My diet is high fat/ moderate protein but I rely on carbs pre- and post workout. Now I am going to incorporate carbs DURING workouts( dextrose tablets; each tab provides 3 gms of rapidly absorbed dextrose) to see how I feel and if it will affect my performance for the better or for worse. Question: How many carbs will a 8-10RM in a basic movement( chins, benchpress, deadlift…) use up? Im thinking of popping a tab before each set, but I wanted to consult with you guys first.
Feel free to suggest another carb source( I don´t have access to Surge, I live in Europe).
Please, anyone??
I don’t think that there is any way to pinpoint carb usage exactly (unless you’re involved in a very well-funded, well-organized study). Glycogen depletion is far too individualized. Here’s a quote from Berardi’s “Precision Nutrition for 2002 and Beyond:”
Studies have shown that performing 10-rep sets of biceps curls and leg extensions leads to a significant depletion of stored muscle carbohydrates. One set of biceps curls leads to 12% depletion while three sets of biceps curls leads to 25% depletion. Three sets of leg extensions lead to 35% depletion, while six sets of leg extensions lead to over 40% depletion.
Take two trainers: one with 18" arms and 28" quads, and the other with 13" arms and 21" quads. Obviously, these 12% and 35% figures are going to relate to completely different carb depletion figures. I think that your best bet would be to determine your overall carb needs for mid/post training session beverage according to Berardi. Then, take half of those carbs and save them for post-workout. Finally, take the other half and divide it by the number of sets to figure out how many tabs to take before each set. Good experiment, but I’m not sure that it’ll be digested quickly enough, regardless of the fact that it’s dextrose. Personally, I’ll stick with half before/during and half after. Good luck.
Your question: “How many carbs will a 8-10RM in a basic movement( chins, benchpress, deadlift…) use up?” - would be hard to answer. Wouldn’t you have to look at the total caloric expenditure of a workout and do the math from there? Would that even be possible? And how “rapidly absorbing” are these tabs? How fast can your body absorb these “rapidly absorbing” tabs? And can one tab last through two sets or three, rather than just one? I suppose that’s really what you meant in your question, right?
The best thing I could say is if these Dextrose tabs help your workouts and are not a detriment than by all means, use them. You may find in your "experimentation" that you only need to take one for every two sets, etc.
I think you should just forget about it. As long as you’re training in the 8-10 rep range with a decent number of sets, 30-35 grams before and after should be fine (going by the Tipton studies). If you want to get into micronutrition, then your calculations could start with an article Lyle MacDonald wrote on Thinkmuscle which has a table that relates levels of glycogen depletion to levels of exercise. But probably just relax and enjoy the sugar rush.
Im probably overcomplicating it, huh? Maybe its better to just pop them tabs 20-30 minutes before the w/o. But, in the case of having dextrose after each set, wouldn´t that take away the need for a postworkout( carb)-shake? I guess so.
If you take more just after the workout, you’ll get more glycogen replenishment and greater insulin to dampen catabolism. But if you’re on a low-carb diet, the dextrose before and after is virtually all the carbs for the day. If your daily calorie count is right and you’re getting enough EFAs, you will definitely lose fat.