Hey guys coming up with a good pre-workout meal while at work is not easy.  What are your suggestions for something ready to drink, and something that isn't too expensive?  Normally I try to eat chicken and beans, but it's just not always possible.  I know real food is the way to go, but I'm looking for some supplement ideas.

Liquid pre workout drinks (well within 45 minutes of training) are ideal for digestion purposes. I have dry oats, a 8oz glass of orange juice w/ a scoop of whey in it.

Oatmeal for complex carbs, obvious reasons, so I can make it through my workout.

Orange juice because its suppressive of cortisol, the stress hormone which is catabolic.

Whey for its protein aspects and its GH releasing effects.

*I wouldnt have chicken real close to your workout, chicken takes longer to digest than any other food around because of its high protein count, & amounts of connect tissue. I try to have a cup or so of vegetables about an hour before my workout, and then 15-20 minutes later have the above. Thats about as cheap as you can get. OJ & Oats are dirt cheap, and whey is inexpensive also.

Excellent suggestion YJ. Much easier then nuking a meal up. When you say dry oats do you mean just raw rolled oats mixed in the OJ?

my pre workout meal is usually p/f, chicken and flax oil or whole eggs with cottage cheese 1 hour before my workout. i also have a dextrose/whey shake right before i start lifting

depends on if bulking or cutting
cutting - protein /fat before 2 scoops whey with 1 tablespoon FLax seed
bulking- protein/ carbs 2 scoops whey / with 3/4 oatbran 250 mgs ALA
oatmeal bloats me to much

Don't like whey / dextrose before workout it can cause my blood sugar to crash during workout

Originally posted by pinoy
my pre workout meal is usually p/f, chicken and flax oil or whole eggs with cottage cheese 1 hour before my workout. i also have a dextrose/whey shake right before i start lifting

isn't that kind of reversed?  like yj said, chicken takes a while to digest, add to that flax oil and its even longer.

 

and the whey is cool, but why add the dextrose pre-workout?  Post i can see.

 

personally if i have whey on hand I will use that about an hour before i workout...if I have to eat real food, like today.

which will be chicken, scallops, and veggies..stirfied in olive oil. (by me)

imma eat that at like 3:30, and hit the gym like 5:30

 

h19

i also favor a liquid meal for my preworkouts. most common is 1/2 cup oatmeal and 25grams of whey with a fruit (banana or apple most often) Sage

Sage how do you get the oats down? Do you have a blender nearby at this time? I use oatmeal for my morning, and post workout shake, but I don't have a blender at work, and I am on the road a lot. I suppose I could grind the oats before I cook them, and just mix in a shaker?

http://www.proteincustomizer.com/formulas.html

i use the unflavored morning formula for pre and post workout...go thru and figure out the amount of protein vs commercial shakes and you'll see it is quite a bit more economical to go this route....
so before workout, i use this (with one tablespoon of choc ovalteen)along with an apple or orange...
ovalteen facts...1TBS
20 cals
0 fat
4.5g carbs
0 pro
now this is while i'm "cutting" so i don't add any oatmeal right now....but thru fall and winter, i'd toss in rolled oats into the blender alone and they chop up real fine, almost powdered....i put this into a tupperware ahead of time and then for the shakes i add about 1/3rd cup of chopped oats...to figure nutritional numbers, the chopped oats volume are about half of the amount of rolled oats prior to the blender...
hope this helps you out...i doubt i'll ever buy commercial protein shakes again....al

Thanks for the tips on the oatmeal!  Gotta love the oatmeal.  I've long thought about going with a customized protein, but I've always just gone with a commercial. 

 

BTW sweet avatar.

 

GO U.S.A!

Originally posted by N'Pursuit
Sage how do you get the oats down? Do you have a blender nearby at this time? I use oatmeal for my morning, and post workout shake, but I don't have a blender at work, and I am on the road a lot. I suppose I could grind the oats before I cook them, and just mix in a shaker?

ya, i recently started using oatmeal for half my post carb intake (and i grind them up in a coffee grinder) but the pre workout meal, i eat at home and cook in the microwave. On a side note, i actually like how cold oatmeal taste....ha. Sage

I have all these juice boxes I bought during my bulk/maintainance/don't really care diet.

I'd usually drink them during lunch time, but seeing as there is no reason to have an insulin spike midday I guess it would be helpful to drink them pre-workout.

Would juice be good to drink for breakfast to restore glycogen levels after a night of fasting?

... I like whey with skim, but I'm ghetto

now...if any of you guys are ever in the mood for a little something "dangerous," you might want to give this a ride some time:

30 mins pre - 15g Whey/H20 and an antioxidant tab

10 mins pre up to 10 mins mid-workout- circa 50g Malto/15g BCAAs mixed into H20 (some Splenda can override the ****ty taste, or you can just go mix it into some gatorade or one of those fruit-flavored waters...)

10 mins post-workout (after you've stretched/cooled down n' ****) - 5g BCAAs, 20-30g Whey

45 mins post-workout - oats and cottage cheese

(*note: you can adjust protein/carb amounts as you see fit, but you should stick to the general idea. This also won't work if you're on a CKD; TKDers should ditch the post-workout oats...)


regardless of what other supps you're using, if your training/resting enough, you can make some sick progress off this formula...

I always have one of my homemade protein bars...made from whey, honey, natty pb, and oatmeal.

ive done the high GI carb with branched amino during workout before and only additional gains ive got out of it was a bigger waist line. Im strongly for spiking up the body's insulin level for optimal absorption of the post workout nutrition however i also feel that as long as one gets a sufficient pre-workout meal and is knowledgable enough not to train for 3 hours, two seperate drinks of carb only, and protien only, seperated by 30-45 minutes isnt necessary. get some good nutrition in you before your workout. lift hard for an hour or so, then slam an all in one carb/protein based drink immediately after, followed by a whole meal. Simple.
Sage

Sage, using only a high GI carb is a mistake as you will crash too quickly, here is an article Zeppelin wrote on this very topic with plenty of references

http://www.xtremeformulations.com/vendetta.html

Originally posted by Customizer
Sage, using only a high GI carb is a mistake as you will crash too quickly, here is an article Zeppelin wrote on this very topic with plenty of references

http://www.xtremeformulations.com/vendetta.html

thats no doubt. i support zepp's take however if someone takes in slow releasing carbohydrate source and hour to 1.5 hours before working out, followed by a glucose dominated, right before the workout, that individual will have sufficient energy source to get through their workout, as long as that person isnt a fool and workout for 3 + hours. My pre workout meal consist of slower absorption protein and slow releasing energy from carbs about 1-2 hours before working out. (eggs and flax bread perhaps). 15-30 before working out, down goes 25 grams of whey and about the same about of glucose (either dextrose or maltodextrin). My point is if an individual takes care of their 'pre' workout nutrition, a meal of carb during the actual workout isnt necessary.
Sage

big bump for sage.

my pre-meal consists of 50grams of whey isolate w/13oz. of whole milk. might add in some extra virgin olive oil if need be. also, 3oz. of wild rice. all taken about 1-1 1/2 hrs. prior to WO time.

no upset stomach, no dry heaves, just pure adrenaline throughout my heavy WO's.

thats no doubt. i support zepp's take however if someone takes in slow releasing carbohydrate source and hour to 1.5 hours before working out, followed by a glucose dominated, right before the workout, that individual will have sufficient energy source to get through their workout, as long as that person isnt a fool and workout for 3 + hours. My pre workout meal consist of slower absorption protein and slow releasing energy from carbs about 1-2 hours before working out. (eggs and flax bread perhaps). 15-30 before working out, down goes 25 grams of whey and about the same about of glucose (either dextrose or maltodextrin).

...exactly. That's pretty much the way it should be done, isn't that basically what I'm advocating (although I left out the 1.5-2 hr. pre meal since I thinks it's a given that no-one here [hopefully] attempts to train on a completely empty gas tank...)

My point is if an individual takes care of their 'pre' workout nutrition, a meal of carb during the actual workout isnt necessary.

...yeah, but post-workout carbs aren't 'necessary' either, doesn't mean they're not extremely beneficial. Look at it this way: think about what elevated insulin-levels (which will be stabilized as a result of one's workout-induced hormonal 'milieu') can do in terms of promoting anabolism and inhibiting catabolism during your training (esp. if you've got adequate amounts of (BC/E)AAs around to get shuttled into your muscles.) To put it simply, directly pre/mid-workout carbs not only pre-empt catabolism, but they allow you to resynthesize glycogen while it's being depleted rather than afterwards. I guess it comes down (really) to intensity, but I'd rather be taking in my carbs mid than post.

That may be the difference. I'm a sprinter, so I'm doing power-cleans, deadlifts and other compound work almost every time I lift, and I find if when I stick to my above recs, I can wreck **** in terms of sets/weight even when keeping my rests minimal and still recover quick enough to come back and hit a similar routine w/in 48hrs.

I would rather take them pre so as to take advantage of protein sparing, even (and especially) if dieting. The advantages are stacked so far in favor, stimulating insulin and esp in the presence of EAAs in free form, the results would amaze you

well ill add in this, which i believe all of us would agree on. pre-workout nutrition is well overlooked by many...thinking post workout intake is the only and primary "time-gap" to feed the body in prep/recovery for a workout. Where as, pre workout should go hand in hand with one's post workout nutrition.
Sage

I'm late!

1 hour before my workout, I have breakfast, which consists of 3/4 cup oatmeal, and 5 eggwhites, AA's, Glucosamine/MSM, and my Multi (containing B vitamins).

Then, about 15 minutes before workout I take V-12 (creatine), and more AA's.

During my workout I get some more AA's.

PW, I go with 40g protein, 44g carbs, and more AA's.

Then I continue to take AA's at every meal