Pre-workout and Post-workout meals

By Now you should have a general understanding of the 3 macronutrients as well as how your body utilizes them. Before I get into more detail about HOW MUCH of each you should be consuming I wanted to dedicate an article to the 2 most important meals of the day, Your pre-workout and post-workout meals.

Pre-workout Meal

A good pre-workout meal should be consumed anywhere around 1-1.5 hours BEFORE you hit the gym. Your pre workout meal should consist of SLOW digesting COMPLEX Carbs. Whole wheat Pasta, brown rice, or sweet potatoes would be an ideal source of carbs to fuel your workout. Since complex carbs take longer for our body to break down you can be assured that you will have a steady flow of energy being released throughout your workout to help fuel your exercise. The reason you should consume it at least an hour before is because it takes time for your body to convert the glucose from complex carbs into glycogen for your muscles to use for energy.

To make this easier to understand have a look at the short street fighter animation I’ve posted below

For those of you that may not be familiar with street fighter each character has a blue/purple energy bar located at the bottom of the screen. The characters “super moves” or “special move” can only be performed when this bar is full. Glycogen works in a similar way. Our Energy bar IS our glycogen. When our Glycogen levels are peaked our body has more energy to perform in the gym, just like our street fighter character Ryu has more energy to perform his hadouken.

Post-workout meal

A lot of people have the misconception that the first thing they should do after a workout is scarf down as much protein as possible. This is FALSE. Keep in mind your body’s first priority is not to build muscle; its first priority is to SURVIVE. After a workout your Glycogen levels are depleted and your body is in DESPERATE need for energy. Protein is a macronutrient that helps build and repair muscle tissue. However just like Carbs, our body IS capable of breaking down protein and converting it into glucose. So if the first thing you do is stuff your face with protein, chances are your body will use a large chunk of it for energy rather than recovery.

After a hard workout you can think of your body as a sponge. Ready to absorb anything you put into it and use it for energy. A solid post-workout meal should contain a SIMPLE carb. If you recall simple Carbs breakdown fast and cause you insulin levels to spike instantly. You can get simple Carbs from most fruits, ESPECIALLY bananas.

Why is it important to spike insulin after a workout?

In my article about Carbohydrates I talked a bit about insulin. Remember insulin carries nutrients to your muscle. Therefor when your muscles are energy depleted and torn up after a hard workout, you need to spike insulin quick and consume protein with it to deliver the oxygen, amino acids and other nutrients your muscles need to start repairing and building stronger. 

Protein Synthesis

Protein Synthesis (more commonly knows as “GAINS”) is the process in which our body replaces dead muscle cells with new ones. When your body is producing a higher amount of NEW protein cells then dead protein cells you build muscle. However if the amount of dead protein cells is greater than the amount of new protein cells you Lose muscle. Essentially protein syntheses is responsible for building new muscle tissue. HOWEVER take note that protein synthesis will NOT start if your body's Glycogen levels are depleted. Your body will not start the muscle building and recovery process until AFTER your glycogen levels are back to normal.

The Catabolic State

The catabolic state is the darkest nightmare for any gym-goer. Catabolic literally means to “break-down”. This dreadful state is when the body isn’t receiving adequate nutrition or rest and begins breaking down muscle tissue to compensate for the lack of energy its receiving. Keep in mind if you don’t get adequate nutrition from your pre-workout OR post-workout meal, your body being in an energy depleted stated WILL eventually target your own muscle and break it down to help recover from your workout attempts to build NEW muscle. If you find you’ve been going to the gym and not seeing any gains, or possibly even getting smaller or weaker, chances are you need to fix up your diet and learn how to optimize your pre/post-workout meals.

You may have noticed that I didn't go too far into detail about good meals to eat before and after the gym and instead just focused on the theory behind what your meals should consist of. I will get more specific on exactly what to eat later on as it would vary from person to person depending on their fitness goals. There is no "universal" pre-workout or post-workout meal because everyone's body is different and so are their nutritional needs.

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