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How To Form The Best Pre-Workout Meal? (Shocking Answer!)

Table of Contents

Purpose & timing of a pre-workout meal

A good pre-workout meal; absolutely necessary for a good workout. We all know that 1 time we didn’t eat much before a workout and just felt empty during the entire workout. Maybe you didn’t even finish the workout at all.

A pre-workout meal provides energy during the workout. A second effect of a good pre-workout meal is the best possible recovery of the muscles.

For an optimal effect, I would recommend to eat half an hour to an hour in advance of the workout.

Type of workout

Most people don’t realize this, but the type of workout is an important factor for the composition of your meal.

Simply put, endurance athletes mainly need carbohydrates. Strength athletes on the other hand mainly need proteins.

So the first important thing for you is to determine which group you belong to. It is possible that your workouts contain a mixture of endurance exercises and strength exercises. In this case, a good balance between carbohydrates and proteins is necessary.

Example of a meal for endurance athletes

A whole grain toast with peanut butter and banana slides is a fantastic pre-workout meal for endurance athletes.

The whole grain toast and the banana slides contain many carbohydrates. Whole grain toast is in this case a better option than bread, whole grain toast is easier to digest than normal bread. Peanut butter contains proteins and also healthy fats. It is advisable to take peanut butter without added sugars and salts.

Example of a meal for strength athletes

A protein smoothie is an excellent pre-workout meal if your workout consists mainly of strength.

The benefit of a protein smoothie is that you can customize it completely the way you like. The basis of a protein smoothie is protein powder, you can order this online, but many shops sell protein powder as well. Most of the time the protein powder also has different flavors where you can choose from. In addition, you need a liquid basis for the smoothie. Most people use water or milk, this is completely up to you. For the rest of the shake I personally recommend using peanut butter and bananas, although other fruits are also fine of course.

Example of a meal for endurance/strength athletes

Chicken with rice and broccoli is an ideal pre-workout meal for athletes whose workouts contain endurance parts as well as strength parts.

In this meal the chicken is the main source of protein, chicken contains a lot of protein and is low in fats. Rice is the main source of carbohydrates in this pre-workout meal. The broccoli in this meal is important for its large amount of vitamins.