Refueling while training is important whether you’re goal is increased endurance, more muscle or improved sports performance. Here is the nutrition for training you need to make every workout your very best
Fuelling for the training session
There are few things worse than feeling your internal dinner bell ring during training. Whether you’re out on your bicycle or slaving away in the gym, that hunger is more than an annoying distraction.
It actually means you’ve used up most of your energy stores and probably won’t be able to keep exercising at a high enough intensity or for long enough to make progress. The solution? Intra-workout supplements that you can drink while exercising to chase away hunger and get better results.
Fortunately, this supplement category doesn’t limit itself to busting hunger, which is something a garden variety apple could achieve. They actually help accentuate your goals, providing you take the right kinds at the right times.
So follow this guide to make sure you’re always making strides towards hitting your goals faster.
Maximising your on-pitch performance
If you’re the type of athlete who needs to have power, endurance and aggression, then moderating your caffeine intake can have a huge effect on your results.
Research published in the International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism gave rugby players 200, 400 and 800mg of caffeine before a long training session and found that the 200mg dose increased testosterone by 15%. However, when they took 800mg their cortisol levels jumped by 52%.
Cortisol acts as the antithesis to testosterone, blunting its effects. So if you want to get more aggression-yielding testosterone, consume caffeine, but limit it to 200mg because one Red Bull too many could leave you feeling lackluster.
When to take it:
Caffeine actually has a greater effect on men than on women, and its effects can start just 10 minutes after you take it, found research in Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry. This means you should take it at roughly half-time to get a boost in the final minutes of the game – when winners are made.
Feeding the beast
If you’re hellbent on adding lean size, then adding an intra-workout pick-me-up to your water bottle is not just an option, it’s a necessity. You’ll have to choose the right balance of options, though, because taking carbohydrates and essential amino acids while training reduces the amount of muscle atrophy while you’re working out and increases the amount of protein that reaches your muscles, found research in the European Journal of Applied Physiology. This maximises all conditions for growth.
When to take it:
The first half of your sweat session is likely to be fuelled by your pre-workout or protein shake, so take in carbohydrates and amino acid intra-workout supplements when you’re twothirds of the way through, but check the labelling of your product as some digestion times may vary.
Increase your endurance the right way
When you’re looking to set out on that distanceincreasing adventure, it’s no secret that you need to get some high-quality carbs to fuel your session, but how much of an affect do they really have on your overall performance? Well, research in the Journal of Applied Physiology found that supplementing with carbs before your workout increased endurance by 18%, taking carbs intra workout increased endurance by 32%, and doing both increased overall endurance by 44%. That’s some irrefutable science for timing your carbs perfectly, especially when you’re in it for the long haul.
When to take it:
People digest simple carbs at varying rates so make sure you test yourself first. You should take an energy gel no later than 90 minutes into an exercise session, but no sooner than 45 minutes or you’ll be sucking down simple carbs for the duration of your workout.
Maintain your pumps while working out
If you’re after bigger pumps then the active ingredients in your pre-workout drink can run out before your workout finishes. Fortunately, a new product called nitrosigine combines arginine with silicon to stop the arginine breaking down. Research presented at the 2014 Experimental Biology meeting in San Diego, US, found that this novel ingredient almost doubles the maximum blood flow compared to regular arginine and created four times as much blood fl ow to working muscles compared to a placebo. So you can keep drinking it as both a pre- and intra-workout product.
When to take it:
Drink products that contain it directly before your workout and add a half-dose to your water bottle and drink it 25 minutes after your workout has begun to make sure you’re fully pumped all the way to the end of your session.
Issue 24 Page 102-104
