I usually eat a meal 4-5 hours pre workout and have a snack 30 min prior.
I want to experiment as I feel like I crash during my workout some days.
What is your go to pre workout ritual?
Nutrition/SupplementsI’ve found that going outside for a 5-10 minute walk has been amazing for my early morning lifts. There’s just something about getting some fresh air and moving a little bit that helps me wake up and lock in. Bonus points for when it’s sub zero degrees during the winter or pouring down rain. In those conditions, all of a sudden I can’t wait to be inside and get some warm blood circulating.
User deleted comment
18d
If i try to eat more than like 300 calories within an hour of waking up im throwing up
I used to wake up at 6am and immediately eat a 1000 calorie breakfast before heading to the gym. At first it was awful but I got used to it pretty quickly (for the most part)
Exact same except also yogurt and melk
Real
how do u gym for only 30mins lol
I mean. Circuit training? Most people spend alot of the gym time idle
u aint lifting heavy or high intensity workouts then lol
or super weak
Damn lol. Takes my central nervous system at least 3 hours to fully wake up where I am at normal strength level for propert lift
Man I wake up and I'm ready to go, it's my favorite part of the day so even when I get up to pee in the middle of the night, my mind is like
is it time yet
Lmao
I'm like this for everything but leg day. I usually do that after work.
Absolutely valid 😂
If I'm super jealous of you? Why yes, yes I am
Ideally I would be doing it somewhere in the middle of my day but schedule just doesn’t permit. I do love my Sunday lift though because I have like 90 minutes between waking and lifting it feels so much better than my weekday lifts.
Dude, i feel you. Only thing that works for my schedule is before work. At least i have a 40 min commute to wake up and let the pre kick in.
2-3 hours before my workout I’ll have a 700-800 calorie meal, relatively low in fat and moderate protein moderate carb.
1 hour before my workout (and this is extremely important) I mix 1 litre of water with 1/2 tsp of sodium and 1/2 tsp of potassium and 2 packets of a water flavoring.
The electrolytes are probably the most important factor in a good lift because you are hydrated and your muscle fire incredibly well. If you’ve never done this it will make a huge difference especially if you’re in a deficit.
I drank my nuun tablet electrolytes during the workout. You suggest a whole hour before? Is 30 mins before too late?
Realistically 30 minutes - 1 hour before.
I start sipping it 1 hour before the workout and by the time I finish drinking the entire litre it’s about 30 minutes before.
I don’t recommend chugging it because the way our bodies rehydrate when drinking water is in smaller sips. Chugging it all won’t be great because it’ll bloat you up and it’s not as efficient at rehydrating you.
You definitely don’t want to drink it during the workout because by then whatever the state you entered the workout in will be what you’re working with. Rehydration is a process that takes time to enter into your muscle. The electrolytes should be active in about 20-30 minutes from consumption.
Little known fact about muscle contractions, but our muscles operate through our nervous system using action potentials (electricity) that are driven mostly by sodium-potassium pumps. Most people are deficient in both, especially if you train hard.
I train to failure literally every single working set and I 100% believe what allows me to do this is through how much sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium I consume.
As a side note, electrolytes are so important that I’d class them way above caffeine. In fact I don’t even use caffeine anymore because they became irrelevant in my performance. If you’ve ever gone on a cut and got significantly weaker, I’m almost sure it was due to dehydration.
I’m going to implement this asap.
Where do you get your electrolytes from
Nutricost’s Potassium on Amazon.
I noticed a few different types of potassium powder, which is the correct one?
I use nuun tablets
I gotta give this a try. Would regular sport drink work? Can you quantify how much electrolytes are needed?
For NoSalt, which is a brand of potassium i have its about 2.5g of potassium per 1/2tsp according to the label
about the same for salt
No salt is good, but it’s over priced. You can get an entire tub of potassium from Nutricost on Amazon.
How about just using salt, as in table salt?
You can use table salt for the sodium, but you still need potassium for the complete effect of electrolytes.
Sodium is the main driver though.
Regular sports drinks are massively under dosed. I recommend Nutricost’s Potassium on Amazon. For the sodium, regular table salt is all you need.
Thank you sir
have you experimented with mixing any beta alanine as well or do you find its not necessary?
Beta alanine mostly benefits endurance sports, it’s useless for weight training.
I tried it drinking 45 minutes my workout. I've been cutting for a month so my workouts have been shitty. Felt great today! I'll be doing this from now on. Thanks
Where do you get the idea you need electrolytes for an hour of weightlifting?
From my degree in neuroscience and an understanding of the nervous system.
How much sodium do you think a bodybuilder that works out 5-6 days a week for a total of 10 hours a week needs?
I also don’t lift an hour a day, I lift at bare minimum 1.5 hours a day and do 30-45 minutes of cardio.
I don't know the sub for this but you got em.
Gorilla mode has sodium and potassium incorporated in both its stim and non stim pre workouts. Not sure how others feel about it but I love the product and pumps
It’s a good formula but per serving it’s over priced.
If you’re willing to pay the money it will work, but it’s not better than putting the most active ingredients (the ones that make a difference in your performance) in there individually yourself.
It’s definitely convenient and it’s not underdosed.
By no means am I an expert, but according to my knowledge, electrolytes are not needed for weightlifting. Most people intake more sodium than they need and if a bodybuilder does not take enough - he has bigger issues with optimizing his diet, in my humble opinion.
How are people going to use that sodium when 98% of the population is deficient in potassium?
Sodium works with potassium (and to a lesser degree calcium) to create the electrical charges that run through your nerves.
Electrolytes are more than sodium alone.
I see. So potassium rich food is the way to go
I eat 2 whole bananas an hour prior to that with coke zero. Then 30 mins before going to the gym I take 2 scoops of pre, and immediately after a cig. Then, when I'm riding to the gym (I ride a motorcyle) I chew gum... And then I go in, fail a PR tremendously, avoid looking at a mirror at all costs qnd increase my probability of getting a heart attack mid 40ies for a mediocre physique 👍🏻 all balanced
Oh, yeah, then I come back home to continue hustling, take a protein shake before bed and get 6 hours of sleep. Damn
Two cups of coffee and maybe a banana if I have one. That’s about it.
Tom Platz is it’s leg day, Arnold for arms/back, Larry Wheels for chest day
Haha I got similar with diff athletes. Jay for legs, Haney for back bis and Zane chest tris
I don’t have one aside from black coffee and eat something if I’m hungry, preferably high carb. I still haven’t figured out why some days I’m strong af on little sleep, few carbs. Others I feel weak well rested having eaten a lot. Recovery-related I presume.
Wake up at 4:45am. Pee while I brush my teeth. Floss. Shake up my pre-workout and chug it. Head out the door. My gym is a 3 minute drive from my house, so I'm warming up at 5am when they open.
Blast my music, grab some light weights to warm up and stretch, get a 5 mile walk in if possible, remember that I’m a piece of shit, then dial in and focus on my lifts.
Watch David Goggins video and remind myself to quit being a bitch and get my ass to the gym.
Was this unironically?
Around 200mg of caffeine from any source.
Get up at 4am and start coffee. take a shower and other stuff. Get dressed and drink coffee and a rice cake. Stretch and then hit the gym at 5am.
Finish work.
Make my own pre-workout: caffeine, beta alanine, creatine, l-citrulline, and Alpha GPC
Rice cake with PB, hop in the car!
Drink a bang energy or a scoop of preworkout (neither of which have any affect on me anymore. Basically is placebo. I would need amphetamine to actually become more alert than normal).
I do static stretches in my house before leaving for the gym, since stretching areas at gym can be crowded sometime.
Drive to gym while either listening to either podcast or music.
Enter gym and get to work ASAP trying not to lolligag.
Try weaning off caffeine for a bit?
When you consume caffeine your body makes you slow on purpose because it knows the caffeine is coming. Try to take a break cold turkey and you feel like shit at the specific times your caffeine would kick in.
breakfast, 28oz water, cup of black coffee with creatine about 40min before I get to the gym
Eat at 12, pre at 2, lift around 2:30.
Shit somewhere amongst that.
2 scoops of pre-workout, 1 scoop creatine mono, 1 scoop glutamine. Start drinking when 20 ish minutes away from the gym (it’s a 30 minute trip). Stretch, then get after it
these days it's been to stop by the mail first due to so many misdeliveries. Gets me pumped.
Get up around 4:30-5; wash my face and brush my teeth; prepare my protein shake; take one scoop of pre-workout; eat a kind bar; drive to the gym.
I have a couple ounces of ham or turkey about 30 minutes prior. Used to do energy bars but then I'd carb crash 40-45 minutes into my workout or ride.
I eat a pre-workout meal (high in carbs and fast digestion) 2 hours before, then before the workout i drink a coffee and take a massive anabolic sh*t in the bathroom
I wake up at 4am, 1 big scoop of pre gets me going haha
1.5 hour before gym i have a meal. 20min before, Lcitrulline, a banana and peanut butter top up with generous amounts of salt. 1 coffee.
Ha damn I love it. I've been working out first thing in the morning after coffee and pooping for close to a decade at this point and couldn't imagine it any other way.
Preworkout right as I leave work at 4-4:30. Work out as soon as I get home. It’s a 15-30 minute drive depending on traffic, so the timing is perfect.
Full day ritual: protein shake, protein bar, and overnight oats for breakfast. I take them to work with me since I’m not usually hungry first thing. Typically leftovers for lunch (more on that later). Preworkout as I leave work and work out when I get home. Cook 4-6 servings of something for dinner. I usually cook from one of the Tuesday Nights cookbooks so I can save the recipes in Cronometer. Wife and I eat 2-4 servings and have another 2-4 for the next day or two depending on what I cook, if I hit my macros, and our schedules. I make 6 overnight oats at a time and have an assortment of nuts and berries to add to them each morning. Sometimes the wife will have one, sometimes not.
Wake up at 3am, mix 800ml of cold water and some hydration stuff. Start lifting weights.
If I have time I'll make a nice sandwich, if not I grab a protein bar, either with black coffee. A little stretching and some warm up sets before the actual workout
Carbs and a wank
4 double espresso then leg day.
Wake up, turn kettle on, toilet, weigh-in, ingredients to the stove, brush teeth, vitamins, oatmeal with fruit, protein and avocado (around 500 calories), pack meal prep, get caffeine, audio book and walking, gym at 6 AM - 9 AM depending on my weird sleep schedule, 500 calorie recovery meal. Then freelance work or studying now that it's summer.
Wake up. Eat my greek yogurt. Drink my pre workout on the way to the gym. Rock an absolutely unboly deuce. Hit them weights
Take Shilajit and eat a fruit like a banana.
Smoke a fat bowl out of my bong and try to get at least 500-750ml of water in my system
I’ll eat a yogurt bowl with fruit and peanut butter with eggs and half an avocado. Wait about an hour and drink 2 cups of black coffee. So after that I bike to the gym which is 3 miles.
Up at 5.45am, make a coffee and a hot protein drink (like a shake but in hot water in a mug), take my HRV, eat a banana and drink said drinks, then I head down to my basement gym around 6.30am and away I go.
Wake up, quick shower, banana + preworkout, hit the cart as I drive to the gym (10 minute drive)
Banana with peanut butter and a couple Rice Krispies with peanut butter maybe 45 min before heading to the gym.
I take pre workout on the way to the gym. I like Bucked Up. You don’t need preworkout, I just enjoy it for the caffeine.
Hit the bathroom when I get to the gym. Put some deodorant and a light dab of cologne. Look good, feel good kinda thing.
Watch some David Laid videos lol. Never fails to pump me up
Wake up and take pre-workout. Read for like 30 min, then lift. Empty stomach is best for me.
Wake up, take a piss, weigh myself, preworkout (NO/pump formula) take a 100mg caffeine pill, drive 15 mins to the gym, warm up that days muscle group, turn on some Katy Perry, rep that shit out.
I like to have a meal a few hours before lifting, to where it’s not weighing me down, but I have full energy available. Then I always start my metal playlist on the way to the gym, and get fired up.
I workout about 20 minutes after I wake up fasted. Can't really work out with food in my stomach.
Meal 1 h previous, high in carbs most likely. Then some sugar half an hour before, then 80-100 g caffeine just before warming up. Some days, some sugar in the middle of workout.
I'm not quite sure if I'm doing right. I accept suggestions of any kind.
Whether I workout in the morning before work or at lunch time my go to is a banana and 1 or 2 coffee's. It is a 10 minute walk to the gym for me and when I go there I walk pretty fast to warm up a bit. When I come my breathing and heart rate are elevated and I go straight to a warmup set, then working sets.
On the way back I work in a normal tempo as cool down and when I come home I am hungry and eat.
Wake up, bowl of oats and a banana, wait an hour before workout.
I eat 3 1/2 hours before workout and if I’m very tired, I have my pre-workout drink 30 minutes before. If you feel like you’re crashing, is it because you’re eating too early early maybe or maybe not tonight
Probably all kinds of wrong, but I have breakfast about half an hour before hitting the gym. First twenty five mins at the gym for me is just incline treadmill. That usually has me ready to lift.
I think you don’t need to overthink it😂
I’ve always just had my meals, and go after work. Never taken pre workout and always have had consistently good sessions.
Drink a glass of water and head to the gym within an hour of waking up. Right before heading in have couple servings of rice crispies in the parking lot
I bike to the gym from work, then change clothes.
2L of water beforehand, at least one proper meal 1 hour beforehand, quick acting carbs 20 mins before, pre workout and a shit ton of metal to get me hyped lmao
I have a meal 2 hours before, then i drink coffee before gym and i eat honey with salt right before and drink my creatine.
Eat something with carbs and not too much fat in it 1.5h-30min before the workout (depends on the carb source, oatmeal, rice, apple etc) and then go lift. Drink plenty of of water with a pinch of salt 15 min before arriving at the gym so when I get there and I do my first working set I already absorbed it
Wake, weigh myself, chug water. Cook a fairly large breakfast, digest for 30 mins then start drinking coffee until I’m agitated. Leave to go lift when I am furious lol
Wake up 5am, grab a fist full of raisins and eat on the way down to the basement, start warming up.
Wake up, eat 60 mins before leaving house, drink my pre in the park on the way to the gym, chill there for 10-15 mins, get in the zone and go
3-4 hours before I would have one of my 3 main meals (650-900 calories). Then 30-60 mins before I would eat a chicken rice ball (200 calories, 7 grams of protein). I would then take a caffeinated pre work out drink 10 mins before I start warming up. I would drink a sport drink around 120-150 calories throughout the workout.
Wake up at 4:30 or 5 am. Shower. I eat one hour before so in between 5:30-6:30, same meal 300 kcal all carbs and protein. Drink pre workout around then. Use the bathroom like 30 minutes later and then drive to the gym. Get super pumped up with loud music and open the window so the cold gets into my car and wakes me up. Get to the gym, park as far away as possible so I gotta walk and get a bit warm. Workout starts at 6:30-7:30 and lasts 45-90 minutes or so. I start right away at my hardest lift but I do one warmup set at a low weight, so I bench with the bar or do bulgarian split squats with bodyweight and stuff like that, then get into it! Eat a meal at around 9 or 10 am and another one at noon both 400 kcal.
Depends on the day but snack no sooner then 1 hour before, pre workout 10 minutes before, put on shoes, gloves, pop in a piece of gum, turn on fitness tracker, 10 minute warmup.
One double espresso
Intra carbs are game changing for me. Zipping 30g maltodextrin+electrolytes while working out
I wake up, have a cup of black coffee with some breakfast (usually either, overnight oats or toast) , then go to gym before it gets too busy
a decent meal a little bit before. 200-400 mg of caffeine. A joint or a couple blinker hits before I go in. Music that slaps.
I have lunch at noon but I’m not in the gym until 330 (after work). I find I get a second wind as I’m driving to the gym so I don’t need anything beforehand.
I’ll eat around 3:00pm, finish work, tidy up the house, then go to the gym around 6:30-7:00pm. If I’m hungry I’ll eat some fruit beforehand, if I feel tired I’ll have a cup of green tea. Otherwise I’ll have a sip of plain water.
A coup of coffee and 2 bananas in my case, maybe a crossaint on top of that. This is 45 min before gym.
If I switch meals and I have more than 1 hour before gym I go 5 eggs and a crossaint/banana/whole bread with a coffee.
If I don't eat carbs I just crash just before my first compound, intensity FTW.
Count down the minutes until the end of my shift, struggle to stay awake on the way to the gym, pray that whatever equipment I need for the first exercise of the session isn’t taken while I go take a quick preworkout piss, yawn throughout my warmup sets and finally wake tf up after my first working set to/near failure because of the adrenaline.
Breakfast like 3 hours before, 30 mins before, banana and preworkout, walk the 30 mins there to digest it a bit.
Wake up 4:30 AM. Drink 3 raw eggs with my creatine and beta-alanine. Lifting by 5:00 AM. Eat a cup of peanuts and one banana after my workout, washed down by water.
I have a banana, protein shake and some OJ on the way to the gym (30 mins drive) then I warm up/walk on the treadmill and start my workout, I bring an intra workout drink with me too.
reminding why I hate myself and then lifting with a strength of 100 men
meal about 2 hours before, banana 20 mins before, pre workout and a teaspoon of honey and salt
I always ate big meals before training and then discovered lately how much better I train eating less pre training. Try to get the bulk of my calories in the late afternoon / evening now.
I have a meal about 3-3.5 hours before the gym when I’m bulking and about 2-2.5 hours before when I’m cutting.
And then my pre-workout is always the same; EAAs, Beta alanine, creatine (and I’ve recently started adding taurine, tyrosine and Alpha-gpc, which I supplement anyways, but did so in the morning before).
And then I mix my intra workout which is sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium and also malto dextrin when I’m cutting. And lastly I get a piece of gum and walk over to the gym.
I’ve had a couple of different routines, but last year when I was working part time 5pm-10pm, I would wake up at 9, take care of my hygiene, take a caffeine pill, have a high fat high carb high protein meal, get 30 min-1 hour of sunlight, read a little until about 12, have high carb meal with a protein shake and coffee, take a walk, then go to the gym at 2pm, that was my most anabolic routine ever lol. Unfortunately I have to go to the gym in the mornings now, I have to work for some extra cash
Protein bar 30 mins before and Pre workout on the way while eating a honey crisp apple
Wake up, meditate and visualise, gym
Wake up, eat my protein granola and drink a cup of coffee while goofing off on Reddit and running through my workout plan for the day for about 20 mins, then go workout.
Wake up, shower(end cold), eat yogurt and protein bar. Slug pre-workout and creatine on the drive to the gym.
Also gotta walk up a bunch of stairs to get to the lifting floor of the gym so I blast heavy metal and pretend im on my way to somewhere far more important.
Stalk my ex
black coffee!
Jerking off 30min pre gym then slamming 2 scoops of non caffeinated workout. Focused af
Nothing like a little pre workout prolactin
1200-1800 calories of oates an hour and a half before hand (When im bulking) when im dieting i just add a fat burner and raw dog it and have a protein shake when i get home.
Oh and depending on how im feeling it'll either be like 650-800 ish ml of coffee or grey earl tea.
Slam crystal. Fucking go.
2 missing replies
Wake up and then like 20 minutes later start lifting weights. I hate it.