Carbohydrates Before Exercise: Part IV

Continuing with the series of posts "practical guide" on carbohydrates, this time we are going to see how they are not only important during and after exercise, but also before it, since it is the stage of preparation for the physical effort that will follow.

Carbohydrates the days before the competition. Full energy charge.
More than 20 years ago, glycogen supercompensation strategies began to be used in the days leading up to competition. These strategies are now somewhat controversial and seem to be strategies that are not entirely necessary, or at least in the extreme terms in which they were carried out, but these strategies, with some modifications, are usually used by some athletes.
Not to go on too long with this, I will briefly tell you what these strategies consisted of:

• Basically, in the week prior to the competition, from the 7th to the 4th day before, carbohydrates were stopped while a certain level of training was maintained, then these training levels were lowered and carbohydrate intake was greatly increased. During the 1st phase, glycogen stores are depleted (emptied), while during the 2nd phase what we achieve is to fill them, and according to studies, a little more than they were initially. This plus in the filling is what could give us extra performance on the day of the competition. But it is true that what happened to some athletes is that in the previous training with depleted glycogen stores, some were injured, others suffered stress that was later reflected in the competition, others did not fully recover, etc. So not only was the objective of improving performance not achieved, but, on the contrary, there was a decrease in it.
• And although some athletes still use it, what is done today is to keep the carbohydrate intake the same as in the preparation phases and simply increase their intake a little in those 3 days prior to the competition along with the decrease in the volume and intensity of the training. With this strategy we achieve similar results in glycogen recharges, but without subjecting the body to the stress described above.

I should also comment that this strategy is especially useful for events (training or competitions) that last more than 90 minutes, as there seems to be little benefit when the duration of the exercise is less than 90 minutes.
If we now talk about figures, the amounts of carbohydrates to be consumed per day will vary based on different factors, but as we have seen in the previous image, in general, they can range from 5 – 6 g CHO/Kg body weight, to 10 – 12 g CHO/Kg for top-level athletes.

More generally, and in conclusion, for the vast majority of amateur and recreational athletes, it is enough to increase carbohydrate intake one or two days before the competition, that is, to eat a little more, several times a day, of foods such as cereals and derivatives, potatoes, fruits and vegetables, etc.

Carbohydrate intake hours before the competition.
Before physical exertion we should not be hungry, but we should not have an excessive amount of food in the stomach either. The standard recommendations on pre-exercise nutrition (breakfast/snack) are:

• Eat foods rich in carbohydrates and also eat a little protein, to maintain blood sugar and maximize the filling of glycogen stores.
• Eat foods low in fat and fibre, to facilitate gastric emptying and avoid possible gastro-intestinal problems.
• Have adequate hydration (I'll talk about this later in another post).

As we have already mentioned, having a high-carbohydrate diet in the days before a competition, as well as its ingestion 2 – 3 hours before exercise, have proven to be an effective strategy to improve sports performance in endurance activities.
If more than 3 hours have passed since breakfast or the last pre-exercise meal, we can consider taking a last carbohydrate intake about 15 – 60 minutes before the start. This last intake could be in the form of a solid snack, such as a sweet or savory Energy Bar. But the most common is to do it in liquid form, because it is a more digestible format and also because we optimize hydration (we will talk about it in another post, as I have already mentioned). For the latter option, a sports drink is recommended that provides us with liquid (water), carbohydrates and electrolytes (mineral salts), such as Isodrink & Energy, which supplies us with everything we need in the hour before the competition.

Metabolic activators before exercise.
In relation to the above, something that is gaining a lot of momentum in recent times is the use of activators or enhancers of metabolism and/or performance before physical effort. Some of these products can be simply caffeine in the form of capsules, such as the Caffeine PRO Caps, or products such as the well-known pre-workouts, which provide a greater number of nutrients and seek to enhance performance during that training session or competition, this is the case of the Pre-Workout PRO ST, which provides essential amino acids, caffeine and other nutrients that maximize performance. Being in powder form, it is ideal to mix with Isodrink & Energy in the moments before physical activity, as this will provide everything necessary that we have mentioned before, but in a single drink. And we have scientifically demonstrated this through a study on the effectiveness of this product that has been published in the journal Nutrients.

RELATED VIDEOS

Crown training channel, where you can find videos explaining all this: https://crownsportnutrition.com/formacion/

Video with Youtuber Daniel Race, explaining what we need to take before exercise:

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