I’m just looking for some good pre-workout morning carb ideas. I’m a huge fan of plain white rice, and try to keep sugar intake low. I just started training in the morning and am at the gym within 30min of waking up. I know this isn’t enough time for something heavier like rice to break down. I’ve been just adding dextrose to my pre-workout but would like something less sugar-like. What do you guys think?
I get up at 0440, eat 2 cups of fruit with some raw honey and start lifting at 0500. Seems to get me through.
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Awesome, I tend to underestimate and forget about fruit for pre workout. Thank you!
I workout early in the AMs as well. I just have an apple. Fruit seems to vibe well if you workout within a few minutes of eating. I start lifting about 10-20 min after eating my fruit.
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Have you considered Plazma? Shits dope
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My new personal favorite thanks to Rob is cold soaked oats. So the night before pour your oats into a container, then pour just enough almond milk/milk or whatever to cover the oats. Let them sit in the fridge overnight so by the morning they will have soaked up the liquid. Then you throw in a scoop of whey and a tablespoon of peanut butter and you are set. Gives you plenty of energy without the fullness feeling you usually get when you eat oats cooked.
Whey, milk and a banana.
I’m in a similar position amd this makes a difference.
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if you’re eating enough carbs over the course of the day you’ll have more than enough stored glycogen to get through your morning workouts.
You could even gasp do it fasted. Won’t make a huge difference.
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You shall be flogged for your heresy. Repent or die
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My procedure is:
wake at 4:20. Turn on waffle iron and stove (for tea). 1.5 servings of kodiak power cake mix (premixed in a shaker cup the night before) goes on the waffle iron. I’m eating hot waffles by 4:40. Working out at 5. No dishes to deal with, I eat it right off the iron.
With all due respect, I don’t agree. My ability to move weights around was lower when trying fasted morning workouts. After 15-20 minutes I was gassed. YMMV.
no I can believe that; some people just don’t cope well with the fasted thing. How long did you try it for? I’m of the belief you can adapt to pretty much anything.
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I’m in the same boat training early and feeling low energy. Not got it down to a fine art yet but I’m hoping I get it right or adjust soon. I find the low rep strength sessions okay but the higher rep stuff is still a struggle.
Don’t underestimate hydration, I wake up feeling dehydrated most of the time so it’s very important I start getting fluids in as soon as possible and keep a drink by the bed for if I wake in the night (more like when!) I feel this helps me more than eating.
I’ve been doing fruit, granola and skyr yoghurt in terms of food. Quick and easy also.
Plot twist; The iron is the plate, Fatkidfromfl is immortal and doesnt get burnt😱
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Anytime iv had to train early my go to is bananas, toast and coffee. 2 bananas some toast and a largeish coffee.
I’d do it fasted. Unless you are already depleted from the previous day (or something is screwy with your metabolism), you should have plenty of sugar stored to get through a workout. I do much better that way than while shunting blood and energy to digestion and activating my parasympathetic by eating.
Really just do what gets you a good workout, but there is no real reason you must eat first.
The sugar thing is also a little weird. Why are you wanting carbs, but not wanting sugar, then agreeing to fruit? All carbs are absorbed as sugar and fruit even starts out as sugar. What are you trying to achieve with the avoidance?
I put oatmeal in the Magic Bullet and blend it to powder. Add almond milk and a serving of whey protein and then it’s off to the basement.
Option 2 is a protein shake and a banana.
In theory this should probably be correct but it isn’t for me. If I do a high intensity lift like squats where lots of blood gets sent to the muscles and my blood pressure increases rapidly then I get nauseous.
If I have some carbs in me then this doesn’t happen.
I know a guy who eats eggs and drinks coffee in the morning and waits til after his workout to eat carbs. It works for him and he’s strong as shit. I tried it and it happened to be leg day and my workout was terrible.
I told him about my problem of becoming nauseous during a tough workout and he recommended I keep hard candy in my bag. He said eating a piece of candy when I felt that way would fix it because it’s the result of low blood sugar. I started carrying Jolly Ranchers in my bag and I haven’t had a problem since. I switched to Starburst because I kept biting the Jolly Ranchers and it was killing my teeth.
I eat plenty of carbs so perhaps it’s more of an issue with blood sugar levels during the workout instead of fuel levels.
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I tried the fasted-AM workout for about a month. I was low-carb at the time, consuming as close to 100g/day as possible. I was attempting to lose as much fat as I could since it was early-on in my transformation. When I introduced peri-workout carbs (in the form of rice flour mixed in my protein shake): the difference was significant. I’ve also had quite a lot of experience with high-output alpine-skiing. If I go light, or skip, my breakfast, my energy levels are hugely-reduced, resulting in a lot less vertical for the day.
Then it sounds like you were depleted going into the training. You could try the carbs before you go to bed.
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Agreed. At the time I was not consuming pre-bed carbs (in regards to workouts). On the mountain is a different story. Even when on a high carb diet, consuming plenty before bed, I feel like absolute shit if I don’t get my high-carb breakfast.
Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE low carb living; I’ve just found that for intense work: I like the performance I get from carbs.
Thank you all for the input. I for sure do a lot better with carbs in my system first. Which is why I typically prefer afternoon workouts, after having many meals in my system. But job schedule change is causing me to switch to morning. Dextrose I felt like got me going, but it wasn’t sustained through my workouts. Creates insane initial pumps though! I tried the overnight oats idea this morning and seemed to work really well as far as breaking down. I think I want to add some fruit to it for some better option of sugars to still have something hit me pretty fast, but still have the sustained energy from the oatmeal. Also going to try to eat a small meal before bed to see if that may help. I also added a little dextrose to my BCAA’s during my workout. I try to go healthy with carbs but need a lot at that time. I guess it might have helped to mention that I only eat carbs around my workout. Pre-workout meal, intra workout, immediately post workout, and about an hour post workout. This seems to work really really well for me. So that’s another reason I avoid the fasted route, this is the only time I take in carbs for the day