Nutrition for the Common Athlete

Almost every athlete wonders what exactly they should be eating before, during, and/or after an intense workout. While there have been theories such as carb-loading for runners and high-protein diets for body builders, it is unclear what the average athlete should be doing to maximize their results in the exercise room.

Coming from a functional fitness background, but having trained in boxing and spent endless hours weightlifting over the years, I set out to find what the best combination of nutrition would be. Keeping in mind maximizing my results, yet not consuming a handful of supplements every day, it was important to understand what should go through my body before, during and after my workout to maximize muscle growth and promote a speedy recovery.

Back in grade school, we learned the word “homeostasis”.  By definition, it is a process in which the body's internal environment is kept stable. When it comes to fitness training, the faster we assist our body getting back to homeostasis, the more energy it can spend on muscle recovery and growth. So the next question is, how exactly do we help our body reach homeostasis?

Exercising burns three major nutritional components of our diet: water, carbohydrates, and protein. The less water we have, the more dehydrated we feel; the less carbs we have, the less energy we experience; and the less protein we have, the less amount is available to be utilized for muscle growth. Back to what I was saying – about how we help our body. Since we burn water, carbs, and protein, it is very important that we replace these before, during, and after working out. This means a healthy meal with carbs and proteins before you workout (to provide your body with protein and carbs to use for energy and muscle recovery). That also means you need a supplement while working out that includes water, carbs and protein to replace what you are burning and stay to stay at maximum efficiency. It took Gatorade over 40 years to create their “G” product which contains a sufficient amount of all three of these components, but is your best option in the gym.

Keep in mind, guidelines say to drink 1.2x the amount of water you lose while working out, so you need to be sipping water constantly. Finally, we have the post-workout meal; which is the same as the pre-workout meal, some basic and healthy carbs with proteins to give your body back what it lost.

What happens when you constantly replenish your body with water, protein, and carbohydrates is you allow for your body to put all of its energy into muscle growth and recovery instead of searching for carbs to burn as energy or using the little protein it has for recovery. The importance of aiding your body in its need to become stable is immeasurable. By offering the smallest bit of assistance and drinking lots of water, you can really enable your body to take full advantage of your every workout.

@fitnessphanatic