I’ve been training hard for about six months now. Suddenly, I’m re-evaluating how I approach exercise in an effort to save money and get better, more adequate nutrition.
Usually when I exercise I get three workout drinks: a pre, during, and post-workout shake consisting of 12grams whey protein hydrolysate, 10grams of creatine monohydrate, 25grams dextrose/maltodextrine mix, and some bcaa’s all in each serving. This has worked fine but is also expensive.
Lately I turned to regular chocolate skim milk because it’s said to be an old stand-by. Here the problem is in the high fructose corn syrup, which is supposed to go straight to your mid-section.
I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the different suggestions I’ve been getting from sources. Could someone tell me what they drink, how much, and how well it works for them. I’m kind of a “starving” college student and want something relatively inexpensive yet quality. Thanks for any help you can give.
Il Don
hey im also a starving college student, i go 20g whey pre workout and 40g carb pre, water during, 50g whey post, 5g creatine monohydrate post, 100g carb post, for carbs I highly reccomend powdered gatorade its low priced and for the cost of a 6 pack of the regular stuff you will get enough to last you for weeks, good luck.
Are pre a during workout drinks neccessary with only six months training experience? How about water, and after your workout a protein shake.
It seems like everyone thinks you have to have a whole lot of stuff to get results. I don’t beleive that your progress is going to stalemate if you cut out the pre and during workout drinks. You might actually see better results by buying food with your money instead of drinks.
[quote]Il Don wrote:
I’ve been training hard for about six months now. Suddenly, I’m re-evaluating how I approach exercise in an effort to save money and get better, more adequate nutrition.
Usually when I exercise I get three workout drinks: a pre, during, and post-workout shake consisting of 12grams whey protein hydrolysate, 10grams of creatine monohydrate, 25grams dextrose/maltodextrine mix, and some bcaa’s all in each serving. This has worked fine but is also expensive.
Lately I turned to regular chocolate skim milk because it’s said to be an old stand-by. Here the problem is in the high fructose corn syrup, which is supposed to go straight to your mid-section.
I feel a bit overwhelmed by all the different suggestions I’ve been getting from sources. Could someone tell me what they drink, how much, and how well it works for them. I’m kind of a “starving” college student and want something relatively inexpensive yet quality. Thanks for any help you can give.
Il Don[/quote]
[quote]BarneyFife wrote:
Are pre a during workout drinks neccessary with only six months training experience? How about water, and after your workout a protein shake.
It seems like everyone thinks you have to have a whole lot of stuff to get results. I don’t beleive that your progress is going to stalemate if you cut out the pre and during workout drinks. You might actually see better results by buying food with your money instead of drinks.
[/quote]
[quote]TrainerinDC wrote:
BarneyFife wrote:
Are pre a during workout drinks neccessary with only six months training experience? How about water, and after your workout a protein shake.
It seems like everyone thinks you have to have a whole lot of stuff to get results. I don’t beleive that your progress is going to stalemate if you cut out the pre and during workout drinks. You might actually see better results by buying food with your money instead of drinks.
Agreed. [/quote]
David Barr has talked about pre-workout nutrition being about twice as effective (as far as protein synthesis) as post-workout nutrition, so if you’re going to only choose one, I’d choose the pre-workout drink.
[quote]JKThreeEleven17 wrote:
Buy some maltodextrin, dextrose and regular whey protein.
I use 0.4g/kg bodyweight protein,
0.4g/kg bodyweight dextrose and
0.4g/kg bodyweight maltodextrin.
It’s make-your-own Surge.[/quote]
If that’s per serving, how many do you get for each workout then? I would need 30 grams of each of those for the shake then, which sounds reasonable if I got one before and one after the workout. Sound logical?
[quote]BarneyFife wrote:
Are pre a during workout drinks neccessary with only six months training experience? How about water, and after your workout a protein shake.
It seems like everyone thinks you have to have a whole lot of stuff to get results. I don’t beleive that your progress is going to stalemate if you cut out the pre and during workout drinks. You might actually see better results by buying food with your money instead of drinks.
[/quote]
Pre-Workout nutrition is extremely important. In a book titled “Nutrient Timing” by Dr. John Ivy from UTexas @ Austin, there’s a whole section about an “Energy Phase” for pre and during your workout, and how what you consume during that time period provides not only energy for during your workout and preserves muscle glycogen stores but primes your muscle for protein synthesis immediately after your workout is over. I highly recommend reading this book for people who are into nutriton as deeply as some of us are. It’s a great read and pretty simple. It’s not even necessary to have an in-depth physiology or biology background to know what he’s talking about. Definitely check it out.
When I do a pre-workout drink I dont feel any different than when I dont have one. But I do eat well and take in lots of food. My after workout drink I definitely feel better when I have it.
[quote]JKThreeEleven17 wrote:
Buy some maltodextrin, dextrose and regular whey protein.
I use 0.4g/kg bodyweight protein,
0.4g/kg bodyweight dextrose and
0.4g/kg bodyweight maltodextrin.
It’s make-your-own Surge.[/quote]
Here’s the thing I need clarification on; Do I get all those separately or is there something they come pre-mixed in (besides Surge because I can’t afford that)? I can find them all sold separately, but it seems less convenient. On an interesting note, I found nutrasweet has a dextrose/maltodextrin mixture in it along with aspartame.
Hey Don,
Can you really not afford $2.50 per workout?
That’s the cost of Surge per serving (factoring in shipping) I would say above all things Surge is the first and most important supplement you should be putting your money into if cash is tight.
Certainly before Creatine or straight protein powders.
Also, i would say that pre-workout nutrition’s importance (in my opinion) depends very much on one factor: when you’re working out.
If you workout first thing in the morning and are in a catabolic state, then yes. it’s just as important as post-workout nutrition.
If you workout in the afternoon or evening after you’ve had 3-6 meals in you i don’t see pre-workout nutrition being anywhere near as important as post.
I always feel THE most important meals of the day are breakfast and post-workout.
read the articles about uses of creatine. It supports that only about 5g of creatine are needed per post workout meal(thats one scoop of 5g for 99.99% of us).
preworkout try this formula:
some skim milk(i go with 1 cup)
some water(i go with a lot)
about 20g-30g of whey protein isolate(relatively cheap)
post workout:
maltodextrin powder(60g carb equivalent- this stuff is cheap, can find at a bake store or online)
-water
30g of whey protein isolate(1.5 scoops of Grow! neutral whey)
5g of creatine(you should NOT be using 30g).
there you go man it’s that simple.
that post workout shake, well you can get 5lbs of whey on this website for 29.99$, and maltodextrin about about 5lbs for 13$.
thats about 40 servings(60g each) of malto(13$) and half the tub of whey Grow!(15$). that puts you to
28/40= 70 cents a serving. not including creatine ofcourse since i didnt feel like adding it in.
shipping is not factored in as well. The fact of the matter is though this should cost you about a dollar or less per serving if you go this route.