Fitness enthusiasts and athletes keep looking for ways to improve their performance and endurance. Good nutrition plays an integral part in helping your body to perform better and recover faster. Eating healthy food before and after exercising gives good results.
Providing fuel to your body before working out maximises your performance and minimises muscle damage. pre-workout supplements provide you with energy when you work out and help ease the fatigue of an intense workout. You receive an extra boost of energy to exercise.
Your supplements depend upon your goals and the type of exercises you do. Some increase your power while others boost your endurance.
Eating before exercise
Taking adequate food before exercising helps to maintain blood glucose, maximise performance and improve recovery time. Suppose you want to do resistance training; eating a meal before a workout is essential. Your meal should have low fat, moderate protein, and high complex carbohydrates.
Best food before exercising
Oats: Oats can supply vast amounts of energy that are released slowly. It becomes a more healthy meal when raisins, mashed bananas, figs, and honey are added.
Bananas: Bananas are rich in carbohydrates and provide energy for a prolonged workout session. They become more nutritious when some peanut butter is added.
Whole grains: Whole grains are packed with energy in the form of carbohydrates. They help to maintain the blood sugar level by releasing the carbohydrates slowly into the blood.
Boiled eggs: Boiled eggs are an excellent source of protein, and the yolk is high in nutrients. It boosts your energy levels when it is eaten with whole wheat bread.
Yogurt and fresh fruit: Unsweetened yogurt and fresh fruit are good snacks rich in carbohydrates and nutrients. It serves as a quick and power-packed snack before a workout session.
A Supplement before workout
Many people take pre-workout supplements to raise their blood sugar levels and provide additional energy during a workout. They are packed with carbohydrates and glucose to handle the fatigue and weakness caused by exercising. By giving extra power, they boost energy levels and increase focus. Each ingredient in the supplement improves particular aspects of performance, like increasing your strength or endurance.
Creatine: Creatine can increase intramuscular phosphocreatine levels, which enhances physical performance and improves muscle morphology. It also increases high-intensity exercise capacity and lean body mass gain.
Caffeine: Caffeine increases your focus and energy by improving mental alertness, performance, and fat burning. It increases muscle strength and decreases fatigue, and helps you to get more out of a workout.
Beta-alanine: Beta-alanine enhances a person’s capacity to exercise and train, improve physical function and build lean muscle. It also reduces the acidity in your muscles during high-intensity workout sessions.
Citrulline: Citrulline improves endurance performance and weight training performance by increasing oxygen content in the muscles. It promotes healthier blood vessels and lowers blood pressure, and plays a vital role in cardiovascular health.
Nitrates: Nitrates reduce fatigue and enhance performance and boost blood flow during weight training. The nitric oxide from nitrates promotes vasodilation and increases oxygen and nutrient delivery to the muscles.
Generally, a pre-workout supplement is taken 30 minutes before the workout session. Your body digests the supplement and benefits from it while you exercise. It is beneficial on days you feel sluggish and are tempted to miss your workout session. The supplements increase your exercise capacity and help you to stay fit.
