Pre Workout Meals?

by Cowboys1 on Mar 2, 2008 6:22 PM EST

I have faithfully followed the "New Rules of Lifting" for over a year now----I have successfully cycled through all routines and believe have assimilated the teachings of the book into a much healthier lifestyle.
I usually workout at 5 am----waking up that early has not been a problem for me but eating something that early has been a challenge.
I "force" myself to have a protein shake and a spoonful of peanut butter before my workout. After my workout I have another protein shake and then I go to work. The rest of my meals thru the day are small and balanced.
I have found a couple other authors suggesting fasting before working out----what are your thoughts on the importance of pre-workout meals? Is it advisable to skip that meal? The two or three times I've skipped it, I have felt better prepared to hit the gym.
The New Rules Lifter

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pre-workout meals

I'd really like to hear the opinion of the professionals (ie, lou and friends), but my understanding is that after eating your body sends blood and energy to the GI tract to take care of digestion. So if you start exercising before digestion is completed, your body has to take its focus off digestion and send blood to the muscles. Which strikes me as not optimal for either digestion or exercise. I think Lou's rule of thumb was to wait two hours after a meal and one hour after a snack before exercising; since you get up so early that's not an option, so my guess is that one solution would be to eat a small amount of very easily digestible sugar/carbo calories - eg, juice, that is available as energy almost immediately and doesn't require much metabolic effort to digest. If more informed minds think my reasoning is boneheaded, I defer to their wisdom.

by pak202 on Mar 3, 2008 1:21 PM EST 0 recs

Pre Workout Meals

pak202,
Thanks a lot for your post. You offer very good insights and a different perspective. I am also interested and waiting on what the experts have to say.
Relative to your orange juice suggestion, I thought I would share with you, and with the audience, one of the principles that I have come up with on my own and that I believe has given me good results: "Other than protein shakes, I dont drink any calories"....this means that instead of orange juice, I will have an orange---it also means that I drink water instead of soda or diet soda----I am fortunate to not like beer or alcohol (although I realize for a lot of people this will be a stretch).....anyway, I thought people might find it interesting.
Cowboys1

by Cowboys1 on Mar 4, 2008 6:27 AM EST 0 recs

A few thoughts

I'm on the side of the experts who discourage working out on an empty stomach, particularly when we're talking about strength training.

A lot of really smart people in the bodybuilding world believe in doing energy-systems work -- aka cardio -- on an empty stomach first thing in the morning for fat loss. Since I don't do cardio, and would never do it first thing in the morning even if I did, I'll leave it at that.

Regarding this specific question about training at 5 in the morning:

The most important thing is that you train. Whether you have a little food in your stomach vs. no food is much less of an issue.
You said you feel better when you skip the morning meal. I think it's smart to pay attention to the clues your body is sending. Try working out w/o food for a week or two, and see if your workouts are equally productive. If they are, try it for another week. If you still feel better and have productive workouts, then I think you should go with what your body is telling you to do.
If you choose not to have any nutrition pre-workout, I think that doubles the importance of the post-workout meals. I'd go with something a lot more substantial than a protein shake. Maybe a protein shake right away, but then a big breakfast an hour later.
If you're going to eat before training, I'd nix the peanut butter. Most advice I've seen (and subsequently passed on to readers) says not to have any fat immediately before a workout, since in theory it blunts the optimal hormonal response to the workout. If you're going to force yourself to eat, stick with carbs and protein.

I hope this helps!

by Lou Schuler on Mar 7, 2008 8:23 AM EST 0 recs