What Cirque du Soleil Reminded Me About Athletes' Bodies

A night at Cirque du Soleil

Last week, my youngest daughter Audrey and I went to see Cirque du Soleil, her very first Cirque experience. 🎪 My husband had bought me the tickets for my birthday a few months earlier, and it was honestly phenomenal.

We sat there watching these extraordinary humans perform feats of strength, balance, agility, flexibility, coordination and courage that almost didn't seem possible. People flying through the air, holding their entire bodyweight in positions that made my muscles hurt just watching them, trusting another person to catch them, and performing movements where the timing had to be almost perfect.

What also struck me was the incredible variety of bodies on stage: different heights, different builds, different strengths and different roles. There wasn't one version of what an "athlete" looked like. Each person had developed a body incredibly capable of doing their thing.

And I found myself feeling that same sense of awe I so often feel working in sport. I get to work with swimmers, skiers, snowboarders, netballers, triathletes, surf lifesavers and so many other athletes who ask completely different things of their bodies. Some need enormous endurance, others explosive power, strength or speed. Some need extraordinary precision, coordination and flexibility, or the ability to make decisions while completely exhausted. And very often, several of those things at once.

Why this matters for how we fuel young athletes

It's quite humbling when you stop and think about what athletes ask their bodies to do, and it's also why I feel so strongly about helping young athletes learn to respect their awesome bodies and fuel them accordingly.

A body capable of doing extraordinary things needs energy, not just enough to get through training, but enough to recover, adapt, grow and still have plenty left for everything else teenage life asks of them. Sometimes I think we forget just how impressive that body already is.

The best reminder came on the walk back to the car

Perhaps the loveliest reminder of all came as Audrey and I were walking back to the car. Another Cirque performance was about to begin, and we could see the next audience lining up to go inside.

Audrey looked back at the tent and said:

"They must be so tired. I hope they remember to fuel at halftime and make sure they've eaten enough."

I had to smile. Apparently living with a sports dietitian eventually rubs off. 😂

And it felt like such a lovely reminder of what I'm trying to build through Fuel School: not young athletes who obsess over food or feel they have to get everything "perfect," but young athletes who understand that their bodies are doing incredible things, and that those bodies deserve to be respected, supported and fuelled well so they can train, adapt, recover, grow, stay healthy and keep doing the sports they love. 💛

Where Fuel School comes in

If that's something you'd love your young athlete to better understand too, that's exactly why I created Fuel School. Fuel School helps teenage athletes and their parents make sense of how much to eat, what to eat around training and competition, and how to make it all work in busy family life, without making food complicated or overwhelming.

👉 Come and join us inside Fuel School.

Ali x