Pre/intra/post Drink Swap Meet

[rthor4573]

Hopefully this thread gets some traction. I'm very interested in what people use for their pre, intra, and post workout nutrition and supps and their reasoning, especially if they make it themselves. Thread was inspired by the "glucose in your workout drink" thread.

I'll start, since you asked.

I train at 0430. Wake up at 0400.

Before bed the night before, I drink a huge casein, peanut butter, and banana smoothie (figured into my macros for the day) with 5g of creatine monohydrate.

Wake up, chug about 20oz of water.

Pre-workout- I make my own each morning. 6g citruline mallate, 2.4g carnosyn beta alanine, 2g creatine, 1/2tsp salt, 330mg caffeine pill, and vit b12 complex pill. Sometimes I'll add some glycerpump or agmatine (sp?), but that's my base. Mix with water. Add flavoring.

Intra-workout- 20g orange gatorade powder, 15g vanilla whey protein isolate, and a scoop of an EEA product. Lately I've been using the Cellucor Amino Ultimate for my EEAs, orange sherbert flavor. Basically, its an orange Creamsicle flavored intra.

Post-workout- Breakfast, baby. Chicken and simple carbs.

Since I work out first thing in the AM, my bedtime shake is loaded with slow digesting protein and fat, the idea being that at least some of it is still circulating come time for training. May be wishful thinking. Thats also the reason for fast digesting whey isolate and gatorade powder in intra.

Always looking to improve these, so im curious how everyone else does theirs.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

This is how I do it when I’m full offseason eating. Carbs vary.

Preworkout 1 - 90m pre - 1 scoop whey, 100g+ carbs (muffins, bagels, cereal, etc)

Preworkout 2 - 20-30m pre - preworkout supp (usually Total War or my own I’m formulating), 1g salt, 1g potassium, 12oz water +

Intra - 2 shakers: 1 of 30oz water, 1 of 24oz of carbs + water, anywhere from 25 to 100g of carbs (HBCD, Gatorade, juice, I’m not picky), 1g salt, 1g potassium

Post - 1 scoop whey, 100g+ carbs

 

[rthor4573]

This is how I do it when I’m full offseason eating. Carbs vary.

Preworkout 1 - 90m pre - 1 scoop whey, 100g+ carbs (muffins, bagels, cereal, etc)

Preworkout 2 - 20-30m pre - preworkout supp (usually Total War or my own I’m formulating), 1g salt, 1g potassium, 12oz water +

Intra - 2 shakers: 1 of 30oz water, 1 of 24oz of carbs + water, anywhere from 25 to 100g of carbs (HBCD, Gatorade, juice, I’m not picky), 1g salt, 1g potassium

Post - 1 scoop whey, 100g+ carbs

I gotta look into adding potassium

 

[PaulHeyman]

I'm an early morning lifter so I have a similar set up.

The night before I'll be a cup of oats, PB, whey, greek yogurt, and fruit.

Upon waking I down some water and a caffeine pill and make my intra.

Intra: 30g gatorade powder, 10g EAA, 5g Creatine, 1tsp salt

From alarm to out the door is usually 10-15 minutes


Post workout is usually chicken and some sort of easy carb like rice/pasta/potato etc

 

[BalrogRebel]

I gotta look into adding potassium

Me too, but that goddamn element is more expensive than fucking gold.

Do you guys have a good source of mr. K? Online it's unbelievably expensive, and they usually give 15-30% of RDA in the unbelievably-expensive supplement. Pharmacies and supermarkets are even worse. The other guys says 1g of potassium in his second preworkout "template" - that might literally be more expensive on its own than a day's worth of food for me.

Oh, and to answer the topic, I usually drink some coffee or tea before the workout, water during, and a protein shake (25-30g) after. Depending on how late it is I might skip the shake and just eat dinner; worst case scenario it's one-two hours after. I am looking to add that potassium in, though, especially when upping my cardio. Yamcha-tier nutrition, I know. I just kinda believe it when people say it doesn't really matter, it's mostly hype and marketing, except maybe the intra-workout extra juice for the electrolytes. Plenty of experts recommend some sugar too, for intense and longer workouts, but I feel like it's just a lot of unnecessary calories. Catching my breath for five extra minutes would definitely give me more usable energy than candies, but maybe it's just nocebo.

 

[rthor4573]

In the hierarchy of priorities and importance when it comes to hypertrophy, yes, i agree, supplements might be 5-10%. In terms of necessity, its wayyyyy lower than calories, macros, food composition, nutrient timing, etc. There is a ton of marketing hype for things that have a fraction of a percent influence on your gains. Screw your "proprietary focus blend".

I really only use supplements that are backed by a reasonable amount of data, hence creatine, beta alanine, etc. My only caveat is since I train in the morning before breakfast, I feel like there is some legitimacy to having an EEA supplement, a little whey isolate, and carb powder. I think the 100 extra calories from my intra is justified.

I'm researching that K.

 

[BalrogRebel]

Since you mentioned that creatine...I read creatine is useless when taking steroids. Is there any truth to that?

In your case you basically have a small "breakfast", which makes sense. One of the reasons I don't take intra-workout and before-workout aminoacids/protein is actually that, from what I've heard, you'd just use it as energy anyway, so you're not getting anything anabolic out of it (most people seem to agree on this), you won't really help recovery with it (a lot of people disagree on this), and it would be pretty much useless if you already "carbed up" beforehand with an actual meal. That's actually something I've been wondering about, but I suspect it's one of those (many) things we'll never know for sure.

Usually I take the "better safe than sorry approach", but these kinds of things do tend to concern me when I need to budget the calories and the money.

 

[rthor4573]

Since you mentioned that creatine...I read creatine is useless when taking steroids. Is there any truth to that?

In your case you basically have a small "breakfast", which makes sense. One of the reasons I don't take intra-workout and before-workout aminoacids/protein is actually that, from what I've heard, you'd just use it as energy anyway, so you're not getting anything anabolic out of it (most people seem to agree on this), you won't really help recovery with it (a lot of people disagree on this), and it would be pretty much useless if you already "carbed up" beforehand with an actual meal. That's actually something I've been wondering about, but I suspect it's one of those (many) things we'll never know for sure.

Usually I take the "better safe than sorry approach", but these kinds of things do tend to concern me when I need to budget the calories and the money.

I dont know why creatine would be useless while using gear. I wouldn't think the creatine benefits for a natty would cease when using aas. Its mechanisms would still be the same I'd think. But I could be wrong. I do not know.

And since I'm not having a prewormout meal, anything I take intra really should and needs to be used as energy, thats kind of my logic for taking what I take. Otherwise, I have an empty fuel tank in the morning.

Everything except the cellucor product, I buy individually and in bulk. Its in an effort to not break the bank, like you were saying.

 

[Mac11wildcat]

Me too, but that goddamn element is more expensive than fucking gold.

Do you guys have a good source of mr. K? Online it's unbelievably expensive, and they usually give 15-30% of RDA in the unbelievably-expensive supplement. Pharmacies and supermarkets are even worse. The other guys says 1g of potassium in his second preworkout "template" - that might literally be more expensive on its own than a day's worth of food for me.

Oh, and to answer the topic, I usually drink some coffee or tea before the workout, water during, and a protein shake (25-30g) after. Depending on how late it is I might skip the shake and just eat dinner; worst case scenario it's one-two hours after. I am looking to add that potassium in, though, especially when upping my cardio. Yamcha-tier nutrition, I know. I just kinda believe it when people say it doesn't really matter, it's mostly hype and marketing, except maybe the intra-workout extra juice for the electrolytes. Plenty of experts recommend some sugar too, for intense and longer workouts, but I feel like it's just a lot of unnecessary calories. Catching my breath for five extra minutes would definitely give me more usable energy than candies, but maybe it's just nocebo.

1g of potassium outweighs the cost of a days worth of food? Where are you...

 

[BalrogRebel]

Perhaps I shouldn't have said "might literally". Still, it's very expensive, at one/two bucks a day for a single element. With that kind of money you could get enough nutrition for a very low-budget diet. It's far more expensive than it should be, for something that most people don't take and probably don't even notice they need it because the need is just not strong enough. For some people it's really important to add it back in, but for many it probably isn't. The fact that it costs that much to "take it just in case" is quite a deal breaker.

For that kind of daily cost you can make far more impactful adjustments. I think 300 grams of mushrooms probably give you 1g of potassium, in addition to being an actual food with other benefits to them. I don't know how expensive mushrooms are, but if they are 3 bucks per Kg the cost would be the same (but have a lot more value).

Regardless, that fucking mineral is too expensive lol

 

[rthor4573]

So, looks like one could eat <2.5 bananas, and get a gram of potassium. Not sure how effective a preworkout that would be, but there you go. Cost effective too, i think.

 

[BalrogRebel]

Bananas would be good yea. My mind went to mushrooms because in my research for best K/Cal ratio mushroom came up first. For someone like you who hasn't even had breakfast when he trains, you'd get healthy simple carbs for fuel, some fibers for general health, and your beloved potassium. Given that they usually add sugar to the intra-workout electrolytes powders, it sounds like a good plan (they don't give as much sugar as that many bananas, but again, in your case it'd be a preworkout too).

 

[Mac11wildcat]

I’m super confused. Potassium is like $10 for 12oz on amazon..

 

[CompoundLifts31]

I’m super confused. Potassium is like $10 for 12oz on amazon..

12 oz x 28 grams = Somewhere over 300grams for 10 bucks...

 

[Formsh1ft]

Hopefully this thread gets some traction. I'm very interested in what people use for their pre, intra, and post workout nutrition and supps and their reasoning, especially if they make it themselves. Thread was inspired by the "glucose in your workout drink" thread.

I'll start, since you asked.

I train at 0430. Wake up at 0400.

Before bed the night before, I drink a huge casein, peanut butter, and banana smoothie (figured into my macros for the day) with 5g of creatine monohydrate.

Wake up, chug about 20oz of water.

Pre-workout- I make my own each morning. 6g citruline mallate, 2.4g carnosyn beta alanine, 2g creatine, 1/2tsp salt, 330mg caffeine pill, and vit b12 complex pill. Sometimes I'll add some glycerpump or agmatine (sp?), but that's my base. Mix with water. Add flavoring.

Intra-workout- 20g orange gatorade powder, 15g vanilla whey protein isolate, and a scoop of an EEA product. Lately I've been using the Cellucor Amino Ultimate for my EEAs, orange sherbert flavor. Basically, its an orange Creamsicle flavored intra.

Post-workout- Breakfast, baby. Chicken and simple carbs.

Since I work out first thing in the AM, my bedtime shake is loaded with slow digesting protein and fat, the idea being that at least some of it is still circulating come time for training. May be wishful thinking. Thats also the reason for fast digesting whey isolate and gatorade powder in intra.

Always looking to improve these, so im curious how everyone else does theirs.

Why would you add EAA's when you're already taking whey protein?

 

[muscletrain]

Perhaps I shouldn't have said "might literally". Still, it's very expensive, at one/two bucks a day for a single element. With that kind of money you could get enough nutrition for a very low-budget diet. It's far more expensive than it should be, for something that most people don't take and probably don't even notice they need it because the need is just not strong enough. For some people it's really important to add it back in, but for many it probably isn't. The fact that it costs that much to "take it just in case" is quite a deal breaker.

For that kind of daily cost you can make far more impactful adjustments. I think 300 grams of mushrooms probably give you 1g of potassium, in addition to being an actual food with other benefits to them. I don't know how expensive mushrooms are, but if they are 3 bucks per Kg the cost would be the same (but have a lot more value).

Regardless, that fucking mineral is too expensive lol

I mean or just get that No Salt replacement its just a big bottle of potassium powder 1/4 tsp is like 600mg lasts forever. Literally sell it in grocery stores. The only way Potassium could even remotely be the way you make it sound is if you're buying bottles of the max dosage tablets where they limit it to like 90-100mg atleast in Canada and shoving those in ur face.

 

[ToastEater]

Right now I’m trying to lose about 20 lbs in 11 weeks but this is more or less what I do. When I’m not cutting I’ll have a casein shake before bed and move the am juice before lifting and add some carbs to it.

Rise at 4a & chug:
-1L water
-scoop of pre workout w 200mg caffeine
-24mg ephedrine
-3G omega 3
-15ml lemon juice
-15ml apple cider vinegar
-10ml potassium supplement
-scoop matcha tea

Stretch, shoot, plan, etc...

5:30a 45 mins cardio:
-1L water with BCAA

6:30a lifting
-1L water with BCAA

7:30a immediately after lifting:
-4oz cranberry juice
-4oz pomegranate

8:00a post workout meal
-3/4 cup oatmeal
-1 tbsp chia seeds
-250ml egg whites
(Oatmeal pancakes)

With that meal I drink:
-scoop vege greens
-scoop EAA
-scoop collagen

My last meal is at 6p (nothing pre-bed) so I fast daily for 14hrs.

 

[Formsh1ft]

I don't get why people still buy BCAA's nowadays. There has been scientific proof that BCAA's basically do nothing as long as there no essential amino acids around with it. For that reason EAA's make more sense.

On the other hand, what doesn't make sense is taking EAA's while you are already taking whey in the same time frame.

So you take whey, that has all the 27 amino acids. Then you add EAA's to bump up a few specific amino acids. Why not just take a little bit more whey?

It doesn't hurt, but it doesn't add any benefit whatsoever. At the end of the day, it's your wallet and not mine. You are letting yourself get fucked by the supplement industry beyond belief.

 

[rthor4573]

I don't get why people still buy BCAA's nowadays. There has been scientific proof that BCAA's basically do nothing as long as there no essential amino acids around with it. For that reason EAA's make more sense.

On the other hand, what doesn't make sense is taking EAA's while you are already taking whey in the same time frame.

So you take whey, that has all the 27 amino acids. Then you add EAA's to bump up a few specific amino acids. Why not just take a little bit more whey?

It doesn't hurt, but it doesn't add any benefit whatsoever. At the end of the day, it's your wallet and not mine. You are letting yourself get fucked by the supplement industry beyond belief.

I'm with you on the BCAAs, and after your last comment and some research, I might be with you on the EEAs now too. Like I said in first post, always trying to improve my shit, so yeah, you may have converted me lol

 

[Perrin Aybara]

I use coconut water in my pre and intra. Not 100%, but like half and half with water or 1/3 and 2/3. With additional potassium salt, regular salt, sugars, and flavors as needed and whatever else I'm throwing in at the time like creatine or caffeine. Decent amount of potassium and magnesium in the coconut water.