Keeping up with your exercise regime is good but what we need along with the workout is proper nutrition. What we eat before and after our workout makes a huge impact on our body, we can say that the pre & post workout meal is important to optimize the performance of our body. Let us dig deeper into this!
At the most basic level, nutrition is all about having a regular and balanced diet. Whether you are an avid gym goer or someone who is just attempting to maintain their fitness, nutrition is the building block. Talking fundamentally, nutrients are substances found in foods that our bodies use to grow, reproduce, and survive.
The concept of nutrition includes having proper calories, units of energy, and important nutrients such as water, carbohydrates, vitamins, protein, fats, and minerals. Now, coming to its significance in pre- and pose-workout routines, here’s a detailed overview for you.
Pre & Post Workout Meals: An Overview
It does not matter which physical activity you do, whether it’s jogging, cardio, a walk, or lifting weights, things like quality sleep and good nutrition are the basis for such activities, so it’s essential to construct a proper pre & post-workout meal routine.
The pre & post-workout meal is critical for balancing a healthy glucose level in our body. Further, these meals help us to improve performance and decrease recuperation time. One should note that adults who exercise frequently should drink enough water and other fluids before and after their workout sessions to prevent fluid loss.
Talking about the pre-workout meal, not only provides enough energy but also helps to better the performance. On the other hand, the goal of the post-workout meal is to maximize muscle recovery. Let’s explain this briefly.
Importance of Pre-Workout Nutrition
Pre-workout meals are important for every individual who has a proper workout routine. Having the appropriate meal before you train your muscles can help you fuel your workouts, boost your results, and even help you get closer to reaching your health and fitness goals.
If you’re wondering about the best pre-workout meal, the best foods always depend on your workout duration, training style, and fitness goals. You must figure out the meal that works best for you and provides you with balance.
Best Pre-workout Meal
To get the perfect result of your workouts and proper recovery, we recommend you concentrate on your macronutrient or “macro” intake. Including carbohydrates and a dash of protein in your pre-workout meals can be the key. Here are some suggestions for you!
Pre-workout meal for 2 to 4 hours before a workout:
• Easy and the best pre-workout meal that you can have two slices of toast with peanut butter and some sliced banana.
• Another option can be a bowl of oatmeal with nuts and seeds.
• An egg omelette.
• It can be a small portion of poached chicken with rice and sweet potato.
Best Pre-workout meal for 30 minutes to 1 hour before a workout:
• First in the line is a protein smoothie.
• A fruit and a handful of nuts.
• One small tub of plain yogurt with sliced banana.
These above-mentioned are some of the options for which you can go to! Talking about protein, there can be so many questions wondering in your mind, make sure to read the Whey Protein vs. Whey Isolate: Insights from Anytime Fitness and get all the details.
Importance of Post-workout Nutrition
Now, talking about Post-workout Nutrition, it is great to have carbs and protein after a workout, which may help support your muscles after exercise.
During the workout, our muscles use up their glycogen, the stored form of glucose made up of various connected glucose molecules. It is the main source of energy for our body. This depletion of glycogen results in our muscles being partially weak. Some of the proteins in our muscles can also be broken down or we can say damaged during exercise.
To rectify the situation after a workout, our body tends to rebuild glycogen and regrow those muscle proteins. Thus, eating the appropriate nutrients soon after a workout can help our body recover faster. Properly providing our body after an exercise can also help in:
• Reducing the muscle protein breakdown
• Growing muscle protein synthesis
• Improve our mood
• Boosting muscle recovery, etc.
Best Post Workout Meal
Research states that having roughly 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight every day is sufficient to maximize muscle growth, so make sure to balance it out. For your convenience, we’re listing some of the best post workout meal that one can have are:
- A protein shake
- Some scrambled eggs and Veggies
- Veggies induced pasta
- Further, the list of meals includes sweet potatoes, chocolate milk, quinoa, and other grains, fruits, rice, oatmeal, whole grain bread, cottage cheese, chicken, avocado, nuts, etc.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Avoid Unknown Ingredients– Rule number 1 is to not trust any unknown ingredient, make sure to know about it and how it’ll affect your body.
- Stay Away from Spicy Food– Spicy foods are best to avoid after workouts as they can create problems with digestion and cause heat burn. While our body is in recovery mode after a workout, we should avoid food that causes indigestion.
- Say No to Excessive Sugar– One should stick to whole foods such as fruits, seeds, nuts, clean meat, etc. Lots of sports drinks, protein shakes, and energy bars are considered not to be helpful in the recovery process.
Make Sure to be Hydrated
Staying hydrated before and after your workout ensures an optimal internal environment for your body, it maximizes the results. During a workout session, we lose water and electrolytes through our sweat, thus, hydrating appropriately, after a workout can help with performance, recovery, and injury prevention. Further, have a look at The Ideal Sequence for a Full-Body Workout Routine, for maintaining the regular optimum workout routines.
Make sure to get proper nutrition in pre & post workout meal and stay hydrated!
