Nutrition before, during and after training is of great importance. We will tell you how to achieve maximum results with the help of nutrients!
By now, you should be aware that sports nutrition has a huge impact on your performance. The abs are formed in the kitchen, we are what we eat, and so on and so forth. “Yes, yes, yes,” you mutter. “I’ve heard it all before, more than once.”

No, seriously: during a workout, you can level the gym to the ground, but the result will largely depend on what you ate before and immediately after the workout. Research shows that nutrition is often the difference between reaching a goal and dropping dead one step away from it.

We must learn to direct all the power and energy of sports nutrition that enters the body before, during and after training, to increase performance and recovery, and then our muscles will grow faster than weeds in the garden.

Pre-workout nutrition
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates… немногие элементы вселенной бодибилдинга вызывают столь яростные споры и бесконечные дискуссии. Do they lead to obesity? Do we need them at all? If so, which ones? And when? And these questions will never end. The suggested answers may contradict each other, but if you’re going to get the most out of your workout and want to train to your limits, fuel quality matters. Carbohydrates – это «любимое» топливо нашего организма. No, I’m not telling you to eat bowls of mashed potatoes and eat candy bars all day, but before a grueling workout, you still need to fill your body with fuel.

Do you need every gram of carbs you eat to be used as an instant energy source or stored as glycogen, but you don’t want them to be turned into fat? Then don’t eat more carbohydrates than you need and don’t worry too much about how to distribute them evenly throughout the day. Just eat the lion’s share of carbohydrates before training and immediately after it.

I approve of those who have time to eat at least twice before training.

These meals should contain complex carbohydrates such as oatmeal or sweet potatoes. The first meal of the day gives the carbs a couple of hours to digest and start working – raising blood sugar levels and up to edges to fill glycogen stores.
The second meal should take place about an hour before training, 40 g of carbohydrates will be enough for most of you. Do not be too zealous, calculating minutes and seconds. Five minutes earlier or five minutes later – the diameter of your biceps does not depend on these little things. Eat when it is convenient for you, just try to choose the time so that by the beginning of the workout the stomach is not full.

Fast protein
nutrition-before-during-after-workout-2Athletes who took whey protein before training achieved better results
Studies have shown that athletes who took whey protein before training achieved suspiciously high results compared to those who opted for other sources of protein (or forgo protein). Most likely, this effect is due to the pronounced anti-catabolic and anabolic effect of branched chain amino acids (BCAA), which are contained in whey protein, and leucine is of the greatest importance. Whey protein has a much higher concentration of BCAAs than other types of protein.

But there are other benefits as well. It has been experimentally proven that protein intake before exercise increased the level of energy metabolism at rest by 6-6.5% over the next 48 hours. Also, pre-workout protein for the whole day reduced the level of cortisol in the body of the subjects, which did not happen in the control group, whose representatives did not receive anything or took only carbohydrates.

Protein and amino acids help store carbohydrates. People think that once the body has run out of carbohydrate fuel, it immediately switches to fat-using mode. In fact, this process is too slow and cannot provide us with energy during an intense workout. And to get fuel here and now, our cells take amino acids and convert them into glucose through the process of gluconeogenesis. If these amino acids are not in the blood, guess where they can be taken from? That’s right, from your 50cm biceps. For those who are on a diet, a small portion of amino acids will help maintain muscle mass.
The most conservative heavyweights are reserved (even with some prejudice) about the use of protein before training, especially if they are in the drying phase. In this case, it is recommended to take 10-15 g of BCAAs instead of protein.

Amino acids have the same effect and ultimately promote protein synthesis. And for those on a low-carb diet, pre-workout BCAAs can help burn more fat.

Creatine Monohydrate
If your goal is to increase the strength and volume of muscle tissue, consider adding creatine monohydrate to your diet. Now the market is literally swamped with various creatine preparations, but I prefer micronized creatine monohydrate because it is a well-researched, pure and time-tested preparation.

Why is it needed? Our body uses three main pathways for the synthesis of ATP, the end product of energy metabolism. Which method is used in a particular situation depends on the intensity of the load. During the most intense loads, which include weightlifting, the body consumes creatine phosphate as an energy source.
Adding 2-5 g of creatine to your daily diet will create good reserves of creatine phosphate that the body can turn to during training. And this will allow you to give all the best to the full program. In short, creatine helps you lift more weight and perform more reps, and it also attracts water into the muscles, which visually increases their volume.

The choice of time to take creatine does not matter – before training, after training, or at any other time of the day. If you have been taking creatine for some period, 2-5 g per day is enough for you. If you are just starting to drink creatine monohydrate, “load” your muscles by increasing the daily dose to 20-30 g for 4-5 days.

Beta Alanine
The main task of beta-alanine is to maintain muscle performance at a high level. The main cause of fatigue is intramuscular acidosis. In the process of ATP synthesis through the breakdown of glucose and substrate phosphorylation, metabolic by-products are formed, including hydrogen ions. If hydrogen ions are not removed from the cell in time, they will interact with pyruvic acid salts, which will lead to the formation of lactic acid. An increase in the concentration of this metabolite is accompanied by a drop in performance and a violation of the coordination of muscle contractions.

To fix this imbalance, our body uses L-carnosine, which is not only an intracellular buffer and removes excess hydrogen ions, but also takes on the role of an antioxidant. L-carnosine is a dipeptide that is synthesized from the amino acids L-histidine and beta-alanine, and it is beta-alanine that is the limiting factor in this synthesis reaction. Studies have shown that adding beta-alanine to the diet increases the concentration of carnosine in muscle tissue, which allows endurance athletes to improve their performance. Useful beta-alanine and those who work on endurance.

Recent studies suggest that the optimal daily dose of beta-alanine is 4-5 g. Ideally, this should be evenly distributed over several doses throughout the day, but 800 mg should be taken immediately before the training session.