Question!
I see fitness people talk about taking a pre workout shake.
Does that help with recovery? Or does it give a boost of energy?
Signed,
Someone who might also be a fitness person now 😀
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Replies:
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@sylvia not really. The science is pretty well established and it amounts to “A regular diet of real food, with extra protein over the course of the day: https://dl.ww0.ca/i/42be4ebd.png
Find a copy of Mark Rippetoe’s “Starting Strength”, set your own fitness goals and don’t worry much about basically anything else.
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@mhoye Thank you for your advise! Definitely going to check out the book.
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@sylvia Good luck. If you'll take one more piece of advice from some internet rando, keeping a diary of how you're doing and how you're feeling about it day to day on this journey helps a lot. We're all trying as hard as we can all the time, so paradoxically the felt experience of the work never changes and it's easy to get demoralized or feel like you're not making much progress. It helps a lot to be able to look back six weeks or six months and see that, yeah, you really are getting stronger.
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@mhoye I do that! On my statuslog on omg.lol. It’s short but sweet but encourages me!
And I agree, keeping a log is essential because at first the changes were barely noticeable. But then I regained my balance (my iPhone stopped yelling at me that I might fall lol) and then I noticed a definite change in fatigue.
Thank you so much for your advice!
@[email protected] @[email protected] Yeah, not an expert but I looked into this a year or two ago and the evidence for anything beyond "make sure you get enough protein, and do some exercise" was tiny. That said, one person pointing out the lack of evidence did also point out it's not much fun exercising if you're feeling hungry, and shakes are a relatively quick and easy high protein snack.
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@mavnn Thank you so much! I am really watching my protein intake each day and am at the max of what I’m allowed to take per day. I have started eating more of my protein before workout and I have noticed that helped. So I guess I don’t need a pre workout shake 😂
@[email protected] @[email protected] Oh! And sleep. Unless you're sleeping too excess (in which case I'm massively jealous) don't cut sleep to exercise, apparently it doesn't work.
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@mavnn I’m an insomniac usually but ever since exercising regularly I’ve noticed I sleep better.
And yes! I’m so jealous of good sleepers. My husband can lay down and wake up ten hours later lol.
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@[email protected] ha. Yes. Regular insomniac with a shifted circadian rhythm over here. Society was designed for other people!
There's lots of ceremony out there on the fitness stuff but one sports scientist summed it up really well in my opinion: unless you're a world class athlete, a few percent performance here or there is going to have far less impact than the fact you carry on. So his take was beyond what you've already mentioned, nothing mattered more than making it easy and fun enough not to stop. And that if you were a world class athlete you should be getting a coach, not listening to YouTube videos!
