What To Eat Before & After EVERY Gym Workout Training : Part 1
what you eat before and after your workout will have a
big impact on how well you perform at the gym how quickly recover and the
results
That you'll see in the mirror. Regardless of whether you're trying to build muscle or burn fat, you'll be at a
disadvantage if you completely ignore your pre and post workout nutrition, while
many nutrient timing principles have been debunked what you eat around your workouts
continues to remain important because nailing down your pre and post-workout
meals can help speed up your progress more than any other meal you eat
throughout the rest of the day.
So let's start first with pre-workout when we workout
muscle protein breakdown rates will shoot up.
Whether your goal is to bulk up and build muscle or
burn fat while preserving the muscle, you're gonna want to do your best to keep
protein breakdown rates lower and protein synthesis rates higher.
Since amino
acids are the building blocks to your muscles they're absolutely essential for increasing
muscle protein synthesis. without those amino acids circulating throughout your
bloodstream not only are you missing the fuel necessary for the synthesis
process, but your protein breakdown rates will stay elevated putting you into
more of a catabolic mode where your body is breaking down muscle which we
obviously don't want.
- Now some studies show that having protein before your workout won't enhance muscle growth meanwhile, other studies show the exact opposite having pre-workout amino acids and carbs can even provide more benefits for your muscles than having them post-workout, and the reason why these studies show two completely different results is because it depends on what you already ate throughout the rest of the day, if you've already had a meal with enough protein a couple hours before your workout taking in even more amino acids with something like a protein shake right before your workout that won't really make much of a difference in decreasing muscle breakdown rates during your workout.
On the other hand, if you haven't had any protein within
three to four hours before your workout it's a good idea to eat twenty to forty
grams of protein to get some amino acids into your blue stream. you can do this
by eating a regular meal if you have about an hour or two to digest it before
your workout chicken, breast, eggs, turkey, and fish are a couple good sources of protein that you could have. But if you workout first thing in the morning right after waking up you can
have a protein shake instead since it'll digest a lot faster.
While there may be
some debate about protein there isn't much debate about pre-workout carbohydrates
your body uses the glucose from carbohydrates to fuel your workouts. Unfortunately
the glucose stored in your muscles and in your liver is limited and it's
constantly being used so by replenishing it before a workout it can help you
postpone fatigue. Also according to a study published in the Journal of applied
physiology when researchers compared two groups one on a very low carb diet and
another on a high carb diet they found that the high carb diet is maintained
their strength better recovered faster from their workouts and they were more
in an anabolic muscle building state, while this study looked at overall
carbohydrate intake for the entire day, there are other studies that look directly at what happens when you have carbs
before your workout versus placebo, and they also find that eating carbohydrates
before exercise will provide your muscles with additional fuel for your
workouts.
- This will allow you to lift heavier weight for more reps during your workouts which will lead to more muscle growth if you're bulking and less muscle loss if you're cutting. If you're gonna be doing a short intense workout lasting less than an hour long you should aim to have high glycemic carbohydrates like white rice, potatoes, and bananas before your workout.
On the other hand if
you're going to be doing a longer duration endurance type workout you should go
for low glycemic slower digesting sources of carbs like brown, rice, sweet
potatoes, and oats. I recommend having at least 30 to 40 grams of carbs before your workout but many bodybuilders recommend
splitting 50% of your total daily carbohydrate intake between your pre and post
workout meals so if you were eating 300 grams of carbs per day you would have
75 grams of carbs before your workout and the other 75 grams of carbs after your workout and then the last
150 grams of carbs throughout the rest of the day. If your main goal is to build
muscle or get stronger this strategy can be particularly useful if you happen
to be Kito and you want to take advantage of having more strength and energy
before your workouts, you could do what's called a targeted ketogenic diet, where
you would have 20 to 50 grams of carbs before an intense workout if you're lifting
heavy most of that glycogen will be burnt off during the workout and you'll be
getting right back into ketosis afterward.
- Eating fats before a workout really won't impact performance one way or the other so you could eat some fat beforehand but you shouldn't expect the strength and energy benefits that you would get from eating carbs.
Now what about fasting, some studies show that
fasted workouts can help you burn more fat during the workout, but other studies
show that you'll just spend the rest of the day burning a higher percentage of
carbs to balance out the fat that you already burnt off during your workout. While it is still debatable if fast the training will help you burn more fat
it's a fact that some people do better while training on an empty stomach while
other people do way worse. If you have no energy during your workouts unless you
eat something beforehand then you should definitely have a pre-workout meal.
- On the other hand if you take a long time to digest your meals and you find yourself feeling nauseous or having acid reflux during your workout then it may be a better idea for you to work out fasted, an especially since some research shows that exercising while fasted will make your body like a sponge after the workout and increase the post-workout anabolic response to food.
Regardless of this you
have to understand that if you exercise on an empty stomach protein breakdown
rates will spike up quite a bit, so if you're trying to burn some fat you can
incorporate fast the training, but if your main goal is to build muscle you'll be a lot better off with a pre-workout meal.
The last thing before we move on to post-workout nutrition it's on the topic of pre-workout supplementation, pre
workouts can be used as a great tool to help you break through strength
plateaus lift more weight and ultimately build more muscle but they're a double-edged sword if you take pre-workouts too often you'll build up a tolerance and not only will they not give you a
boost in energy during your workouts but you'll also need to take a free
workout just to gather the motivation to get into the gym.
That's why I only
recommend that you take pre-workouts no more than twice a week on the that
you're really planning to lift heavy and work hard. look for pre-workout supplements
that contain caffeine, beta alanine, and citrulline malate out of all of these
caffeine may be the most important since studies show that when men take a
caffeine supplement they're able to bench press and deadlift more than those
that take a placebo supplement.
Part 2:
What To Eat Before & After EVERY Gym Workout Training: Part 2
Part 2:
What To Eat Before & After EVERY Gym Workout Training: Part 2
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