Pre-Workout Nutrition

At some point in time, the fitness industry fell in love with the idea of the post workout “anabolic window” and most of peri-workout nutrition research went to studying post-workout nutrition. Sadly, pre-workout nutrition has taken a back seat and most people simply rely on a caffeinated pre-workout formula to power through their workout. What you eat before a workout is what actually fuels your workout so some attention should be devoted to what you eat prior. First off, pre-workout nutrition is not just about a tub of pre-workout or a Bang energy drink. I will get to when they should be used but first we should cover some lower hanging fruit. We will break pre-workout nutrition into contents (macros), amount, timing, and supplements.

Contents

First, carbohydrates should make up the bulk of a pre-workout meal. Carbs should be eaten before a workout to top off glycogen stores to aid in energy production during the workout. Your carb source will depend on how close the meal is to your workout. If the meal is 1-2.5 hours before the workout then the carbs can come from mostly complex sources like white rice, oatmeal, and potatoes. If your meal is closer to the workout then the carbs should come from faster digesting carbohydrate sources such as fruit and fruit juices. If the meal is around an hour from the workout, a combination of both is a fine option. Everyone should have an individualized diet so I am not going to make some blanket statement about how many grams of carbs you should eat. As a general rule, between 55% and 65% of calories of your pre-workout meal should come from carbohydrates.

Next, your meal should contain protein. 20-30% of the meal’s calories should come from protein. By eating protein before the workout your body has amino acids to utilize. If you don’t have protein then your body can go into a catabolic state during the workout which means your body will break down its own muscle cells to fulfill its amino acid needs. If your meal is between 1-2.5 hours from your workout then whole food protein options such as beef or chicken are great. If your meal is less than 1 hour before your workout then faster digesting protein options such as whey protein is a better choice.

Lastly, the least amount of calories in the meal should come from fat. Fat should consist of 0%-20% of the meal. 0% is a good choice if the meal is consumed less than 1hr from the workout. If your pre-workout meal is around the 2hr mark before your workout then you can get closer to 20%. You want fat to be as low as possible in your pre-workout meal because fat slows down digestion and absorption of other nutrients such as carbohydrates and protein. You should not be going out of your way to add fat to a pre-workout meal. If fat is consumed in the pre-workout meal it should come from what is naturally in beef or chicken.

Timing

A pre-workout meal should be consumed anywhere between 2.5-0.5 hours before a training session. Life, personal preference, and other commitments will dictate when the pre-workout meal is consumed but as long as your follow the contents guidelines above then you will be fine. There is a concept of pre-workout meal stacking that can also be used if you can’t get your pre-workout meal in at the time you would like. If you eat a complex carbohydrate meal between 3-2 hours before a training session then 30 minutes before the session you can consume fast digesting carbohydrates from something like orange juice or apple juice.

Supplements

Once again, focus on the low hanging fruit of carbs and proteins before a workout before you look to pre-workout supplements. Once you have your whole foods pre-workout meal squared away you can start to browse the isles of GNC. Lets start with pre-workout formulas. There are many good options for pre-workouts but the best I have found is Transparent Labs Bulk and Granite Supplements Neuro-Stim. The Neuro-Stim Pre-Workout does not have beta-alanine in it. If you don’t like feeling itchy at the gym from beta alanine then Neuro-Stim is a great option. Caffeine is the most important ingredient in any pre-workout formula. Caffeine before a workout has been shown time and time again to boost athletic performance and mental focus. Caffeine is especially powerful if you are in a strength phase where you are trying to push your numbers. However, caffeinated pre-workouts should be cycled so you don’t build a tolerance to their effects. One of the best ways to cycle pre-workout is to stop taking pre-workout during deload weeks. From a strength perspective, the other ingredients in pre-workout have only a tiny affect. However, from a blood flow perspective many of the other ingredients such as L-Citrulline can have great effects. I would classify these ingredients as pump products. Pump ingredients include L-Citrulline and any derivatives of nitrates such as NO3-T. Pump ingredients can be included in pre-workouts such as Transparent Labs Bulk or they can be in stim-free pre-workouts. A quality stim free pump formula I have found is Vaso Blast from Granite Supplements. If you are in a hypertrophy stage and don’t want stim filled pre-workouts or complicated pump formulas then 10g of L-Citrulline mixed with some electrolytes before a workout is a fantastic option.

Meal Ideas

1-2.5 Hours Before Training

• Option 1: Ground Beef and White rice with some bone broth.

• Option 2: Oatmeal with a mix of whey and casein protein.

• Option 3: Pasta with ground beef or chicken.

0.5-1 Hour Before Training

• Option 1: White rice and ground chicken (smaller portion), with fruit juice.

• Option 2: Orange juice with vanilla whey protein mixed in.

• Option 3: Greek yogurt with fruit

Misconceptions

#1 Pre-workout nutrition is complicated so I’ll just take pre-workout.

Pre-workout nutrition is not rocket science and pre-workouts can’t solve all your problems. For example, no amount of caffeine will pull you out of a glycogen depleted stupor and frankly, caffeine doesn’t work that good if your sleep is trash and your circadian rhythm is out of wack. Fix your foundations of sleep and nutrition then your pre-workout will work a lot better.

#2 Working out fasted.

Why? Why would you purposefully decrease your workout performance and increase your chance of catabolism? Unless you have been following a strict ketogenic diet for a long time and are in true ketosis then working out fasted is not going to burn more fat. If you eat carbohydrates on a daily basis then your body is just going to burn its glycogen stores it has built up. If you are interested in getting stronger and building muscle it is a good idea to eat carbs and protein before a workout. However, fasting does have some well documented health effects but improved workout performance is not one of them.

#3 If your pre-workout stops working then take more.

Your body naturally builds up a tolerance to caffeine and most people combat this by taking more pre-workout. Instead of building to two or three scoops of pre-workout, take a week or two off of pre-workout then begin taking the normal dose again and feel the effects that you did when you first started.

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