No doubt you’ve spent a lot of time thinking about your exercise routine once you’ve hit the gym. But what about the buildup? It turns out that the stuff you do before you work out is critical in determining how effective your workout will be.
Top strength athletes and bodybuilders break up their pre-workout routine into two distinct phases. The first involves having a meal with slow release carbs and protein a couple of hours before. The second phase takes place about 15 to 30 minutes before working out, where you take on various supplements to boost your workout further.
Here’s what to do.
Grab Slow Digesting Carbs
Bodybuilders love to talk about the benefits of protein, but it’s actually carbohydrates that’ll fuel you through your workouts, especially if they are long. It’s always best to get your slow release carbohydrates from whole food sources, as these contain extra nutrients that will help keep your body healthy over the short and long term. Porridge, for instance, is a great addition to any muscle-building diet, since it’s really good at improving cardiovascular health and protecting your body against the negative effects of eating meat.
Pixabay
Consuming your high-carb meal a couple of hours before your workout gives your body time to process the food and get it into the muscles before your workout begins. As a general rule of thumb, consume between 20 and 40 grams of carbohydrate before a workout.
Drink Coffee
Fitness fanatics love coffee, just like regular people. But did you know that caffeine can actually boost your workout performance? It turns out that caffeine helps to induce extra focus, as well as mental energy, meaning you’re able to push yourself harder while you’re at the gym. Many pre-workout drinks come with added caffeine, but these pre-workouts also tend to come with a load of extra junk you really don’t want in your body.
Flickr
That’s why having your own cup of coffee is probably a better idea. As sites like Espresso Gusto show, there are many different coffee machines now available on the market which you can use to make barista-style coffee at home.
Add Fruit
Pixabay
Alongside slow-releasing carbs, it’s also a good idea to include carbohydrates that are more rapidly released, like the carbohydrates from fruit. Fruits like oranges, consumed 20 minutes before a workout, help get sugar to the muscles. They also come packaged with a bunch of other nutrients that prevent the sugar doing damage to your body or cause you to put on weight. These antioxidants mean that the sugar contained in whole food, like fruit, isn’t the same as the sugar contained in, say, a cookie or a cake.
Guzzle Protein
Scientific studies have repeatedly shown that athletes with protein in their bodies before a workout actually build more muscles than those who take on protein afterward. In other words, the pre-workout protein shake may actually be more important than the post-workout shake.
Grab between 20 and 40 grams of protein before each workout and make sure you focus on consuming quality amino acids to achieve positive nitrogen balance.
