The BEST Pre & Post Workout Snacks

One of the most popular topics that I get asked about is what to eat before and after a workout. Let me first tell you that what you eat throughout the day can really make your workout worth it… or it can really waste your time!

Why eat a pre-workout or post-workout snack anyway?

To visualize the importance of pre-workout nutrition, picture your body running on an empty stomach while training. You may feel a little sluggish and your performance may suffer. If you’re lucky, you may still achieve a little bit of a pump. But what you may not realize is that you’re experiencing a dual negative effect.

For starters, because you’re running on near empty, your glycogen stores will be rapidly depleted. And once they are fully depleted, your body turns to your hard-earned muscle as its next closest source of available energy.

The other negative consequence of improper pre-workout nutrition is that, when running on fumes, your intensity and strength capacity suffer. As a consequence, you’re unable to push yourself to the limit, leading to a less-than-stellar performance in the gym.

And as for post-workout nutriton, exercise essentially tears down old, less adapted muscle in order to rebuild more functional muscle. This phenomenon is called remodeling.

Let’s say you are remodeling a house. One guy is hired to come in an tear down your old walls to make space for the new walls. Then one guy is hired to come clean up the old walls and to remove them before the next guy you hired comes in and rebuilds those new, stronger walls in your home.

If you do not give those guys the building materials they need (bricks, dry-wall, boards), then how is anything supposed to get done?

The same holds true with exercise remodeling because exercise breaks down our muscle carbohydrate stores and our muscle protein structures. Then, the immune system comes in to clean up the mess.

And finally, signals are generated to tell the body to rebuild. However, as I hope you can now see, without the proper protein and carbohydrate raw materials, this building can’t take place. You’ll be left with muscles that never reach their potential.

Watch the video below to see my top 3 pre and post workout snacks: