Early Morning Workouts

I lift around 530 AM. My main goal is 16% bodyfat (currently 24%). Would it be better to eat a meal, BCAA’s during, and PWO shake after or just BCAA’s during workout and PWO shake after?

Thanks

That’s a hard one. IMO it is one of those experimental things that you have to play with as you maticulously keep track of your calories, activity, weight loss and measurements. There is a ton of information on this site and CT’s threads on training, nutrition and so forth have loads of ideas. The key is to pick something and try it out and analyze the results.

Also, you should hit up the BB section. Those guys live and die by their training and nutrition when it comes to either bulking or cutting.

You have to find out what works best for you and analyze how your body reacts to different stimuli from training and nutrition.

Good luck on the training goals and take a good look at various threads in the BB section, and CT’s threads.

Don’t sacrifice your weight training by doing it on an empty stomach. At the very least, get a FINiBAR and/or some Surge in you.

Check out CT’s peri-workout nutrition thread for a lot more on this topic.

I also lift early, and am now taking a carb/protein mix preworkout as well as Surge Workout Fuel. If you need to keep carbs low, I’d suggest Powerdrive, whey hydro, and leucine.

Yeah I had the same problem… This is how I solved it.

  1. mix ON vanilla whey with the tropicana 50% less sugar orange juice and have a bowl of instant oatmeal on the side. Or…
  2. get a mass gainer (I’m taking the ultimate nutrition isomass which tastes bad but is a good mass shake) and take about 2/3 a serving.

Either one gives you a good protein/carb base for your workout and should be consumed about a hour to 45 mins before. (and yes I see you lift at 5:30 I lift at 6!) but you’ll have much better lifts with one of these before hand. And about the BCAAs I personaly get them from my pwo shake.

I lift around 6:30. I wake up at 5 and eat a FINIBAR. 25 min pre-training I have 2 scoops of Surge Workout Fuel and during I have another. This type of protocol seems to fuel me in the morning.

Easy,

Wake up 1-2 hours earlier(4am in your case)…take some acetyl l carnitine(lots, haha). Eat a meat and nuts breakfat(rotate meat and nuts daily). Have your BCAA’s during and Postworkout shake after. Do think until you get lan, then you can add some pre-workout carbs etc.

GJ

I’ve been using CT’s peri workout nutrition, which suggests a whole of calories pre workout (FINiBARs, Surge Workout Fuel, Surge) before my morning routines and it’s been great. Breaks the fast and gives great energy for the workouts.

Definitely do CT’s peri-workout protocol bro-man, and take 2 FINiBARs instead of 1.

I used to workout in the morning, would wake up at 5, and it started with just coffee and a banana, then over time, I migrated to having a meal replacement (myoplex at the time). I would start lifing at 530 and by 6 I had tons of energy to get through the workout.

As a former fattie, I would always recommend weight training with food in the system. fasted cardio is another story.

you don’t need a lot, just enough and have a good breakfast on the other side and watch your diet the rest of the day.

[quote]PB Andy wrote:
Definitely do CT’s peri-workout protocol bro-man, and take 2 FINiBARs instead of 1.[/quote]

x2

When I was in high school, the football team used to lift at 4:30am… I usually had a bagel and a banana on the way to the gym and then carbs/whey post workout. Made really good gains, but it probably would have been better to have some whey with it.

It would have been even better to have a meal like 1.5hrs before, but there was no way I could have gotten up at 3. If I could do it over again I would probably just have some Surge on the way.

Lyle mcdonald had a writeup on fasted cardio, arguing that even that’s only potentially more effective than eaten cardio in certain very limited circumstances. And that’s just cardio.

I’d definitely vote for slamming down some good calories before workout.

I lift early in the AM. I only drink protein (a few scoops of protein powder) prior to my workout. For me, I don’t want the sugar/carbs before my workout.

I workout prolly stupid early, eg: wake up @ 3:49am, get to the gym @ 4:15am, Mon-Thur, hit 30min cardio (run, jumprope, heavybag, sprints, plyo) @ 6:00pm Mon-Fri- run on Sat-… Prior to my 4 a.m. workout I take a niacin cap, creatine, stacker 3. Don’t drink any protein until immediately following. I may start taking in the protein drink prior to my w/o ?? What would the advantage be to pre- w/o -vs- post at that time of the a.m. ???

Thanks, everyone for your responses. I think I’m gonna experiment next month and see what works best for me. For the last month I’ve been eating 5 egg whites and 1/2 c oatmeal preworkout (plus coffee). Funny thing is I had better strength gains when the only thing I ate before workout was a grapefruit?? My pwo shake has remained the same (whey, glutamine peptide,oats and Superfood).