Monday Wellness

Pre and Post Workout Nutrition Reflection

There has always been the question debating wheatear it is good to eat before and after a workout. Well, it all depends on a few things: the intensity of the workout you are doing, the workout you are doing, your gender, and the person you are yourself. Not everybody can have food in their stomach before working out because they have the fear of getting cramps, nausea, and other symptoms. But, it has been proven that eating before a workout can cause your body not to function at its best and can cause symptoms such as lightneadness, fatigue, low blood sugar, and even wicked cramps. You will feel more tired and less motivated to keep going the remainder of your workout.

I choose this topic because I myself am a runner, and I struggle finding out what I can eat before I run. I wanted to see if others suffered the same issues that I have. But you as a person need to try different foods and find what works best for you, because everybody is different and our bodies can and can’t handle the foods that others maybe able too.

They say that if you are doing a high intensity workout you should eat 90 minutes before you start. But you should be eating a full mean 3-4 hours before your workout that should have lean proteins and carbs in it. You need all the energy you can get to preform at the level you want and the duration you want.

I think on a scale of 1 to 10 I would give my self an 8.5 for this project. I think an 8.5 would be a fair grade for the time and effort I put into this project/topic. This topic called for quite a bit of research to find an adequate amount of information. I didn’t just look at one site, I look and several and tried to find details that was very similar or that stood out. Every sport wheatear it is football, hockey, basketball, swimming, running or even gymnastics they are all different intensity sports and call for different amounts of carbs, fats, proteins, sugars to be able to preform at the level you want. Not everybody is built the same and not everybody can preform at the same level so when it comes to pre-workout foods everybody in that sport should eat the food within the required standards but in different amounts.

The thing about this topic is that we need to have food in our body to have the energy we need to preform but are we eating the right foods that will give us the proper energy to perform for the time we want and give us the good intensity workout. For after workout foods we think that we just burned a ton of calories and that we can eat whatever we want. But the truth is we can’t eat whatever we want. We need to properly re- feed our body with foods that are high in lean proteins and carbs. Banana or chocolate milk is really good after workout foods because they have potassium and calcium, which we loose when we exercise. But they say what is most important is that you are hydrating constantly before and after your workout, especially after because you sweat out a ton of water and your body needs to replace what was lost.

Some cool things that i learned through this project is that your post workout nutrition is a little more so important than pre. Because you have burned a ton of calories and have lost a lot of your water weight, electrolytes, and other victims and minerals you have to replenish them properly. They also say that water should be the go do drink before you drink sports drinks or chocolate milk. Even after you workout don’t eat a full meal until 2 hours after, a small snack should be good (protein and carbs). For every pound you have lost in your work out, you should be drinking 2 cups of water to help your body recover faster.