Pre, Intra & Post Workout Nutrition

Pre Workout Nutrition

Pre workout nutrition is the opportunity to prime your body for the attack that your going to put upon it within your workout.

Pre Workout Nutrition should be take 45 minutes to 30 minutes before a workout to be given time to digest and so that it can be utilised for your workout.
Which pre workout to take will be determined by what you need from a pre workout, should you be training after working a long day and towards the back end of a day then a pre workout with high in stimulants may be beneficial to you. If you don’t feel like you need a buzz or any additional energy before starting a workout then a non stimulant which will merely increase blood flow to the muscle being trained will be more beneficial to you.

Creatine Monohydrate at 5 g will be beneficial pre workout which increases your production of ATP.

A simple carbohydrate powder such as dextrose or cyclic dextrin will be another great edition to your pre workout shake as it fills up your muscle glycogen stores pre workout which will prolong depletion and keep performance optimal throughout your whole session.

Caffeine taken at a moderate dose of 250mg pre workout will be beneficial if your goal is fat loss as caffeine frees up fat cells to be used as an energy source.

Intra Workout Nutrition

Intra workout nutrition should be sipped throughout your workout and will give you the opportunity to prolong fatigue, offset muscle protein breakdown and keep performance high for a longer period of time.

Essential amino acids at 20g to 25g is a great tool at your disposal when it come to intra workout nutrition. Eaa’s being replenished throughout your workout can help prevent muscle protein breakdown which will be extremely beneficial in maximising your recovery capabilities which is a key factor in gaining muscle.

A simple carbohydrate being sipped throughout your workout can also be beneficial as it replenishes muscle glycogen as your depleting it throughout your workout which will keep your performance optimal for a extended amount of time. Your simple carbohydrate dosage will be relative to the volume and intensity that you train with, you will need a lot more simple sugars to replenish you muscle glycogen stores throughout a leg workout than an arm workout.

Post Workout Nutrition

If you’ve primed your body with a good pre workout and intra workout there is not much left to do in this phase of the workout however this is a very important phase if you have not had any pre or intra workout nutrition to replenish muscle glycogen or prevent muscle protein breakdown. If you have ingested Essential amino’s and a simple carbohydrate throughout your workout then there is no rush to be chugging down your protein powder at this point. You can simply head home and consume a well rounded protein and carbohydrate meal to start the recovery process.

Summary

The workout window is a very important window to prime your body with the correct tools to do the job in front of you. Performance & recovery can be improved massively by ingesting the correct pre, intra & post workout nutrition so make sure its high up on your list of importance if you want to maximise performance and recovery.