Pre and post-workout meals play a key role in the effectiveness of your training sessions. They help you perform your best and shape your results. Let’s take a deeper look into the purpose of pre work out meals, meal timings, and what to eat.
If you’ve ever found it difficult to concentrate during your workouts, you are fatigued faster than usual or your workouts simply didn’t go as per the plan, think about what you ate prior to training these might be signs you aren’t giving your nutrition the attention it needs.
Pre-workout meals are an important part of any fitness routine. Eating the right foods before you train can help to fuel your workouts, accelerate your results and get you closer to reaching your health and fitness goals.
Benefits of Pre-workout meals
1. Increase Performance
Going to the gym or working out from home without energy is never a good idea. A proper pre-workout meal will supply your body with everything you need for peak performance. When you exercise your body converts glycogen into glucose. This plays a crucial role in muscle contraction. By giving your body the right pre-workout nutrition, you’ll reduce muscle glycogen depletion.
2. Prevent Fatigue
As you work out, your energy levels deplete, and your muscles can become exhausted. However, when your pre-workout nutrition contains the right nutrients, you’re giving your body the fuel it needs for optimum performance when your body has the energy to burn you can make every exercise count and avoid tiring out too quickly.
3. Reduce Protein Breakdown
Not only do you want to gain muscle, but you want to make sure you’re maintaining those gains for this to happen, protein synthesis should be equal to or exceed protein breakdown.
The importance of timing- When to eat a pre workout meal.
We hope that by now you’ve understood the importance of pre-workout let’s take a look at when you should eat before working out.
If you plan to work out in the morning hours, try to wake with enough time to finish breakfast at least an hour before you exercise.
If you plan to exercise within an hour of breakfast, then focus on eating a light snack consisting of carbs (for energy) such as
- A banana with some peanut butter.
- A glass of juice or a protein shake.
- Granola or cereal.
Remember portion size matters. If you’re working out later in the day, consider these simple rules
- Large meals should be eaten 2-3 hours prior to working out.
- Small meals or snacks should be consumed 1-2 hours prior to a workout.
- Snacks for quick energy should be eaten 30- 60 minutes before exercise.
You want the right amount of energy to get the most out of your workout and eating too much can leave you feeling sluggish.
What should you eat before working out?
Mostly what you should eat as your pre-workout meals depends on the workout you’ve planned to do. Just make sure that you don’t deny your body the nutrients it needs to succeed.
Some of the foods that you can add to your pre-workout meals are
Fruits
Fruit is an important part of any workout regime, providing vital nutrients that provide energy, improve your performance, and help to promote recovery. Eating fruit before a workout is a highly effective way to increase your performance.
Peanut Butter
Made with the goodness of 100% roasted peanuts, peanut butter is a great source of protein and crab. Including it in your breakfast can provide you with a full stomach throughout the day. Just eating one spoon of peanut butter can give you the required energy for all your workouts and also for the day.
Muesli
Made with 100% wheat rice, rolled oats, rolled barley, dry fruits and nuts, and corn grits muesli is a perfect source of fibre and protein-rich food that can be eaten at any time of the day. It can be consumed with milk, yoghurt, and with a side of fruits. Mamafeast muesli also includes dried fruits and nuts for added flavour. A small bowl of muesli before you start your workout will help you do all our workout with energy and concentration.
