Best Things to Eat and Drink Before and After Your Workout
Before: Whole Wheat Toast with Sliced Banana and Cinnamon. When it comes to gearing up for workout, carbs are your gym BFF. The key is to have a mixed bag of complex and simple ones so that the release of energy during your workout is slow and steady throughout your routine. Whole-wheat toast with fruit gives you both types of carbs with the bonus of being super easy to digest. Complex carbs will keep your motor humming, while the fruit adds an extra kick of energy. For those training for a race, bananas are perfect in raising potassium levels, which
drop when you sweat a lot. For an added bonus, add a dash of cinnamon. The spice has been linked to stabilizing blood sugar and improving brain function.
Whey
In Brief: Fat-torching, energy-restoring protein, plus lactoferrin for immune support. Those muscles aren't going to build themselves—especially not after a hard gym session, when proteins degrade faster than ever. That's where whey comes in. Powdered, one scoop contains almost as much protein as a whole chicken breast—but make no mistake: It does more than pump your pecs.
How to Eat It: It's not just for muscleheads anymore. Make the most of your protein powder by pairing it with carbohydrate-rich foods like juices, shakes, or even a bowl of polenta.
Eggs
A complete protein source, including branched-chain amino acids for faster recovery.Eggs contain all nine essential amino acids (the building blocks of protein), plus branched-chain amino acids, which help reduce muscle damage in the body. And if you're after the most nutritional bang for your buck, don't even think about throwing away the yolk: That golden center is home to half the protein, not to mention all of the egg's vitamin D and omega-3 fatty
acids.
How to Eat It: Eggs. Toast. You know the drill. As for Rocky's infamous sports drink, "there's no evidence that raw eggs beat cooked," says Michael Matthews, author of Bigger Leaner.
Stronger: The Simple Science of Building the Ultimate Male Body. "If it makes you feel like more of a badass, that's reason enough to do it, though."
Sweet Potatoes
A good nutrient-rich source of carbohydrates The body breaks down muscle glycogen—your energy reserves—so you'll need wholesome, plant-based carbohydrates afterward if you're going to be in shape for the next sweat session. Your best bet? Sweet potatoes. Turns out, under the usual butter and cream, these humble roots are actually a bonafide superfood, complete with three days' worth of vitamin A and 26 grams of carbohydrates to restore your glycogen supply. Plus, each vegetable contains a healthy dose of fiber, keeping you full—and far away from the gym vending machine.
How to Eat It: Consuming half your metric body weight in grams of carbohydrates after exercise—which means a single sweet potato will put you well on your way to recovery. Use one (or another beta-carotene-rich food like pumpkin) to bulk up your post-workout smoothie or oatmeal.
Cherry Juice
An arsenal of antioxidants to fight off muscle damageYou already know that cherries are good for your sex life, right? Luckily, the same antioxidants that get things going in the bedroom will help you out at the gym, too: A study in the
British Journal of Sports Medicine found that subjects who drank 24 ounces of tart cherry juice every day (the equivalent of about 120 whole cherries) experienced less muscle soreness and just a fraction of the usual strength loss after exercise.
How to Drink It: Avoid brands made from concentrate. Fresh juices are more likely to preserve the beneficial anthocyanins and flavonoids naturally found in cherries.
Chocolate Milk
All the hydration you need, plus nutrients to help you recover.After a light workout, water will hydrate you just fine. But when you max out in the weight room? Drink like a 6-year-old.
"Chocolate milk is a great option for recovery,"You'll get plenty of fluid, together with carbohydrates and protein." In fact, you can go ahead and toss your old sports drink now:
Researchers found that chocolate milk restores muscle glycogen
and rehydrates the body just as well as Gatorade-utilities
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