How to Eat for Strength & Gains
You may not realize it, but food is just as important to your strength training routine as the number of sets you’re hammering out each week. Today we’re going to look at simple tips for getting the most out of your muscle toning workouts by improving your diet.
There are a few reasons that food is so important to strength training. Without a surprise, energy is one of those reasons because this is really going to allow you to push it to the next level every time you train and will overcome those sluggish moments where you just want to stop (I know we’ve all been there!).
But beyond that, you need to make sure you’re giving your muscles what they need to recover, to gain strength, and to increase in size. Unfortunately, these physical needs all correspond to very specific nutritional requirements that often differ from your regular diet. That’s right, just because it says healthy when you eat out doesn’t really mean it is if you aren’t eating clean natural ingredients that you yourself put together right?
If you want to significantly improve your strength training results, follow these 4 simple food rules. A significant impact is around the corner and you’ll see progress and gains like never before.
4 Simple Food Rules for Better Workout Results
1. Fuel Up
Your pre-workout nutrition is really essential when it comes to maintaining energy throughout your workouts. Ideally, you want to think about this from the time you wake up, ensuring that your body has the nutrients it needs to stay strong and active.
First, this means not skipping breakfast. If you’re tight on time, even a morning protein shake will do. Second, you want to get a good balance of protein, healthy carbs (either whole grains or veggies), and vitamins and minerals to offer you the most complete support.
Check out my Morning Pre-Workout Meals here for some great ideas.
2. Energize
If your workout isn’t first thing in the morning, you also want to think about what you eat in the hour beforehand. Between 30 minutes and 1 hour before your workout, you need to give yourself a little nutritional boost. You could do a pre-workout protein shake or even a healthy protein bar like one of these Quest Bars or Organic Food Protein Bars.
Alternatively, you can also consider fueling up pre-workout with a metabolism-boosting, energy-enhancing workout supplement like Dyma-Burn Xtreme. On its own or combined with a shake, you’ll experience better stamina and endurance to keep you moving.
3. Increase Your Protein Intake
Whether it’s before or after your workout, you need to increase your protein intake overall. This is one of the most important strength training diet rules. When you engage in resistance training of any kind, you basically tear your muscle fibers. It’s in the repair process that the muscle makes gains in size and strength, but without adequate protein in your diet, this process will be impaired.
So you have to eat more protein. Make sure your protein sources are healthy, regardless of your diet. If you’re vegan or vegetarian, make sure you’re still getting adequate protein in your diet.
For some ideas, take a look at my High Protein Diet Shopping List.
4. Think Recovery
The most important period may be the first hour or two immediately following a strength training routine. It’s during this time that your muscles are most depleted, so you need to make sure you fuel up post-workout.
This can be by means of a balanced meal with a solid serving of protein, or with a protein shake, depending on your preference.
There are also a lot of healthy and effective recovery supplements that can really improve your results. For some great ideas, check out my Post Workout Recovery Supplements here.
Which one or all of these are you implementing today? Please leave a comment I’d love to hear from you…
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Thank you for visiting! Weight Loss and Training is a health blog which features all the best weight loss tips that I have learned over my 20 years of training. My background includes a degree in Kinesiology from the world renown Simon Fraser University, certification in nutritional sciences from UBC, and Personal Trainer Specialist certification from Can Fit Pro.