Ok,

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not big on supplements. Never have been. Never had the money to afford any.

I’ll have a post-workout protein shake and then another shake between my third and fourth meal and I’ll take my multivitamins once a day but that’s about it.

Sometimes, during my bulking phases, I’ll replace those protein shakes with weight gainers.

However, I’ve never used creatine, glutamine, No-Xplode, BCBAs, or the other dozen or so appetite expanding-testosterone boosting-water weight retaining products out there.

I want to look big and impressive in the gym. I’m not looking to, nor have I ever deluded myself into thinking I could become a legitimate amateur or professional bodybuilder… so why the heck would I need and spend all that money on that stuff?

That being said, there is a right way and a wrong way to go about feeding your body the energy it needs always be ready to have an intense workout.

Your body’s main energy source is carbohydrates. That is, put more simply, sugar. Sugar is the energy that drives you and it’s the fuel that keeps your body going above all else.

Once your body burns through the sugars that you’ve fed it, it will start to work on the stored fat, and once that runs out, it’ll start to break down your muscle stores and use those for energy.

As an individual who wants to gain weight and put on more muscle, you never want to get to that point. So now that I’ve broken down how your body uses energy...

What is The Best Pre-Workout Nutrition Plan?

Easy, one that focuses on COMPLEX CARBOHYDRATES.

I always work out in the morning about an hour to an hour and a half after breakfast so keep that in mind as you browse the following options:

For breakfast as your pre-workout meal, you should be eating ONE of the options from EACH of the groups presented below:

Pre-Workout Nutrition Food Group #1:

These are your complex carbohydrates in unprocessed flour form. Why? Because complex carbohydrates provide energy and the unprocessed version of these are healthier for you than the processed (white bread, white rice, etc.) versions.

• 3x Slices Whole Wheat Bread
• 1 Serving of Whole Wheat Cereal + Skim/Low-fat Milk
• 1 Cup of Oatmeal

Pre-Workout Nutrition Food Group #2:

These are your simple sugars and provide the immediate energy that you need to get started in the morning. Normally, I wouldn’t recommend having simple sugars at any other time during the day but there’s a reason for having it here. First, your body requires a massive amount of energy in the morning to recover from energy deprivation during sleep… so you need to feed it, and feed it fast. Second, fruit provides a variety of other vitamins and minerals that are beneficial to your overall health and they are the only simple sugars (as opposed to candy, soda, etc.) worth having.

• Apple
• Banana
• Pear
• Orange

Pre-Workout Nutrition Food Group #3:

Another simple sugar source that you need for all the reasons stated above. The last option is an interesting one and deserves a quick discussion here though. Coffee provides a huge amount of caffeine that both helps you wake up in the morning and actually can increase heart rate and blood flow throughout the body, leading to a more effective workout as your muscles have more access to energy due to the increased flow.

• Orange Juice
• Apple Juice
• Coffee

Until next time,

Jim