Fueling Your Workouts: How to Optimize Pre- and Post-Workout Nutrition for Better Performance and Recovery
This post is really for anyone, no matter where they are with their relationship to fitness. You could be an everyday person, maybe a weekender, or maybe someone who is just getting started on their fitness journey, understanding how to fuel your body for performance and recovery can make all the difference. This post is going to break down why this topic is so important and how to make the most of your nutrition around your workouts.
First and foremost lets talk about what happens to your body during exercise. When exercising you are pushing your body…some may push a little harder than others but that is not really the point. No matter what you are doing you’re losing fluids, burning through your energy stores, and increasing your body temperature and heart rate. Most importantly though, your muscles undergo stress, leading to tiny little tears in your muscle fibers. This process is called catabolism or simply, muscle breakdown. This process is how your body grows stronger and actually builds muscle.
After your exercise your body enters a recovery mode, and this is really what is important here. Recovery allows your body to repair the muscles you just broke down during your epic sesh, replenish energy stores, and build new muscle. This process of repair and building new muscle is called anabolism. Proper nutrition is truly what separates those who recover well and those who do not. It plays a key role in your body’s ability to repair muscles and restore energy levels.
Are you following? Good. Let’s talk food for a minute. There are really four macronutrients you need to know: protein, carbohydrates, fats, and water. All of these play a critical role muscle recovery and are post-workout essentials. We are going to start with everyone’s favorite, protein.
Now this is a little tedious but its important to understand. The building blocks of protein are amino acids, of which 9 are essential, meaning they are not created by the body and need to be consumed via your diet. 11 are non-essential, meaning of course they are made by the body and therefore are not required in your diet. Protein is essential for a number of reasons as it wears many hats within your body, so to speak. It builds tissue, helps with cell function, bodily functions, fluid balance and pH balance, its an energy source, cellular signaling, and transport….get it? It does a lot. Just know this, without protein, muscle tissue cannot nor will it be maintained or strengthened. No protein? No gains.
Protein post workout is a much talked about topic. How many times have you heard, “Yo bro, what sort of protein are you drinking?” My guess would be though that most people don’t understand why post-workout protein is important. Well, its important because after a workout your body is in an anabolic state and is actively synthesizing protein. This anabolic state though is hugely dependent on the amino acid components of the foods ingested, the amino acids in the blood, and the timing of the proteins consumption. If you can tolerate whey and casein proteins, these are both great high-quality protein which provide all the essential amino acids and Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs). That being said, although protein no matter their form is great, there is absolutely no substitute or better form than whole nutrient dense foods. Steak, for example. Other sources would be milk products, other lean low fat meats, eggs, and for you vegans or nonmeat people out there, tofu. If you are wondering how much protein to eat post workout, 6oz of a lean meat would suffice. Though this of course varies between body weight, so a general recommendation would be 0.30 grams of protein per kg of body weight. I mentioned timing, timing is key. Protein intake is optimized when consumed within 2 hours of exercise as to take advantage of the increased blood flow and the potential increases in growth hormone and testosterone. And for those of you who like to workout in a fasted state, get that protein in immediately.
Moving onto carbohydrates. Even more so than protein, carbohydrates may be the most important nutrient when we are talking exercise. They are arguably the most important energy source and fuel for your body as they are the most efficient and easiest the be broken down and utilized effectively of all nutrients. Not only are they important for pre-workout, they are also important for post-workout as they help prevent the breakdown of muscle tissue for energy which prevents protein catabolism. They are also your nervous system’s primary source of energy, the reason this is important is because when your nerve cell function deteriorates, your workout performance will too suffer. Additionally, if post-workout you do not consume enough carbohydrates or any at all for that matter, your future workouts will suffer.
Before a client workouts out I always recommend they eat some carbohydrates. The reason for this being is your body is working hard and needs to be efficient. So what does it use for energy? Glycogen. What is glycogen? Glycogen are carbohydrates stored in your muscles and in your liver. If you aren’t understanding what I am saying, simply put, if you are not eating enough carbohydrates, you are essentially robbing your muscles of as carbohydrates help prevent breakdown of muscle tissue. Or even more plainly, you are robbing yourself of growth. Examples of carbs are fruits, vegetables, grains, beans, and some liquid sports drinks, though I would not necessarily recommend the last one. An example of my favorite pre-workout meal would be overnight oats with some sliced banana & blue berries.
The quantity of carbohydrates eaten in a day largely rests on the intensity of the exercise you plan on doing as well as the body weight and duration of your exercise. Low intensity workouts such as walking or yoga would have a recommendation of around 3-5 grams of carbs per kg of body weight. For moderate intensity exercises such as jogging, swimming or biking for an hour, the recommendation would be 5-7 gs per kg of body weight. And for a high intensity workout that lasts about an hour or more, the recommendation would be around 6-12 g per kg of body weight. If you are trying to maximize your muscle growth the recommendation is to consume around 0.4 to 0.5 g per kg of lean body mass both pre and post workout within 2 hours of your workout. And again, if you are someone who trains in a fasted state, do this ASAP.
Like protein, timing of consumption of these carbohydrates is very important. Muscles are better able to restore their glycogen when carbs are ingested within 2 hours after a workout. Even a delay of around 4 hours can cut the glycogen synthesis rate in half. Really what you should tell yourself is the sooner the better.
Now we talk fats. Fats are a major fuel source for muscle cells and are also a rich source of energy. Your body will rely on fats for energy during times of rest or during low or moderate intensity exercise. This is exactly why I tell my client’s to walk while fasted. Walking at a moderate pace is a great exercise to lose weight because of exactly what I just stated above. Fat is the primary source of energy used during low to moderate intensity exercise. And if you are walking while fasted, your body will use your stored fat as its primary source of energy, aka you will burn fat. Further importance of fat would be its important during recovery. During muscle recovery, circulating levels of fatty acids increase as your bodies mechanism to spare the usage of glucose from carbohydrates for energy and instead will use that glucose to be utilized to rebuild the muscles glycogen stores. Worth noting here, there are some studies that fat, particularly omega-3 fatty acids, have a role in muscle recovery due to their ability to attenuate inflammation and reduce muscle soreness.
And the last macronutrient on the list, water. I think everyone has a pretty good idea of why hydration is important. Hydration includes not just replenishing water, but also electrolytes lost as well. The faster you do this the better. The recommendation here is to match your sweat loss by nearly 100% or 150%. For every pound lost during exercise, about 16 to 24 ounces of fluid is needed. If you don’t weigh yourself though, safe bet is the classic “drink till your pee is clear”. In addition to just plain water, if you had an intense or a long workout, the inclusion of sodium and potassium may enhance your recovery. Consuming electrolytes before, during and after a workout can help retain these important minerals and increase both performance and recovery. There are a ton of drinks out there to choose from, my recommendation is always coconut water. Quick thing to note here though, check the back of the coconut water. Some are really great, however, there are some that have a pretty substantial amount of added sugar. STAY AWAY from these poisons!
To wrap up this post lets answer the question, what is the best post workout meal? The answer would be a combination of both protein in carbohydrates. This combo would maximize glycogen synthesis, induce hormone secretion necessary for muscle growth, while also supporting protein synthesis. But simply put…it will make you stronger and improve our recovery.
