Nutrition: before, during and after exercise.

Basic ideas on what to eat for exercise, when and how.

Many athletes ask themselves: what should I eat before training? What about during exercise? What about after training?

Obviously, the answers to all these questions will have to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis, but.... good news! There are some general patterns that you can follow without fear of making a mistake..

Keep in mind that there are many factors that can influence what is best to eat, such as the type of sport you practice or your health and physical condition. So don't take this text literally! In any case, reading this article will give you some basic ideas about what to eat, when to eat and how to eat.

Having clarified this, let's get started.

What - and how - to eat before training?

Before doing sports practice we will need to have a nourished body, in a situation where our cells and muscles are able to perform well, thus minimizing the risk of injury.. To this end, the nutrients we ingest (carbohydrates or sugars, fats and proteins) must be in optimal amounts and proportions.

Fats

We must know that lipids are the last element for obtaining energy, a very efficient but very slow energy: it takes longer to get going to nourish our muscle cells. The oxidation of fatty acids is activated 20-40 minutes after the start of sports practice and... it is almost impossible to deplete our body's lipid reserves.

On the one hand, fats are already distributed throughout the body, and this means that we have practically inexhaustible stores. Eating fats before training will only make the stomach work and decrease the mobilization of Blood to where we want it to be transported: the muscles.. Therefore, the intake of fats before exercise is not highly recommended since it will slow down our digestion. Apart from that, our lipid stores already provide us with this nutrient on a constant basis, so you should not be afraid of running out.

Sugars

Speaking of sugars, the truth is that we have small reserves in the liver and at the muscular level. However, these glucose stores are not large enough to cover our body's needs during a day's training.o We should therefore ingest a slow-absorption carbohydrate to charge our cells with energy so that we do not feel tired or have a lipotimia during exercise.

There are many examples of slow-absorption sugars, but the most recommended are pasta, rice and bread. If they are whole-grain, so much the better! Because whole-grain foods are absorbed more slowly by our digestive system, so our energy reserves will cover our needs more and better during (and after) sports practice, thanks in part to their fiber content.

With regard to fiberfiber, we should know that it has two basic functions: to lower the glycemic index of food (this is related to the speed of absorption of a food and the activation of insulin in our body) and to clean our intestines.

A little known example of perfect food for before training: "10 benefits of chia seeds in your body and mind".

Protein

Last, but not least, we have the proteins. These play a fundamental role during exercise to prevent or slow down the processes of muscle destruction. In the protein section, we must take into account that the reserves only last from 3 to 4 hours, regardless of whether we are talking about vegetable proteins (lentils, for example) or animal proteins (a beef steak).

The only thing to look at when deciding whether to go for vegetable or animal proteins will be our blood group, since depending on the blood types we will be more or less tolerant to one type of protein or another, and therefore digestion will occur more or less quickly. This point of blood groups and protein assimilation I will explain in another article in more detail, I do not want to dwell on this.

Having seen what and how we should eat before exercise, let's move on to the next phase: during the sporting activity.

What - and how - to eat during physical exercise?

At this point in training when we start to sweat and notice how our muscles are pumping blood, we will need to ingest certain nutrients that will allow us to maintain a good level of hydration and energy. It is during sweating that our body expels water and mineral components. This loss can be easily compensated by ingesting an isotonic drink. isotonic drink. Bottles of isotonic water contain rapidly absorbed sugars necessary to restore the water and glucose levels demanded by our body during exercise. If the isotonic drink does not contain sugars, don't worry: you can add a couple of spoonfuls of white sugar.

As regards protein during training, our body can only assimilate the protein already broken down into amino acids. The amino acid is the smallest unit into which a protein can be broken down, a chain of amino acids forms a protein. Two types of amino acids are responsible for repairing the microscopic muscle fibers of our body that are degraded when we do sports. On the one hand we have glutamine (which is the most important amino acid for the subject at hand) and has a fundamental role in the repair processes of the muscle fibers.

On the other hand we find the amino acids BCAA (Branch Chain Amino Acids), formed by the valine, leucine e isoleucinethree essential components in muscle metabolism. These amino acids can be purchased in specialized stores, and come in shake form, which you can prepare at home and take it at your leisure during your workout. Important: We have to watch the origin of these products, since not all of them have the same quality.

Low quality products can be dangerous for our health, so be very careful: this is also a topic that I will keep for another article, because it deserves to be explained well. In any case, be very careful when choosing nutritional supplements: it is better not to take them than to take one that can harm your health.

Having explained what and how to eat during training, let's move on: let's get to know how to nourish yourself after after you've worked up a sweat.

What - and how - to eat after training?

Immediately after exercise we have a time span of 90 to 120 minutes during which our body is highly receptive to all the nutrients we take in. This special time is called the anabolic window, and it also occurs in the morning when we wake up. Therefore, pay attention to what follows because it is very important.

The best option for after exercise is to drink a shake of fast-absorbing carbohydrates. fast-absorbing carbohydrate shakein order to cut the process of muscle destruction. This is produced by the continuous stress on the muscle, which slowly damages the fibers during physical exercise until it creates micro muscle ruptures. In order to achieve an improvement in muscle quality (and therefore, in sports performance), we must necessarily go through this process of destruction. Of course, it is not advisable that the muscle fibers remain degraded and without food to repair themselves for a long time, hence the necessity of this first shake that I recommend.

Shortly after this first shake and before the end of the anabolic window time, it is ideal to take a second shake, this time of proteinto be able to recover the muscular structure. You must take into account that it will depend on the quality of the protein that the absorption occurs more quickly and that we feel better at the digestive level. This is because just after exercise we do not have much blood in the organs involved in the digestion process.

The blood is kept in the muscles to oxygenate them and repair the fibers, leaving the rest of the body a little undersupplied, as happens with the stomach, which must make an overexertion to properly assimilate the food it receives and thus be able to repair the muscle fibers. As a result of this process, the quality of our muscles increases, which leads to progress in our general physical condition.

Later, before the end of the anabolic window, we need to ingest a fast carbohydrate to replenish the muscle stores of glucose. My personal recommendation is the one contained in boiled potato or sweet potato. As a protein source, we will follow the same pattern as before, looking at a food that suits us according to our blood group.

Nutrition and training: conclusions

As we have seen, nutrition before, during and after sports training is key to optimize physical performance, and muscle recovery and overcompensation. I hope this mini-guide will help you to improve the quality of your workouts so you can achieve your personal goals.

Now, the most important thing: let's train!