AM Workout Q

[Gladiola]

I know that if you are lifting first thing in the morning, you need to eat since you've been fasting all night - hence depleted glycogen stores in your muscles.

I have noticed a HUGE strength difference if I only have a small meal 20-30 min before the workout, as compared to evening workouts. I tried Spatts' technique of eating a full serving of oatmeal 1 hour before the workout begins. It works!! I have the same strength I would have had in the evening.

So, the meal needs to come 1 hour before WO. The gym is only a 15 min drive away. I only need another 5 min to brush my teeth & get dressed. So I've been eating the oatmeal & going back to bed. I can't fall back asleep! I just lay there for that extra half hour. I need that sleep! Workouts begin at 6:30, I do NOT want to be up for the day at 5:30.

Any ideas how to program my body to eat half alseep & go back to sleep immediately? Today I tried having cold cereal instead (less effort to prepare) & that still didn't work.

 

[lil k]

i get around that by taking 500mg of ginger root, when i eat my oatmel with protien...i usually eat it about 45 mins prior to training, however, i have gone as early as 30mins prior, and the ginger root really makes it digest faster...

however, the getting up and going back to bed thing has never worked for me, thats why i do this...utler had given me this advice a while back, and let me tell you..it works!

 

[newgirl-chargeback]

a little pillow tango... not necessarily in that order. LOL

Now, you see I was going to say to get your groove on and you will most certainly fall back asleep...glad I am not the only one.

 

[Gladiola]

You morning work out folks are just plain nuts.

Oh believe me, this is not by choice!!! I have to be in the office by 8:30 - which would normally have me up around 7:00 (30 min commute). But my boyfriend has to be out the door at 7:00 - alarm goes off at 6:15, he has me hit snooze till 6:30. Then I barely sleep between 6:15 & when my alarm goes off anyway, so I might as well be up & out.

Besides, every night except Friday is busy with classes & volunteering at the Physical Therapy clinic (in preparation for a career change from business to go back to school for PT)

Aannnyway, aside from my life story here - Could I do REAL shredded ginger root with my oatmeal? Might taste a little odd, but I think I'd prefer that to buying yet another supplement. Any idea how much ginger root is 500mg of root powder? THANKS for the idea!

 

[JJFigure]

I have the same issue, but went the protein route instead of the carb route for my solution. I throw a protein shake together and drink it before I leave the house. I drive to the gym (5 min - unless it's 20 degrees, then it's 10 minutes), warmup + stretch - 5-10 minutes, then start my lift. Since the protein shake is easily digestible, I don't have to worry about waiting an hour or more before I lift.

This has worked well for me - I have as much strength in the morning as the evening.

 

[Gladiola]

Something occured to me, instead of eating a low GI food (Oatmeal) with a supplement to make it absorb faster, wouldn't it make sense to simply eat something HIGH GI -> something that will absorb fast, in the first place?

If I eat maybe something hi- GI like a white potato with something Low GI, then wouldn't that be good enough to absorb within 30 min to give me energy at the start of the workout, but not leave me crashing by the end?