag a teammate who cramps in heat as they very well may need to see this.

06/01/2026

Your halftime is a 15-minute fuel stop and most players use it like a parking lot.

Formula One pit stops take under 3 seconds. The crew refuels the car, gives the driver feedback, and sends them back out faster than they came in. The window is short and the work is specific. Nobody parks the car and nobody leaves it idle because every second of that 3-second window does a specific job.

Soccer halftime is the same opportunity, scaled to 15 minutes. The few players who actually use it play differently in the second half.

In a study of elite academy soccer players, those who used a carb-electrolyte drink before each half had 9 percent better passing accuracy in the second half with their dominant foot. And 13 percent better with their non-dominant foot. That's real performance which can be the difference between the pass that hits your teammate's run and the one that goes out for a goal kick.

Here's how to test it on yourself. At your next match, set a mental timer for the last 5 minutes of halftime. Make sure you are finishing your sports drink and snack then with at least 30 grams of carbs in total for halftime.

After the match, ask one question. Did your passing in the last 30 minutes feel as sharp as the first 30?

05/30/2026

For game day: here's the halftime playbook in three short segments.

Minutes 1 to 10. Hydrate with sports drink and snack as feels comfortable. Listen to your coach. Settle your breathing. Take care of any equipment issues. This is the recovery part.

Minutes 10 to 13. Finish your sports drink and snack. About 30 grams of carbs total during the half and 12 to 16 ounces of fluid. A banana with water works. An applesauce pouch and pretzels with water works. Whatever you've practiced with works. This is the refuel part.

Minutes 13 to 15. Get up and move. 60 seconds of high knees, jumping jacks, or a light jog. This brings muscle temperature back up. This is the re-warm part.

Walk back onto the pitch with the carbs hitting and your body primed for the second half. Most of the other team will be walking out cold and underfueled. Time to take advantage.

Try this at your next match and let me know how it goes!

Recover. Refuel. Re-warm.

05/29/2026

The second-half fade pattern has a cluster of symptoms that show up almost identically across players.

Legs get tight around the 65th to 70th minute, decisions slow down, mistakes happen that you wouldn't make in the first half and by the final whistle you look mentally checked out. After the match you're exhausted in a way you weren't expecting.

If 2 of those 3 show up in most of your matches this season, the fix is rarely more conditioning.

It's almost always halftime habits and in-game fueling decisions that nobody ever taught you. Maybe the pre-match meal that wasn't quite right. Or the water-only halftime that left you short on sodium and carbs. Perhaps it was the 15 minutes of sitting that left your muscles tight and your brain low on fuel before the second half even started.

In a study of elite academy players, those who used a carb-electrolyte drink at halftime had 13% better high-intensity running capacity in the second half. That's a measurable difference between potentially staying in the game and watching the play go past you.

In my free 15-minute Discovery Call we can walk through what's actually happening in your matches and what specifically to change. No pressure, just a clear assessment and a clear plan you can use at the next match.

Link in bio to book.

05/28/2026

Most players think of halftime fueling as fuel for the legs. Get the carbs in, keep the muscles working, finish strong.

Half the story.

Your brain runs on glucose too. And research shows that when blood glucose falls below a certain point, brain function starts to decline. That cutoff has been crossed by soccer players during actual matches and isn’t terribly uncommon.

This is why the late-game mistakes feel different from late-game tired legs.

The pass to a teammate you wouldn't miss in the first half, the defender on your blind side you didn't see or the always painful shot fired off-target from a spot you'd bury in training. Those aren't always focus problems.

They're often fuel problems and specifically brain fuel.

Plain water at halftime hydrates you but it doesn't fuel your brain. It doesn't replace the carbohydrates that your brain is burning across 90 minutes of high-intensity work.

Your halftime drink and snack should ideally hit at least 30 grams of carbs. Sports drink, fruit snacks, banana, energy gel, animal crackers, etc. are all great. Food with a beverage in hand is always best as your stomach tolerates. Format matters less than getting the carbs in.

The mistakes you make in the second half aren't always about losing focus. Sometimes you've just run your brain too low on fuel.

Tag a teammate who fades mentally at the end of matches.

Save this for every match this season.The 15 minutes between halves are the most underused window in soccer. Most player...
05/28/2026

Save this for every match this season.

The 15 minutes between halves are the most underused window in soccer. Most players walk in, drink their sports drink right away, sit on the bench for 14 minutes, and walk back out wondering why the second half feels worse than the first.

Your muscles are already losing fuel from the first half, the body cools off during a passive halftime and when carbs are timed wrong, blood sugar can drop 30 percent in the early second half. All three are fixable in those same 15 minutes.

Swipe through. The carbs options list is the slide worth saving before your next match. Practical choices that work at halftime without upsetting your stomach.

Save this carousel and use it every game.

05/27/2026

The most common halftime habit could be causing a slow second half start.

You walk into the locker room hot, tired and thirsty. You grab your sports drink and chug it down in the first two minutes. Then you sit on the bench, take off your shin guards, listen to the coach, and wait for the second half.

Reasonable, right? Yes, but perhaps not optimal for some.

When carbohydrates are consumed at rest, your body releases insulin to handle them. If you then sit still for 13 to 14 minutes, that insulin response can cause blood sugar to drop right when you're walking back onto the pitch. Research shows blood glucose can drop by 30 percent in the early stages of the second half in some individuals when carbs are timed this way. In one study, more than half of players hit hypoglycemic values at the 60-minute mark.

That's the sluggish first 15 minutes of the second half that so many players describe.

The fix is timing, not amount. Hydrate with a sports drink and snack first (don’t chug and scarf a ton of food), settle in, listen to the coach and take care of any tactical or equipment stuff.

Then in the last 5 minutes of halftime, top things off with some additional carbs from your sports drink or snacks. Walk back out to warm up with the fuel hitting at the right time.

Save this for your next match.

05/26/2026

Even Premier League players struggle to hit some optimal nutrition recommendations.

The current recommendation for soccer match-play is 30 to 60 grams of carbohydrate per hour.
In one research study, what was the average intake across the squad? 17 grams.

81 percent of the players failed to hit the target.

These are professionals at the top of the sport with direct access to team nutritionists and are still leaving fuel on the bench.

What this means if you're not deliberately planning your in-match carbs, you almost definitely are leaving opportunity behind too.

Here's the practical fix. Bring a sports drink and snacks to every match with at least 60 grams of carbs. Take a few sips/bites during the warm-up. Consume most of it at halftime. Small sips during stoppages as able.

That gets you close to the lower end of the target across a 90-minute match.

You don't need fancy products. A standard sports drink, a banana, pretzels or an applesauce pouch with water all work. Format matters less than getting the carbs in. Practice what you'll use in training first though to ensure no new foods on game day.

05/25/2026

That feeling you get around the 70th minute when your legs go heavy and your decisions slow down may not be your conditioning coming up short. There’s a good chance it could be your fuel running out at the worst time.

In the original muscle biopsy research on soccer, about half of the muscle fibers were already empty come the final whistle. Those are specifically the fibers that fire for sprints, jumps, and explosive plays. Your total fitness can be there but the specific fuel for the work your body is needing to do that decides matches isn't there.

This is why "just run more in training" rarely fixes the fade.

Here's what most players never get told. The single biggest leverage point in the match is towards the end of halftime.

Make sure to take your sports drink and/or carb snack then. Not just within the first 5 minutes when you walk in hot and thirsty. While that certainly is great to start the process but don’t just chug a drink and then stop. The last 5 minutes, when you're about to head back out is when you want to make sure and have a top off as well.

That's when 30 grams of carbs can hit your system at the right time to maximally fuel the second half.

Try it at your next match. The 80th minute should feel different.

Message me "HALFTIME" and I'll send you the full breakdown.

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