Optimum Nutrition for High Intensity Workouts
- Jul 23
- 4 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Do you participate in high-intensity activities such as weight training, marathon running, HIIT/circuit training, rock climbing, or cross-country running, and are curious about the best nutrition to increase stamina and maintain energy levels? If that's the case, continue reading for advice and guidance that will offer you the information you need. Some of it may be familiar, but hopefully, you'll learn something new and useful.
Key Principles for a Healthy Diet
Regardless of the type of workout you engage in, your regular daily diet should be based on the same principles:
Balanced Nutrition: Ensure a good mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and unsaturated fats.
Whole Foods: Focus on fruits, vegetables, whole grains and cereals, and lean proteins.
Hydration: Drink plenty of water throughout the day, at least 1.5 litres or more dependent on how active you are, how much you sweat and how hot the weather is.
Regular Meals: Eat at consistent intervals to maintain energy levels but be mindful of serving sizes to manage calorie intake.
Listen to Your Body: Pay attention to hunger and fullness cues; eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full.
Limit Processed Foods: Reduce/avoid consumption of sugary snacks and salty, fatty, fast foods.
Steer clear of alcohol, cigarettes, and recreational drugs to optimize your body's health
Nutrition for Workouts
If you aim to improve your fitness and sustain energy for your demanding exercise routine, it's important to focus on consuming the appropriate foods at the right times, whether before, during, or after training. To ensure you have enough energy for your workout and recover effectively afterwards, there are several factors to consider.
Pre Training Nutrition
Before engaging in a vigorous workout, it's crucial to think about the best timing for eating and the types of foods to consume. Each individual is different, and it depends on your personal comfort levels, but it's generally recommended to eat a meal three to four hours beforehand. You need to be focusing on high-carbohydrate foods for maximum energy, a moderate amount of protein to aid in muscle repair and a small amount of unsaturated fats to sustain energy and overall health. Here are a few ideas:
Complex starches e.g. rice, quinoa, pasta, oats, buckwheat, potatoes, peas, muesli etc.
White bread, bagels or energy bars.
Vegetables that are cooked to lower their fiber content, or low-fiber vegetables like tomatoes, olives, and courgettes.
Protein such as eggs, chicken, fish etc.
Fruit such as banana, apple or berries.
Selection of nuts and seeds (unsalted variety) or nut butters.
Approximately an hour before your workout, consider having more easily digestible carbohydrates for a quick energy boost, such as a banana, an energy drink, dried fruit, honey, or sugary sweets.
Nutrition during training
If you're engaging in a long endurance exercise routine lasting over an hour, such as a marathon, ensure you continue to consume 30-60 grams of easily digestible carbohydrates each hour. Additionally, drink plenty of water, aiming for 500ml to 1 liter based on the temperature and your sweat rate, or choose diluted fruit juices. It's also important to include sports drinks with added electrolytes (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium) since these are lost through sweating. As individual needs vary, it's advisable to experiment and discover what suits you best.
Post Training
Following your workout session, it's important to nourish your body to aid recovery and replenish depleted energy reserves and electrolytes, as follows:
Protein: To assist in repairing muscles and other bodily tissues, incorporating poultry, fish, meat, soybeans, eggs, beans and pulses, brown rice, peas, and almonds. If you opt for supplements, consider using whey powder or pea and rice protein to mix into a shake. Muscles remain receptive to protein for up to 24 hours post-exercise, so there's no immediate hurry to consume it.
Carbohydrates: After exercising, your glycogen levels need to be restored (this is the form in which your body stores glucose to make it readily available for energy). This can be done by eating complex carbohydrates including wholemeal pasta, brown rice, wholemeal/rye bread, vegetables and fruit, smoothies.
Electrolytes: As previously mentioned, electrolytes are lost through sweating, so it's crucial to replace them. You can do this by consuming the following foods:
Potassium: Bananas, avocados, spinach
Sodium: Pickles, cheese, nuts, and pretzels.
Magnesium: Spinach, pumpkin seeds, almonds, dark chocolate, and whole grains.
Calcium: Milk, yogurt, cheese, and leafy green vegetables.
Chloride: Olives, seaweed, and tomatoes.
Supplements
Supplements should not be used as a substitute for inadequate nutrition; however, certain supplements have proven to be beneficial for those involved in high-intensity activities or marathon running, and you may want to consider these:
Creatine: This compound aids in supplying energy to your muscles. It is naturally produced by your body and can be obtained from protein-rich foods or as a daily supplement.
Beta-alanine: Intense workouts can lead to a build-up of lactic acid in your body, causing muscle fatigue. Taking this supplement has been shown to reduce lactic acid accumulation, thereby enhancing performance.
Protein powder: Protein is essential for muscle repair, so consuming it after a workout can help replenish amino acids and minimise muscle breakdown.
Recovery time
Now you've worked your body to the max, it's important to now allow it to recover, repair and relax.
Engaging in gentle stretching, yoga, or getting a massage can enhance blood circulation to the muscles, relax them, alleviate soreness and help them repair.
Magnesium Glycinate/Citrate is needed to help your muscles to relax and recover. Excellent sources include dark leafy greens, nuts and seeds, wholegrains, oily fish, beans and lentils, brown rice, avocados.
Enjoy an Epsom salt bath to restore your magnesium levels and relax your muscles. Add 500g of Epsom salts to a hot bath and soak for 15 minutes, or you may like to use a magnesium spray.
As always listen to your body, if something hurts or it doesn't make you feel good at any point then stop!
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