Pre-workout Nutrition & Supplementation
Pre-workout Nutrition & Supplementation
Nutrient Timing & Performance Enhancing Supplements for Supraphysiological Training
Gm Gents. Lets talk pre-workout nutrition. What you eat in the hours leading up to your workout can make or break your session.
Luckily, once you understand the fundamentals, pre-workout nutrition is effortless & intuitive.
This guide will cover all the essentials to a well-fueled workout. Hydration, nutrition, supplementation
Do this right and you’ll have better endurance, pumps, strength, and recovery. You will outperform all opponents (and your past self) for pure supraphysiological specimenry.
Bone apple teeth
The 3 Keys to Pre-Workout Nutrition:
1. Electrolyte Balance:
- Electrolytes (namely potassium and calcium) are crucial for muscle contractions. Not enough K+Ca = muscle weakness and cramps
- Muscle need proper fluid balance to work properly (and get pumped up). Sodium regulates water retention in your cells
- You sweat during exercise. Electrolytes go along with it & need to be replenished
- Electrolytes are essential for coordination & neural communication. Mental acuity is dependent on hydration
- Magnesium is crucial for ATP synthesis & Production
2. Anabolic State (via protein)
Dietary protein provides thee amino acid building blocks of muscle tissue. Adequate front loading with protein will counteract the muscle protein breakdown from working out. This is why training fasted is NOT anabolic
Pre-workout protein essentially primes the muscles for rapid repair & growth during & after the workout. It increases muscle protein synthesis rates compared to only eating protein after
It also acts as a hedge in the case that you run out of glycogen stores during your workout, offering a secondary fuel source via gluconeogenesis
3. Maxxed out glycogen stores
Your body stores glucose as glycogen in your muscle & liver. Glycogen is your body's primary fuel source during high-intensity exercise.
Glycogen is the most efficient source of fuel. The more efficiently you can store glycogen, the better & more sustained your workouts will be
If you run out of glycogen, you'll not only feel weak, depleted, or dizzy, your body will start getting fuel from less efficient (and more catabolic sources): breakdown of fatty acids & amino acids.
Anaerobic exercise especially relies on glycogen: heavy lifts, sprints, massive pumps.
The full glycogen & depleted glycogen version of you are two drastically different athletes
More explosiveness, more endurance, better performance, better recovery, better pumps, fuller muscles. Glycogen is essential
Pre-workout Nutrition:
Your pre-workout meal should be:
- Easily digestible
- High carb
- Mid protein
- Low fat
Fat slows down digestion. Save that for your high fat meal of the day (as far away from your workout as possible). The closer you are to your workout, the more you should prioritize easily digestible carbohydrates. They digest easily
You do NOT want to be still digesting food during your workout. Digestion is a bloodflow heavy process. Blood that would otherwise be going to your muscles will be spent digesting food. You will hinder performance and digestion.
The further you are away from your workout, the more protein & fat you can have. Ideally aim for a true "meal" 1-1.5 hours before your session. If you need to be particularly light on your feet (MMA or cardio), be extra sure to fully digest.
Everybody digests food differently. Find the meals that work best for you. For me, my staples are:
Protein:
Shrimp, scallops
Lean fish (halibut, flounder, tilapia)
Lean meat (sirloin, 93/7 ground beef)
Egg whites
Carbs:
Rice
Potatoes
Yams
Rice noodles
Rice cakes
Fruit
I'll typically have a true meal 1.5 hours before then top up my glycogen stores with a mix of glucose & fructose 30-15 min before my session
Glucose & fructose have distinct metabolism pathways. Combining the two ensures max glycogen storage.
Glucose: Absorbed directly into bloodstream -> converted into glycogen
Fructose: Absorbed & transported to the liver -> converted into glucose secondarily
Glucose > Fructose for muscle glycogen
Fructose > Glucose for liver glycogen
Optimize for Digestion:
Don't let your workout be ruined by poor digestion. Find foods that digest most efficiently for YOU.
Utilize tools like Taurine, Vitamin B1, and digestive enzymes to speed up digestion and help replenish glycogen stores.
Go for a post-meal walk & get sunlight to further speed up digestion
Front-Load your Hydration
Water loading before a workout isn't going to do much. You need to be hydrating throughout the day. Electrolyte-rich foods, quality water, trace minerals. Saturate your body with the minerals it needs
I typically drink coconut water with some honey if I feel I need the extra hydration. Sometimes I'll make my own electrolyte blend with:
Magnesium Chloride
Arctic, Colima, or microplastic-free sea salt
Potassium Gluconate
I do NOT recommend potassium supplementation. You can seriously hurt yourself. Eat dates, potatoes & coconut water instead (I've recently been using coconut water powder. Mucho fuego)
Fruit an OG pre-workout for its simple sugars & hydration. Namely watermelon for the L-citrulline
Some other foods I like stacking before my workout are:
Oysters
Blueberries
Dates
Honey
Bee Pollen
Cacao
Sample Meals:
Meal 1:
Sweet potatoes with cinnamon & maple syrup
Halibut with lemon juice & cajun seasoning
Meal 2:
half cup of egg whites with one full egg + plantains & cacao powder, blended and cooked like a pancake
Drizzle on honey, top with bee pollen and blueberries
Meal 3:
low fat goat yogurt with kefir
Rice cake crumbled on top
Blueberries, strawberries, bananas
Drizzled with honey if extra glucose is needed
Meal 4:
Shrimp with cajun seasoning
Rice (or rice noodles)
Cucumbers, Lime juice, pickled onions, salsa of choice
Shrimp with rice noodles 
Amberjack and bone broth rice 
Bison and plantains
Pre-Workout Supplements
I don't take any pre-workout blends. Most modern blends are subefficacious and/or powdered crack. Each workout requires a different mental & physical state that is driven by intuition.
Here are some tools I deploy: