How to Eat for Hard Workouts

How to Eat for Hard Workouts

What do you eat during workouts so you do not feel like crap?  You went hard at a workout but that was yesterday, and today you feel anemic, slow, or burnt.  Well, if this is happening to you, you need to design a strategic nutrition plan because your body is not getting what it needs to sustain and recover from the stress of a hard workout.

So, you are discussing a million dollar business proposal with your colleague, and your brain feels like it needs more caffeine.  You slept well, but you did a hard workout last night.  Welcome to the club.  You are not alone.  We will help you.  I swear.

A lot of us dudes discuss this stuff around the water cooler or during lunch time.  There are some rules of thumb.  Here is your strategy in visual form:

 

Pre-Dose

·         About four hours before your workout, you need to get some water into your system.

o   Drink about 250 milliliters of water every hour until about one hour before your energy drink Pre-Dose

·         Eat a nutritious meal of half meat and half vegetables.

·         Drink a twelve ounce Pre-Dose workout drink.

o   Example: 4 scoops of Amino Energy in 12 ounces of water

       

Workout

Conventional wisdom from the experts suggests that if you are going for one hour, all you need is water.  If you are going for over an hour, you will need some source of carbohydrates like with an energy drink because your muscles need to replace the depleted stores of glycogen.

I sometimes eat a banana between sets.  I drink water as needed on short workouts. 

For long bike rides, I will pack 12 ounces of an energy (2 scoops of Amino Energy) drink for about every hour of effort.  I will definitely eat something about the size of a banana every hour or hour and a half.

Recovery

Conventional experts say you should consume a recovery drink and recovery food within 30 minutes of finishing up a hard workout.

My favorites within 30 minutes:

• Banana
• 250 milliliters of milk with ½ teaspoon of cocoa.

You may have to increase your dosage depending on how hard you worked.  Eat a healthy meal within two hours.

There you go.  This should be a good start.

What do you do?  Leave comments.

Freddy Martini

freddymartini@earthlink.net