How Charles Ashford Optimizes Nutrition for Elite Performance

With a decade of experience working as a performance nutritionist in pro and college sports, Charles Ashford knows plenty about high performance and how to help people maximize their potential. In his current role working for a team in the NBA, he helps ensure players “get the greatest bang for their buck” from nutrition and are well fueled for training, performance, health, recovery, and immunity. Yet with a busy travel schedule during the NBA season, it’s not a simple task—and while his focus is obviously on his professional duties, it means he has to be particularly disciplined and rigorous with his own routine around nutrition, exercise, and sleep to stay true to his own health and wellness goals.

How It Started

While working in college sports—firstly at Texas Tech and then the University of North Texas—Charles built sports nutrition programs for student athletes and helped football players get the most from their nutrition. It’s a responsibility he’s always taken very seriously, knowing that, with collegiate athletes in particular, their fueling can have a great impact not only on their performance and recovery but their physical development too.

He says: “A lot of my job [in college sports] was educating athletes on the right fueling for their training, which, for some, can be multiple sessions a day. You have to be diligent to achieve the level of intake these athletes need to ensure they’re not putting themselves in a deficit for the day.”

Ensuring athletes are mindful of the quality of their nutrition, not just the quantity, is important too, he says. And this is something that is at the forefront of his work in the NBA too.

Fueling The Best

“For the NBA players, honestly it’s all about trying to get the biggest bang for the buck with nutrition,” he says. “Of course, we’re looking at relatively high calorific intakes compared to the general population, but we’re also maximizing the quality of that nutrition. That could be the quality of the protein source, sufficient fruits and vegetables, adequate micronutrient intake—things like that.”

Working closely with the players to help them “cut through the noise” around diet and fueling is a key part of his job, saying: “Elite athletes are always looking for an edge on their competition and have the financial means to explore alternative treatments, testing, and supplementation. [Helping them] cut through the noise of poor and misinformed guidance is key.

“They often miss out on the large majority of success which can be achieved by consistently conforming to the basics and evidence-based strategies that have withstood the test of time. Consistent relationship-building with athletes that leads them to trust you as a practitioner and view you as a credible information source can help achieve the implementation of sustainable, proven habits.”

Finding Consistency in the Chaos

And once the NBA season is under way, finding consistency and routine in the non-stop schedule of games, travel, and recovery, becomes a whole new ball game. “This can be a challenge as players are on the road a lot, sometimes playing four games a week,” he says. “The travel and time zone changes plus living in a hotel for half the season obviously changes nutrition needs. We can be in a constant flux of preparation and recovery, often playing every other day.”

This is where his role also involves working closely with caterers, hotels, and vendors to ensure the nutrition provision meets the team's needs. It’s also here that he says the power of finding routine and consistency comes into play—both for the team and for himself.

He says: “You’ve got to try to live as normal of a life as possible in a very chaotic environment. It’s never going to be perfect, but I do think for the most part, if you can establish a pretty consistent routine, it does help a lot.”

It All Starts with Structure

For him, this means prioritizing sleep as much as possible on non-game days, starting the day with structure and lists, being disciplined around cutting off caffeine by 1 p.m., having go-to meals that he knows cover key calorie and macronutrients, and hitting the weight room for 45 minutes, especially when his sleep has been less than optimal.

“When sleep has been compromised, getting up and getting moving, breaking a sweat and lifting some weights—that definitely helps me for the remainder of the day,” he says. “I’ll also get into the habit of winding down before bed, whether that’s consuming a little bit of magnesium or having some non-caffeinated tea.”

He says learning to take care of as many things as possible that are under his control helps set him up for success when his schedule is less controllable.

“When the hours get long and you get into the doldrums of the season, establishing a routine is really important,” he says. “On a game night you’re probably not going to sleep before 1 a.m. and it’s a long season. So if you don’t put some hard rules or stops in place, it will catch up with you. I learned some lessons from my first year in the NBA, for sure.”

Advice for Everyone

It’s this same advice he would offer to anyone looking to maximize their time, health, and performance, whether they’re an athlete, an executive, or a busy parent. He says many of the challenges he sees players facing are similar to those faced by the general population.

“An observation I have made over the last few years is that many tend to undereat at meal times which leads to overeating on snacks and processed foods,” he says. “With this, the intake of high-quality protein, fruits, and vegetables tends to fall short of what I would personally recommend, and the intake of sugar, fat, and total calories exceeds suggestions.”

The Power of Protein and Omega-3

When it comes to supplements, he’s a big advocate of omega-3 and protein, saying “it [omega-3] remains a consistent staple in our athletes' routines and one that many continue to note benefits with use. The use of high-quality whey protein continues to be a convenient means to help athletes reach protein recommendations. The benefits on their recovery and body composition speak for themselves.”

And the supplement he’s most excited about in the future? “I think nootropics are an exciting category and hopefully, the research will continue to inform their use.” He says being able to influence the cognitive ability of an athlete—or anyone using them—is particularly exciting.