This is cricket nutrition tip of the week #5 by Dr. John Berardi.

If some people eat one food not on their plan, their failure to be perfect sets in motion a psychological chain of events that leads to frustration and the inability to get right back on the plan. The all-or-nothing mentality sets in and BAM, they're back to nothing. But it doesn't have to be this way. 100% nutritional discipline is never required for optimal progress. The difference, in results, between 90% adherence to your nutrition program and 100% adherence is negligible. So allow yourself the extra 10% wiggle room. This will allow you the freedom to eat a few extra things not on your menu without the guilt and subsequent crash.

This is cricket fitness myth #2, to go back to the list of cricket fitness myths click here.

If you only know one thing about core or abdominal training make it this: Sit ups and crunches are one of the worst exercises you can do for them.

The crunch has a great reputation though. Thousands of sportsmen and women perform them regularly to give them selves the edge during the game and on the beach.

This is cricket fitness myth #1, to go back to the list of cricket fitness myths click here.

"Will I get too big and muscular to play cricket if I weight train?"

This is by far the most common question I'm asked when telling cricketers they need to do resistance training.

I'll be short with you: You won't.

"If fitness professionals can't agree with each other about what is best, then what chance do cricketers have?"

Cricket strength and conditioning coach Liz Ward told me this recently and it got me to thinking. What myths exist in the cricket world that all fitness professionals can agree on?

It's a way of making a start at building a training culture in this great game. Fitness is such a vital part of cricket performance and injury prevention there is no excuse to avoid it.

Any club cricket team that talks well with each other has an instant advantage over the opposition. Does your team know how to do it?

The advantage comes from the transient way that club teams work. Players go in and out of sides and line ups change regularly from week to week. This makes it hard to gel everyone together naturally.

You could be a better cricketer in your next game if you gave more warm up time to the control system of your body: The central nervous system (CNS).

We all spend a lot of time abusing the CNS. Lucky for us this abuse can be corrected by a few simple movements, causing your muscles to fire more quickly and giving you the edge on the pitch whether it's batting bowling of fielding.

This is cricket nutrition tip of the week #4 by Dr. John Berardi.

I recommend more calories than most do. That's because there's no such thing as a stagnant metabolic set-point. Instead, metabolism chases intake. So, if you want a bigger metabolism, you need a bigger food intake. And if you're worried about fat gain with this approach, just use outcome-based decision making and adjust energy (calorie) intake every two weeks based on your results. Not much 'damage' can take place in only two weeks. So if you end up boosting your metabolism, you'll be thanking me eternally. And if it turns out you're consuming too much, you can just adjust down.

• Why you need to eat more fat (really)
• A new coaching service for cricketers
• A sensible approach to improving your core strength and stablility (and still have good abs for the beach)
• Developing rotational power. Very handy for pulling, driving, bowling and throwing
• 5 ways to bounce back from errors

The SAQ cricket fitness system promises a lot, but recently I have been wondering how effectively it delivers.

All cricket players can benefit from extra speed and agility. Whether it's running quick singles or diving about in the field. So the principle of SAQ is sound.

The SAQ book covers a plethora of excellent drills and routines to help players with this, as endorsed by the great Graham Gooch at Essex CCC.

An injury is not something any cricketer wants to think about but if you are well prepared you can cut the risk of hurting yourself significantly.

The good news is that you don't need to spend a lot of time or effort preventing injuries. After all, we would all rather be playing cricket than doing “prehabilitation”.