The daily diet of Munster and Ireland’s Chris Farrell

Professional rugby has been on the go for over 20 years now but proper player diets have only taken hold in the past six or seven years. It's an evolving since but, right now, it looks on the money.

Chris Farrell came by the way of Ulster and Grenoble to sign for Munster and, within five months, was making his Ireland debut.   SportsJOE caught up with Farrell to get a taste of the daily diet of a professional rugby player. It must be said, it takes a lot damned hard of work to perform to your peak out there.

Chris Farrell - Munster

• Weight = 110kg
• Height = 194cm

  Here are rough guidelines on a typical days eating for me: Breakfast: (7-9am)

• Typically, depending on daily schedule and training times, I try to scramble or poach 5 free range eggs with whole wheat bread and salmon (estimate 150g).
• Otherwise, and less time consuming, I will have porridge with almond milk and a little bit of peanut butter or honey.
• The most consistent thing I do diet-wise is make smoothies, every night I make 1,500ml of smoothie, refrigerate and drink 500ml at breakfast/afternoon/before bed. Contents range but often: Spinach leaves, celery, almonds, kiwis, mixed berries, bananas, protein powder.

Snack: (10-11.30am)

• Around 11am we will have a break in training where small snacks are provided, yogurts, fruits, ham, bread, oat cereals with soya milk.

Lunch: (noon-2pm)

• Salad. Chicken and potato (or rice) with vegetables.

Snack: (4-5pm)

• Normally I try cooking a lot for my main evening meal so will refrigerate the leftovers for when I return home, as the provided lunch is barely substantial.

Dinner: (7-9pm)

• In the summer in very high temperatures I make a salad bowl every 2/3 days to eat with my main meal, otherwise I roast or stir fry mixed vegetables.
• Carbohydrate wise I’ve been introduced to quinoa grain which also provides an extra source of protein to the meal, brown rice and often sweet potato.
• Most importantly meat wise I’ve recently sourced large 2kg lumps of good quality steak that I cut myself and freeze for snacks when needed. But also love to slow cook my meat (4-5 hours) particularly tender legs of lamb and shoulders of pork which can last 2 days and make my life easier.

Consciously I’ve recently been trying to cut back on my red meats and eat more chicken and fish, which I do struggle with. Supplementation:

• I will have a small amount of whey protein powder in my smoothies 3 times a day.
• I will take a whey protein shake after gym and before gym a BCAA [Branched chain amino acids] and creatine drink.
• If, for some reason, I feel under the weather I will take some USN multi vitamins and mineral tablets, also daily taking USN joint formula with glucosamine, and daily Omega 3 and essential fatty acids as my fish intake can be minimal.

*First published in February 2016