You get out what you put in.

Success in life is proportional to the quality and quantity of the effort you put in.

 Imagine if that was always true. But there is one sphere where that statement comes close to being accurate. Sport.

 There’s an accepted correlation between the quality and quantity of training and the successful pursuit of performance. Sports science, the brain rather than the brawn of sport, is as much about the micro detail as the macro objective. ‘Marginal gains’, a term perhaps synonymous with professional cycling outfit Team Sky, is a clearer description of the incremental benefits available to us all from the trickle-down of advances in professional sport.

 For example, as well as natural talent, mental application, repetition and equipment, key features of performance in professional sport are diet and nutrition - specifically supplements consumed during exercise or activity. Let’s call this ‘on-the-fly nutrition’ (or OFN). These are usually carbohydrate-based energy drinks, bars and gels that are taken along for consumption during exercise. Consumed at the right time, in the right amounts, OFN’s offer us all convenient sustenance by replacing spent fluids, glycogen and carbohydrates.

In other words, a marginal gain.

 Unlike pro-level sport, at amateur level nobody gets paid to suffer. A KOM on Strava is perhaps the only reward for turning yourself inside-out on a Sunday morning. My sport is road cycling, an activity which is cat-nip to creative types because of its unique mash-up of material aesthetics, culture, history, equipment and narcissism. But no amount of composite wonderfulness will help us achieve our PB’s without attention to health and nutrition.

 Whether it’s a race to the cake stop or to the finishing line, cycling like most sports, requires fuel. Inevitably, ‘you are what you eat’.

 But I’m really thinking about OFN’s from a design perspective here because through personal and peer experience there is much to improve, especially in terms of a consumer-centred experience and the wider understanding of nutrition. Innovative experience and information design and creative FMCG design both have a big role to play.

 This is because nutritional science is easy to misinterpret, especially at amateur level, and it’s easy to overdo and to get things wrong. Similar to other forms of over-dosing – with washing liquids and conditioners - too much can sometimes actually diminish rather than increase performance.

 For instance riders fear the ‘bonk’. This is where hydration, energy and glycogen levels are so depleted that the body begins to selectively shut down. For many, to avoid ‘bonking’ means chugging on gels. Yet too much at the wrong time can have the opposite effect. Considering the body can absorb around 1g of carbohydrate per kilo of bodyweight per minute (depending on exertion), glugging an energy gel too many can easily produce a bloated sensation. This is because an over-nutriated stomach cannot process its contents quickly enough and can even create a restriction in the absorption of fluid to muscles and blood. This can lead to dehydration and glycogen depletion leading to, yes, the bonk. Gastro-irony, if you like.

 So there’s a consumer comprehension problem that would benefit from design thinking to better explain the benefits of dietary supplements and how they can be used most effectively in a holistic dietary context.

Design innovation could easily improve nutritionary delivery too, especially the ergonomics. To illustrate: here’s my scenario from last Sunday…

 A club cycle event. In the peloton, 25mph, on the rivet, energy and spirit sapping. Need a gel. One handed, fumble in the back pocket – where’s it gone? Wobble. Okay, got it; pull out, snagging the foil corner on jersey fabric. Orientate, tear off the top with teeth, squeeze into mouth. Torn top smears gel on chin. Out squits a gloop of gel (as sticky as tree sap) but only half of it. Still one handed, no time, gasping, breathing now out of sync. Desperate for fluid from the bidon, only way to swallow, gasping for breath, gel spittle, struggling to keep the bike rubber-side down. Still one-handed. Gel now on face and fingers, pack crumpled (mustn’t throw in to hedgerows), instead push semi-consumed leaking pack into back pocket, catch jersey again. Reach for bidon. Finally swallow. Recover.

 Clearly there are key areas for improvement here. It’s obvious to me that design innovation can help improve the communication of the nutritional science, and help with the experience of delivery.

 After all, you get out what you put in (your pocket).

Andy Davey is Founder and Creative Director of TKO

More; pinterest.com/daveytko/ www.tkodesign.co.uk

Text and image;  Copyright Andy Davey (the ‘current style’ dummy pack in the image was mocked-up solely for the article, in case you were wondering).

 * Glossary

KOM                         King of the Mountain, the fastest recording of a segment of                                        a course

Strava                       A running and cycling app

PB                             Personal Best.

Peloton                     The bunch, group or main body of riders

 ‘On the rivet’          Riding at maximum speed. Sitting on the front of the saddle                                   (the shell of an old-style leather saddle would be attached to                                   the saddle frame with a rivet)

 Bidon                       A bottle for liquids usually located on a bike frame downtube.