For those who work on a regular basis, picking a pre-workout meal that suits your body as well as your fitness regime can be a daunting task. Which foods to eat and what should be the pre workout serving size totally depends on the type, duration, and intensity of your workout. So, how to curate a perfect pre-workout meal for yourself? Muscled-In-Nutrition will tell you. 

Understanding Your Pre-workout Meal

As per certified fitness instructors, a good rule of thumb is to eat a mixture of protein and carbs before exercise prior to exercise. Keep in mind that you don’t need to eat many pre-workout meals at different times and can just choose one of these. To extract the pre workout benefits in the best way possible, you can experiment with different timings and nutrient compositions. At the end of the day, you are the one who can decide what suits you the best.  

Pre Workout Meals To Consider

Here are a few power pre workout foods and meals that you can consume:

• Banana

Bananas are a great source of natural sugars, simple carbohydrates, and potassium. Eating a banana as your pre-workout snack is the perfect way to boost your glycogen stores and increase blood sugar levels, you can add some peanut butter for that extra protein boost.

• Chicken, Rice & Vegetables

The stereotypical healthy meal is chicken, rice, and vegetables. This is actually a classic pre-workout meal. By combining a good source of lean protein and complex carbohydrates, this meal can provide amino acids to promote anabolism (muscle growth) and a slow-releasing source of energy.

•  Protein Bar

If you’re on the go and looking for a quick top-up before the gym, then a protein bar is a great option. There are lots of options out there, but in terms of a pre-workout snack, you want to fuel your workout as well as boost your protein intake. 

• Hydration is also crucial. 

Good hydration has been shown to sustain and even enhance performance, while dehydration has been linked to significant decreases in performance. It’s recommended to consume both water and sodium in alignment with the timing of pre-workout meals. This will improve fluid balance.

Supplements For Exercise Performance

Supplement use is common in fitness regimes. One can take creatine for muscle strength and other such products may enhance performance, improve strength, increase lean body mass, and reduce fatigue. Here are some pre-workout supplements that you can take:

• Caffeine

Among many other benefits, caffeine has been shown to improve performance, increase strength and power, help reduce feelings of fatigue, and stimulate fat burning. 

• Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs)

BCAAs refer to the essential amino acids valine, leucine, and isoleucine. Studies have shown that it is a great pre workout performance booster as it decreases muscle damage and increases muscle protein synthesis. Our BCAA is available in a variety of flavors too so that you don’t miss out on taste while achieving your fitness goals. 

• Beta-alanine for Muscle Endurance

Beta-alanine is an amino acid that increases your muscle stores of carnosine. It has been shown to be most effective for short and high-intensity exercises. It does this by increasing exercise capacity and muscle endurance while reducing fatigue.

• Multi-ingredient pre-workout supplements

Some people prefer products that contain a blend of the supplements mentioned above. The combination of these ingredients may have synergistic effects and improve performance significantly. Pre workout with testosterone booster, caffeine, creatine, beta-alanine, branched-chain amino acids, arginine, and B vitamins can prove highly useful.

So, take carbs and protein before exercise in these forms to fill yourself with strength, endurance, anaerobic power, reaction time, focus, and alertness with these pre-workout food items and meals. Happy eating and working out!