Pre-workout nutrition

While the current mantra among a lot of fitness trainers is “train, train, train” the truth is that you can run yourself out of a bad diet.  Nutrition is 90% of the deal and the key to health and well being.  Think about how much time you spend in the gym or training, maybe 3-4 hours a week of actual training?  Maybe a bit more?  Either way it’s a very small fraction of the 168 hours in the week.  Wouldn’t you want to get the most out of that time that you can?

This is where nutrition comes into it.  What you put in your body before you work out has huge consequences to your training.  Let’s have a look at some pre-workout nutrition.

Timing:

The type of session you’re doing for the day will affect when your last meal before training is.  On a strength day (think heavy weights, few reps, few sets, long rest) your last meal can be right before you step in the gym.  If you’re a crossfitter and today is a metcon or strength and metcon day, you may want to leave it 2-4 hours between your pre-workout meal and training to allow gastric emptying so you don’t see that meal again or get stomach cramps.  This will be different for everyone however and is something to play around with.  I can normally eat something about 45 minutes before training no matter what I’m doing that day.

Composition:

The composition of a pre workout meal shouldn’t vary too much for most people, carbohydrates and protein making up the majority of the calories and whatever fat is in the protein making up the rest.  The ratio of carbs to protein will vary depending on the type of session you’re doing but here are a few things to consider.

A meal high in protein will slow gastric emptying and possible make the session a little more uncomfortable.

A meal high in carbs, while leaving the stomach quite quickly, will also spike your insulin levels and, due to the effects of insulin on fatty acid oxidation enzymes, will not allow fat to be used as a fuel source. 

This is important for a couple of reasons and will affect both strength and conditioning workouts (it’s going to get geeky sorry).  During high intensity strength workouts, muscle glycogen is being used to lift the weights.  After around 4-6 secs, your phsophocreatine stores have run out and glycogen takes over until the set is done.  After this, your body uses fatty acids (FA) to supply fuel in your rest periods.  If there is limited FA oxidation due to high insulin levels, liver glycogen must be released into the blood stream which further raises insulin levels so the glucose can be utilised by the cells.

Secondly, FA’s are used during the first couple of minutes of conditioning workouts.  Once the intensity is too high, muscle and liver glycogen take over, but initially the body uses FA.  If no FA’s are available then you need to start using glycogen early and face to risk of running out and hitting the wall in, say, the 15^th minute of Cindy.

So what should I eat then?

A small meal consisting of some protein and carbs.  Both sources should be easily digestible.  Some coffee (black of course) won’t go astray either as this will enhance the FA release from your fat cells.

Any queries or questions please don't hesitate to contact us.

Stay tuned for a post workout nutrition post coming soon.