What to eat before and after a workout

EATING the right nutrients before and after your workout can help get you lean, increase your performance and assist your recovery. So what should you choose?

Christmas feature: exercise

BEFORE I start talking pre- and post-workout nutrition I want to make one thing clear: no ONE supplement, no ONE super smoothie, no ONE powder is going to completely overhaul your life and give you magic powers.

So with that in mind it’s best to start with getting your day to day nutrition right because if you’re looking for that ‘booster’ it might be a sign that your lifestyle and everyday nutrition isn’t quite right.

Here is why pre and post nutrition is important:

1) to help replenish energy stores

2) to increase muscle size and quality of muscle (ladies, I promise you — you won’t get ‘bulky’)

3) to repair the muscle tissue damage caused by your workout (“Muscle tissue damage? That sounds scary,” you may say … but don’t worry, this is a good thing)

4) to improve your recovery

5) to lessen muscle soreness

6) to improve immune function

7) to improve your body’s ability to use up body fat

When it comes to your nutrition, training and performance there are a few things you need to think about:

The window of eating before your workout: Eating the right nutrients before you work out can help massively in helping you get lean, increase your work capacity and performance, and help you with recovery. Personally, I’m not as big on this as I am post-workout — the reason being that most of my clients (and I, myself) train in the mornings BEFORE we eat. But if you train later in the day, here are some things to think about.

Sit ups are a popular 30 day challenge

Eating a low-glycaemic carb with protein AT LEAST 1 hour before your workout can dramatically help improve your body composition. On the other hand, for the 2 hours pre-workout be sure to avoid anything too heavy like milk and don’t have any fructose (found in sugar and processed foods) — it’ll slow down your fat-burning markers throughout the workout.

Hydration: This is also extremely important post-workout, but you absolutely NEED to have this in order before your workout. Your workout will be jeopardised massively if you’re not hydrated. (If you’re training more than an hour a day, are extremely dehydrated OR have reached your ideal body composition, fresh coconuts in conjunction with water are a great way to be hydrated.

Blake Worrall-Thompson has trained many people so he knows what works.

Carbs? Yep, post workout they are awesome and NECESSARY. They should be high-insulin index, high-glycaemic index, and low fructose — you need to spike your insulin post-workout if you want to replace your glycogen stores. If you’re looking to put fruit in you post workout shake make sure its something like berries as it is low fructose and wont affect the spike in your insulin.

What is the window of opportunity? Remember when I said earlier that workouts damage your muscle tissues and that it’s a good thing? It’s true — working out causes microscopic tears in the muscle tissue, which makes your muscle stronger as it heals. So, in short, you’re breaking down the muscle to build it up bigger and better than before, which ultimately makes you stronger, fitter and leaner.

Well, it’s in this little period of time that your tissues are “damaged” after your workout that you REALLY need to get nutrients into the body to help with the muscle repair, muscle growth and the increase in muscle strength. It’s not like if you miss this window you’ve COMPLETELY wasted your workout, but you definitely won’t reap all the benefits of it that you could have.

A smoothie is a good way to refuel your body.

Personally, as soon as my guys finish their workout I want them to have some kind of shake/post-workout meal within 30 minutes. Keep in mind that I’m very different from some of the bodybuilder/supplement types who have a backpack full of stuff to take after their workout. And I’m generally not big on supplements and powders as a substitute for food, either, but this is the one time it’s a necessity.

The reason I recommend some kind of smoothie/shake is because a lot of people don’t feel like eating a whole meal straight after their workout. A lot of people aren’t actually that hungry and they’d rather just shower and get home and have a proper meal later on, so a drink makes more sense.

So WHEN do you actually need a shake? If you make a good one, they’re pretty tasty and I daresay you’ll want them all the time — but if you’re just going for a walk you don’t really need it. For muscle-strengthening purposes, you’ll only need it when you’re doing weights sessions, interval work and endurance work that lasts over 30 minutes.

Talking of workouts and performance …

Coming in to summer there may be some of you who don’t like the idea of sweating it out indoors at the gym — so here are 8 ideas to get you busy outdoors

1. Go for a run

2. Paddleboarding

3. Learn to surf

4. Tennis

5. Hiking

6. Beach Volleyball

7. Swimming

8. Riding

WEEK 1 FITNESS PROGRAM

WEEK 1 MEAL PROGRAM

WEEK 2 MEAL & FITNESS PROGRAM

WEEK 2 HOW TO STAY MOTIVATED

WEEK 3 CUT BACK ON SUGAR

WEEK 4 HOW TO EAT OUT

WEEK 5 HOW TO EAT FOR WEIGHT LOSS

WEEK 5 6 THINGS HAPPY PEOPLE KNOW

Find out more information from Blake Worrall-Thompson at www.wellbeingbyblake.com and the online 6 Weeks to Sexy program www.6weekstosexy.com / @wellbeingbyblake