note: This is the first installment of our Q & A section.  These are actual questions submitted by clients and readers, and my answers.  Each week, we’ll feature a question in this section to share with the class.  If you have any questions regarding training, nutrition, or supplemenation, please feel free to E-mail them to Roman[at]RomanFitnessSystems.com.

What should I eat before I train?  After?  I have been trying to have a whey shake both before and after my workouts, but I have been thinking about getting something else.  Any suggestions?
       –Steve W.,  Colorado

An excellent question. Before I answer, I just want to give a brief overview of the general mood in the industry regarding this subject.

For a long while, everyone was focused on post-workout nutrition; fast digesting protein shakes mixed with high glycemic carbohydrates (both of which break down quickly and therefore get absorbed faster) were the norm.

After a few years the focus shifted and expanded to include pre-workout nutrition.  The original incarnation of this was to start drinking post workout shakes before you actually began training, allowing your body to start digesting and absorbing right as you began to need the nutrients.  Soon after, shakes designed specifically for pre-workout needs began to be released.

More recently, there has been a push towards taking supplements during your workout. The main thrust of  peri-workout nutrition is to help facilitate in recovery, and occasionally to make the training itself more productive/intense.

 So now we’ve got the term “para-workout nutrition.” This is basically the all supplements one would need or want to take in the time surrounding your training session.  All in all, it can be a bit overwhelming.

To answer your question fully, I’ll discuss a little bit about each of these and then tell you my thoughts.

Pre-Workout: Recent studies have shown the pre-exercise nutrition is as important if not more important than post-exercise nutrition—which makes sense, when you think about it.  After all, you wouldn’t compete in a race with low grade gasoline in your car, only to fill it with premium once the race is over.  That would be dumb.  Or if you’re like me, you don’t put gas in it at all, because your car is powered by dylithium crystals and a flux capacitor. 

Obvioulsy, you should put good stuff in your body pre-workout. In this case, or at least for the purposes of answering this question as fully as possible, you have a few options.  A few supplement companies make drinks or shakes designed specifically for pre-workout consumption.

The idea here is that these supplements prime you to not only perform better and create a greater training effect, but also help you recover and even make your post workout shake more effective. I have used a few, and I like some of them.

The main thing here is the cost:benefit ratio. These drinks are not overly expensive (about on par with most supplements ~$40.00 for a container) but if you workout frequently you go through it pretty quickly.  For the average trainee, or anyone tight on cash, I would say you can probably get away without this.

If cost is not an issue, I think hard-training people and especially athletes can benefit greatly from a dedicated pre-workout drink. Generally, though, I think the vast majority of people can just use the same drink pre and post workout.

Peri-Workout: While at this point I haven’t seen any supplements designed specifically taken during a workout, there are certainly a good number of practices that call for mid-training supplementation.

Initially, peri-workout nutrition was basically just sipping on your pre/post workout shake during the training session, and allowing for preemptive recovery.  More recently, I’ve seen supplement protocols which call for taking extra Branched Chain Amino Acids and the like during training.

The jury is still out on the efficacy of taking supplements during the actual training session itself, and for me personally it is more a matter of practicality than anything else.  Taking extra BCAAs or a dose of creatine may be somewhat effective, but I have found that it sort of interferes with my workout. 

I train at a pretty brisk pace, and I really don’t allow myself much in the way of rest periods, so going into my gym bag to take a few pills sort of interrupts my flow.  I normally just take them right before or right after, and haven’t noticed a significant difference one way or the other.

 I think in large part whether this is worthwhile depends on the length of the workout.  If you have fast paced training sessions that last about 30 minutes or so, I have to doubt whether you can really even break down and begin to absorb anything you take during that time period; it’s probably better to just take these supplements beforehand.  However, sipping on a recovery drink is nearly essential, as this type of training is pretty draining; even over a short time period, performance drop-off can be severe, so mitigating it with a shake is an excellent way to increase the training effect and stave off fatigue.

For anyone who has longer training sessions, especially if they are dedicated specifically to gaining muscle and/or strength, peri-workout nutrition in the form of extra BCAAs or Beta-7 supplements is probably extremely beneficial. In addition, these types of workouts tend to be a bit longer by nature, and so better lend themselves to taking extra supplements.

On the plus side, generally speaking supplements of this type aren’t really expensive, so if you want to try to add it into the mix it’s very low cost for a potentially great benefit.

Post-Workout:  The idea of taking in the appropriate mix of nutrients immediately after training is probably the most well accepted nutritional theory when it comes to strength training. For years, trying to find the right combination of ingredients was one of the main focuses of the supplement industry. 

There are a lot of approaches to this, but I strongly suggest picking up a protein/carb recovery drink. I recommend Workout by ProGrade.  This is absolutely one of the best products on the market, made by one of the best companies. I’ve been using it for a while for both the vast majority of my clients and my own personal workouts.

Dedicated post-workout nutrition is great because it is so adjustable.  Unlike drinks that are designed to enhance performance pre-workout, recovery shakes have adequate protein and fast-digesting carbs to help you grow stronger, lose fat faster, and also recovery from soreness. Additionally, they are pretty sound in terms of nutrient, so they can occasionally fill some gaps you may have in your diet. 

Overview:  All in all, I think that for anyone not competing, getting too wrapped up in para-workout nutrition is probably a case of majoring in minutia. 

Speaking generally, while I think all of the above mentioned products have merit, for most people a single supplement will do the job of many.  By focusing on just one product, you’ll save time, money, and the headache of trying to figure out the exactitudes of when to take each thing in relation to the others.

This is the method I would recommend:

Again, using only one supplement, let’s assume Workout.   Just prior to your workout, consume roughly one half of the recommended serving, and sip on the other half during training.  After your workout, have another full serving.

With this method, you are coving pre-, peri-, and post-workout nutrition with a single supplement. You are addressing not only recovery, but also performance.  In addition, you are saving time, money, and hassle by not getting into a whole host of supplementation. 

As you continue to advance in your training, you can start adding in other stuff as needed or desired.  However, I’d say for now just stick with a single supplement and focus on the training itself.

With regard to your whey shake, you can continue to use that as either a meal supplement or just a way to get extra protein during the day.

NOTE: For a great read on nutrition, particularly pre/post-workout nutrition, check out Nutrient Timing, by Ivy and Portman. It is a great reference for any trainer or nutritionist, and probably the seminal work on the subject.  If nothing else, it is full of interesting information that you can probably put to use almost immediately.