Ideal Pre-Workout Nutrition

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Regularly making poor dietary choices before workouts can ruin your ability to progress.  Wise choices, on the other hand, will fuel you towards your goals.  When considering what to we should eat before a workout, we should know what we are trying to accomplish:

1. Optimize hydration levels

2. Avoid low blood sugar

3. Avoid feeling overly full–digestion requires blood flow, keeping it away from working muscles

4. Ideal levels of nervous system activity–impossible to have peak performance if you’re half-asleep

The perfect thing to eat to accomplish all these objectives depends on how long it will be until we begin working out.  Generally speaking, we want to have water, some carbohydrate, and perhaps some caffeine to set us up for performing well during our workout.

If it’s an early morning workout and I plan to start ASAP after waking, I’m having a glass of water (hydration), a cup of green tea (hydration/nervous system stimulation), and a bit of water-rich fruit: apple, watermelon, berries, etc…(hydration/carbs).  As you may be noticing, that’s a lot of focus on hydration; remember that we are all most-dehydrated upon waking, and being dehydrated–even slightly–greatly diminishes performance.  If you do nothing else right, you must hydrate well.  You should need to visit the restroom during an hour-long workout, if you’ve hydrated well.

Let’s assume we have more time before our workout than the previous scenario: a good rule of thumb is 16-32 ozs of water (larger humans need more water than smaller) in the hour before a workout begins and 250-500 cals of carbohydrate-rich food.  If it’s a longer bout of high-output exercise (e.g. I’m planning to run 10 miles), a few strawberries won’t get me very far; something more calorically dense (e.g. a bagel with a small amount of nut butter) will serve me better.  But remember, we don’t want to be overly full, so this hypothetical bagel should be eaten at least 60 mins before the workout begins.  A bigger meal means you need more time before the workout starts, to maximize performance.

Lastly, let’s talk caffeine.  Caffeine is a nervous system stimulant.  It is thoroughly researched to be ergogenic (helps your physical performance) and safe in proper amounts.  It shouldn’t, however, be used as a substitute for a good night’s sleep.  It can mask the sleepiness of a morning after rough sleep, but it is not a long-term fix.  Consume caffeine 30 mins prior to exercise.

You’re working out at 7pm, you say?  I would not have caffeine that late in the day.  General rule of thumb is no caffeine after 2pm.  Once you complete your workout and you need to “pump the brakes” so you can fall asleep on time, try some slow-exhalation breaths: lay on your back with knees bent and feet flat on the ground.  Inhale deeply through your nose, filling your abdomen with air (place your hands on it so you can feel it filling up), exhale slowly through your mouth.  Try using a 4 sec in, 2 sec hold, 8 sec out tempo (4:2:8).