Timing Your Food and Workouts for Maximum Benefit and Better Health
Improving sleep, nutrient absorption, repair, detoxification and your overall health and fitness with proper meal and exercise timing.
Timing is everything.
There’s an optimal way to manage timing of meals, exercise and sleep around your training and natural sleep cycle to get the best recovery and nutrient absorption. You want to optimize all 3 and if done outside of their proper natural rhythms (timing) one can negatively affect the other. On the other hand, when done according to proper biological rhythms they can all bolster each other and greatly improve overall health even without adding anything additional to your protocol, just simply with proper timing alone.
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven…”
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Workout Timing for Sleep
It's best not to workout vigorously at least 3-4 hours before bed. Intense exercise raises body temperature, blood pressure and adrenaline, all things which are stimulating and prevent you from getting a good night's sleep when done too close to bedtime. The body needs time to calm and cool down for proper rest. Try to do exercises that are calming before bed such as stretching or yoga instead of weight training or a long, fast paced run.
If you feel you still need to do your intense exercise because that's the only time you have for it, then try to keep it as brief as possible ( a brief HIIT session can be a good option) to allow the body as much time as possible to cool down. You can also take a cold shower which quickly cools the body to help you get to sleep sooner and sleep better after exercise. Cold showers themselves have a number of other health benefits such as boosted metabolism, fat oxidation and increased blood circulation due to the blood vessel constriction and subsequent vasodilation afterward.
Meal Timing for Sleep
It's best to not eat at least 3 hours before bed as digestion also increases body temperature and, although you might be able to nod off or pass out, you won't be able get into deep restorative sleep and go through proper detoxification like you normally should throughout the night. You don't want the body to be working so hard on digestion when you're about to go to bed. This gets in the way of brain and body detoxification and muscle and tissue repair. It's too much for the body to handle. You want to minimize the workload on the body and not bog it down with digestion in order to maximize the repair and detoxification process.
Eating too close to bedtime is a big reason why a lot of people feel sluggish and don't have energy in the morning and feel they must have coffee. It’s also a reason many don't see progress and muscle or strength gains even though they're putting in the time and effort in the gym. You're simply not leaving enough energy to allow the body to cleanse and repair. If you must have something before bed, make sure it's something light and easily absorbed about an hour before bed to prevent or minimize any disruption in the detoxification process and getting deep sleep.
Meal Timing Around Training
When it comes to peri (near or around) workout nutrition, It's best to not have a large meal before working out. Working out on a full stomach inhibits maximum blood circulation to the working muscles because blood is diverted to the stomach to be used for digestion. For this reason, if you workout vigorously right after a large meal you may find that you can't get a good "pump" or feel your muscles activate to the same level as you may have felt before when you didn't workout intensely right after eating. Not only that, but you also prevent proper digestion of your food because now your body is having to split blood flow between two different activities and is now doing neither one well. However, a casual walk or light activity where you're not straining hard, breathing hard or vigorously jostling the body around can actually improve digestion and is recommended after a meal. You can still move and contract your muscles. In fact, contracting your muscles your muscles after a meal helps insulin work better and helps drive the glucose in your bloodstream into your cells which prevents high blood sugar after eating and prevents fat storage. So you want to move and contract your muscles, you just don’t want to do it so vigorously that you’re breaking a sweat, breathing hard and feeling your muscles burn. So move after a meal, just don’t start doing a full blown workout. Keep it light and low intensity.
Now, you may need some nutrition or sustenance right before a workout. In this case, just consume something very light that's easily and quickly digested about 30-40 minutes before your workout session. A protein powder or pre-workout (be cognizant of the quality and ingredients) is great for this and I myself use these when I feel it's necessary or I know I'm in for an exceptionally challenging training session. A banana or a small serving of fresh fruit is also a good option (try to have that about 60 minutes before your workout since it’s still solid food even though it’s easy to digest). You can also use powdered or liquid nutrition as support during your training session when you're really pushing hard or doing a longer training session (2 hours or more) by sipping periodically on it throughout your session. A Protein/carb drink is a good option for this with about a 1:3 ratio of protein to carbs (more carbs than protein).
When it comes to post (after) workout nutrition, you don't have to worry about consuming protein or other food within 30 minutes of your workout. You can consume an easily digestible shake of protein and carbohydrates right after but it's not imperative, so don't think you missed your "window" if you don't. The "anabolic window" is an outdated theory. When it comes to eating a full meal after a workout, it's best to wait about 1-2 hours after training to eat a large meal to allow the body ample time to calm down and allow a portion of your blood supply to leave the muscles and be able to circulate adequately again to the digestive organs for good digestion. The only reason you may actually need to consume something immediately after your workout session is if you're doing intense two-a-days and are going to train intensely again that same day (within about 8 hours of your first training session) and you'll need the extra nutritional support. In that case, still try to make sure it's something easily digestible right after your workout, then a proper meal about an hour after that.
An Advanced Meal Timing Tactic To Boost Growth Hormone and Build Muscle
There is a meal timing method you can use to supercharge the release of growth hormone and help build more muscle faster. I’m referring to fasted intense resistance training or fasted sprinting.
The reason why this works (when done appropriately) is due to the fact that stimulating one pathway or process in the body seems to have a boosting effect on the opposite pathway or process in the body. In this case, stimulating the catabolic pathway (tissue breakdown) in turn stimulates the anabolic pathway (tissue building) when using the muscle again and re-feeding. In the same way that muscle tissue is broken down (catabolism) with intense resistance training, then re-built (anabolism) when resting and taking in nutrition after resistance training, this process is also undergone during fasted training but to a greater degree in proportion to the hormetic stress placed upon the body. Again, just ensure you’re doing it in the right way and to the right degree as I’ll touch on a bit more in-depth a little later.
You can do this coming off of a 12, 16, 18 or 24 hour fast. At the end of your fast, before you eat, you do a brief (30 minutes or less) intense weight lifting session where you’re lifting to failure or near failure. This can be done with either light weight and high reps or heavy weight and low reps but make sure you’re going to failure. You really only need one good all-out set when lifting to failure in order to stimulate an adaptation response, increase strength and build muscle. When not lifting to failure then multiple sets becomes more of a necessity. You can also do loaded carries such as farmers walks or do sled pushes and pulls with a heavy weight until fatigued. Sprinting is another great and hugely anabolic exercise. It’s anabolic anytime it’s done but can be exceptionally so when performed coming off your fast. Doing about 4-6 all-out sprints is a good session and will yield significant benefit and growth hormone release but you can still obtain benefit with less. Sprinting and carrying loads are very primal activities and bestows the body with “young” muscle rather than “old” muscle as touched on in a podcast with Ben Greenfield and Joel Greene entitled Joel Greene Podcast Part 1: How To Reboot The Gut, Eat Cheesecake Without Gaining Weight, Amplify Any Fasting Protocol & Maximize Fat Loss.which keeps you supple, flexible, mobile, strong and powerful (click here for the transcript). I would also recommend listening to Part 2 entitled Joel Greene Podcast Part 2: How To Reshape Fat Cells, Enhance Repair During Sleep, Target Your “Circaseptan Rhythms,” Build Young Muscle & Get Rid Of Old Muscle (click here for transcript). The ability to go from zero to maximum force is seen to lie at the root of survival for most animals, whether you’re the predator or the prey, and it’s something that can keep you capable and vibrant for decades.
As mentioned in part 1 of the podcast there are even some who do this coming off a 5 day water fast, and not only that, but preceding this fasted training with…fasted training, essentially sandwhiching one of their training sessions between two periods of fasting, train and then eat. Be mindful and listen to your body and build up to this level. I wouldn’t recommend this to a beginning lifter or a newbie to the world of fasting or intermittent fasting. Fasting is a stressor as is intense exercise and you don’t want to stack stressor on top of stressor and end up physical broken or depleted. Once you do feel you’re ready for something like this, there’s still some guidelines you should follow to ensure you actually get a benefit from this type of training and don’t end up weaker or injured…
Stay hydrated leading up to, during and after your fast and leading up to, during and after your training.
Stay well nourished leading up to your fast and get proper high quality nourishment after your training. If you’re subsisting on processed, refined foods with low nutritional value and eating a highly inflammatory diet full of fast-food, fried food, food full of oxidized and rancid oils and refined carbohydrates and sweets I would recommend you clean up your diet for a few weeks before attempting. This is also a circumstance where you do want to take high quality nourishment as soon as possible after your body and heart rate calm down a bit. As soon as you catch your breath and you feel your heart rate lessen then go ahead and eat a good meal.
Be well rested. Get enough sleep and make sure you’re getting 7-9 hours of quality deep sleep so the body is ready to handle the stress you’re about to place upon it.
Don’t be overloaded with other stressors in your life. Like being well-rested in terms of sleep you also need to be well-rested in terms of overall stress. Stress comes in many forms and you need to manage it appropriately before you place even more stress on it with highly advanced training. If you’re stressed from work, family, relationships, negative emotions and poor sleeping habits, when you go to train it will end up leaving you weaker and more depleted than you were before instead of bigger, faster, stronger and more resilient in body and mind.
In a nutshell...
Try not to workout too close to bedtime. If you must, try to keep it short and take a cold shower to quickly cool down the body.
Try to not eat too close to bedtime so you can maximize deep sleep, body repair and detoxification. If you must have something before bed, try to make it about an hour before and something easily digestible and not a large meal.
Try not to eat a large meal right before a training session. If you feel you need something right before training make it an easily digestible shake, pre-workout drink or something extremely light and quickly digestible. You can do the same for needed nutrition and energy during a workout for an exceptionally intense workout or a longer duration workout.
You don't need to consume something immediately after training unless you’re doing intense two-a-days, in which case you can consume something quick and easy to digest right after your workout and then a larger solid meal about an hour after that. Otherwise, waiting 1-2 hours after training is a good timeframe to eat a meal post workout.
Light movement, light muscle contractions or a walk after meals helps with digestion but vigorous and intense exercise after eating will hinder digestion. Move after you eat, just don’t go into a full workout session where your sweating or breathing hard.
There are advanced tactics that can supercharge your results such as intense fasted training. But before trying, make sure you’re well-rested, well hydrated, are eating a high quality whole food diet and avoiding processed food, and ensure you’re managing and reducing your overall stress in your life to be able handle the demands of rigorous physical training.
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