The Science of Strength Training - Part 4
Good nutrition is a crucial part of a strength training program. Training with weights creates the stimulus; your diet provides the raw materials for building muscle. Eating the right foods will increase your energy levels, maximize your gains in the gym and improve your health. It will also provide the fuel and fluids needed for intense training, speed up your recovery after training, reduce fatigue and help achieve a healthy body composition.
Nutrition for Strength Training
Pre-workout or training
Eating a low-GI meal 2 to 3 hours before training will produce a slower release of energy, help maintain blood sugar levels during your workout and spare muscle glycogen. Oats with milk and a serving of whey protein, a chicken or cheese sandwich, a jacket potato with beans, or pasta with tuna are suitable pre-workout meals. You could also make use of a pre-workout supplement like SSN - Cytomaize or SPS - Trigger. Combining carbohydrates with proteins and/or fats gives a slower burn than carbohydrates alone. If your last meal was longer than four hours before your workout, have a small carbohydrate-rich snack a banana, a handful of dried fruit, a fruit smoothie, 300mls of diluted fruit juice (50/50) or a sports drink like Cytomaize about an hour before your workout to boost blood sugar levels. Although most of the research on pre-workout meals has been carried out with endurance athletes, it seems that consuming about 1 gram carbohydrate/kg body weight about an hour before exercise helps you keep going longer than consuming nothing.
Intra-workout or training
There is plenty of evidence from studies with endurance athletes that consuming carbohydrates during exercise lasting more than an hour maintains blood sugar levels, delays fatigue, and improves endurance and performance. A few studies have also suggested that consuming a carbohydrate/protein (SPS Trigger or SPS Aftershock or SSN Cytomaize) drink during strenuous workouts lasting 45 60 minutes may encourage faster muscle growth, faster recovery therefore less fatigue and will give you more energy to perform those last few sets. It may also reduce the risk of excessive protein (muscle) breakdown during the latter stages of you workout. However, if you wish to lose body fat or prevent fat gain, be aware that many commercial drinks are high in calories. If you drink too much, you could end up taking in more calories than you burn off!
Post-workout or training
Studies have shown that consuming carbohydrates within one hour (the window of opportunity) of your exercise speeds glycogen recovery and improves performance the next day.
Combining carbohydrates with protein (SPS Aftershock with SPS Isopro Whey or SSN Cytomaize with SPS Isopro Whey) seems to be a more effective strategy for replenishing glycogen than consuming carbohydrate alone. A study at the University of Texas at Austin found that a carbohydrate / protein shake (112g carbs plus 40g protein) accelerated glycogen re-stocking in the muscle by 38% compared with carbohydrate-only drinks. Protein combined with carbohydrates stimulates a greater release of insulin, which promotes faster uptake of glucose by the muscle cells and faster glycogen storage. Protein-only drinks fail to increase muscle glycogen, so save them until later or, better still, add some carbs to them to make them more useful. However, the benefits of a post-workout carb / protein drink dont stop there. A further study at the University of Texas at Austin found that such drinks also promote greater Growth Hormone (GH) release following a weights workout. It seems as if the combination of higher insulin and GH levels creates an ideal anabolic (muscle building) environment. Carbohydrate plus protein also improves mood state after training. Aim for a balance of 1 gram of protein for every 3 grams carbohydrate in your post- workout shake or drink. As fat can reduce the rate of glycogen storage, make sure your post workout shake or drink is low in fat.
Some ideas for suitable post-workout meals or snacks are:
- Meal-replacement shake (carbs and protein drink) SSN MRP
- Protein shake and a banana SSN 100% Whey Protein
- Whole-wheat chicken or tuna sandwich
- Baked potato with cottage cheese
- Oats made with fat free milk and a serving of whey protein
- Fruit yoghurt
- Low calorie protein bar
Between workouts or training
To promote efficient recovery between workouts, divide your food into several small meals ideally all with a low GI value. Frequent small meals produce more stable blood sugar and insulin levels, promote efficient glycogen storage and increase the metabolic rate. When you eat more frequently though the day, you encourage your body to use calories more efficiently, rather than storing them as body fat. Every time you eat a meal, extra calories are burned to digest and metabolise the food. This is called the thermic effect of food. A mixed meal protein, crabs and fats blended together uses about 10% of calories for this purpose. For optimal muscle building and fat-burning effects, you should consume approximately six balanced meals or snacks throughout the day. Each meal should include one to two portions of carb-rich foods and at least one portion of protein-rich food. Include plenty of vegetables with at least two of your daily meals, and eat a minimum of three fruits per day.