Episode 92 - Dr. Matt Frakes, Performance Nutritionist of the NY Giants

Dr. Matt Frakes shares his experience as Director of Performance Nutrition for the New York Giants, focusing on optimizing player performance through individualized nutrition strategies and building trusting relationships with athletes.

• Breaking into sports nutrition careers requires networking, professionalism, and willingness to do grunt work before showcasing talent
• College and pro settings differ dramatically—pros have more autonomy and often work with their own nutrition and training specialists
• Athletes can build too much lean muscle mass relative to their skeletal structure, increasing injury risk
• Performance nutrition requires an individualized approach considering body composition, position demands, and training phase
• Nutritional strategies for brain health include omega-3 fatty acids, anti-inflammatory foods, and creatine supplementation
• Recovery modalities like sauna, cryotherapy, red light therapy and compression are widely used at the professional level
• Successful teams require strong interdisciplinary communication between performance staff, medical team and coaches

Dr. Frakes will be delivering the President's Lecture at the 22nd International Society of Sports Nutrition Conference, June 23-25 in Delray Beach, Florida.