Importance of Pre Workout Nutrition At Your Body

Pre workout nutrition depends very much on your daily activity and workouts. It is important to differentiate between an athlete, like combat sport athletes who often need some kind of specialised nutritional strategy from a nutritionist and “normal” people who exercise regularly and although do take their sports seriously, they don’t need to overdo their pre workout nutrition. Pre workout nutrition also depends on the individual’s goal. The pre workout nutrition of someone who wants to lose weight looks different than someone who wants to gain mass.

Body builders and athlete enthusiasts are always looking for ways to improve their performance and achieve their goals. Good proper nutrition can help your body perform better and recover faster after each workout. Optimal pre workout nutrition intake is prior to exercise and will not only help you maximize your performance but also minimize muscle injury and damage. Pre workout nutrition contains everything you need for your body goals. Assuming that your workout or race starts in the morning, the purpose of your pre-race meal is to top off liver glycogen stores, which your body has expended during your night of sleep. Muscle glycogen, the first fuel recruited when exercise commences, remains intact overnight. If you had a proper recovery meal after your last workout, you’ll have a full load of muscle glycogen on board, which constitutes about 70 percent of your total glycogen stores. If you didn’t re-supply with your pre workout nutrition after your last workout, you’ll only end up hurting yourself by trying.

Eating something nutritious before your workout can have several benefits. It fuels your body with energy, boosts your performance and decreases muscle protein breakdown. Your pre-workout nutrition should depend on your individual goal such as if you’re trying to lose weight, it’s best to eat a small snack or alternatively, train on an empty stomach. Training on an empty stomach, especially in the morning, has the benefit that your body hasn’t any energy in the stores, thus your body will draw on your fat stores as source of energy. Keep in mind, training on an empty stomach can be hard. You have to decide for you based on how weak or hungry you would feel during your workout otherwise.

If you’re just looking to build good aesthetics and looks, keep fit or improve sporting performance on a casual level then total daily calorie intake and macronutrient ratios are of more importance to you that the exact timing and composition of your meals. If a pre-workout meal has been eaten then the importance of the post-workout meal was largely diminished. Researchers go on to explain that unless you are planning on training a second time later in the day and therefore needed to restore glycogen stores more immediately or had not eaten a pre workout nutrition meal, then as long as daily caloric needs were met across the 24-hour day period there is no particular benefit gained from having a post-workout meal.
A good rule of thumb is to eat a mixture of carbs and protein prior to exercise. If you eat fat with your pre workout nutrition meal, then it should be consumed at least a few hours before your workout