It is okay to have that thought in your head; many bodybuilders are just that; however, just as veganism has started to spread and become more popular diet-wise, vegan bodybuilding is started to turn some heads as well. Vegan bodybuilders can complete with all of the other people. When a competitor finds out that a bodybuilder is vegan, they usually look surprised, but when a vegan wins a championship, heads start turning.

Most of the people are baffled more than they are impressed. They don’t understand how a vegan could be stronger than a carnivore. They don’t understand that vegans are just like any other competitor (minus the plant-based diet component).

Many bodybuilders are vegan because of environmental reasons, but the majority are vegan for health reasons. A bodybuilder’s diet has always consisted of a diet that is low in carbohydrates, but high in protein and calories–veganism allows for this. There are plenty of nuts, vegetables, and more that offer the critical ingredients. Protein is found in nearly all foods, and they are abundant in seeds, nuts, legumes, fruits, vegetables and other plant-based foods; however, if that is not enough, some vegans do choose to get a plant-based protein powder.

One recommended protein powder is hemp. Hemp is rich in protein, fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, fiber, and chlorophyll. Plant-based foods can get you to the necessary levels.

If you do plan on trying out a vegan diet, it is important to keep in mind that a high protein diet can wear down your liver and kidneys. Drink a lot of water!

One famous vegan bodybuilder is Robert Cheeke. He is a competitive bodybuilder and the 2005 INBA Northwestern USA Natural Bodybuilding Overall Novice Champion. He actually founded the Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness company.

In general, a recovery drink has three essential ingredients:

• Carbohydrates – to replenish glycogen stores, which are depleted during exercise.
• Protein – to repair and rebuild muscles after exercise.
• Water – to replace fluid loss as a result of training.

It’s actually easy to make your own recovery drink by blending some yogurt, fruit, milk, a bit of honey, and a touch of salt. Add a few ice cubes, and you will have a delicious recovery smoothie; however, as simple (and budget-friendly) as making your own drink actually is, many of us prefer ready-made recovery powders, which don’t involve dirtying a blender, are easy to take when on-the-go, and typically don’t require any refrigeration.

Most brands of recovery powders will make similar claims of the benefits of using their product: significantly improved glycogen replenishment, protein synthesis, muscle repair, and endurance levels. What’s the best recovery drink powder? The best recovery powder is simply the one that makes you feel best. Unfortunately, finding that one can be an expensive, experimental process. Never buy a bulk package until you’ve tried mixing a glass of the product on your own. A sample in a store can be misleading.

One of the most popular recovery powders is Endurox R4. Endurox R4 comes in chocolate, fruit punch, lemon lime, tangy orange, and vanilla. Like many powder recovery drinks, it has a somewhat chalky or gritty texture (especially when not mixed well) that can be unpleasant at first, but most users learn to ignore or to even grow to like that about it. It goes down best when chilled. Other recovery powders include:

• Amino Vital
• Clif Shot Recover
• Gatorade G Series 03 Recover
• Hormel’s Great Shake
• PowerBar Recovery Drinks
• Recoverite

Some athletes will even argue that there’s no sense in working out if you don’t have a recovery plan. Running on empty glycogen stores the next day will lead to fatigue and an inefficient workout. Additionally, it is important to remember that muscles are not built during a workout – they are built afterward, provided that the body has enough of the right fuel to do so. Recovery fuels are an essential part of an active lifestyle.

When exercising, your body turns to its glycogen stores as its primary, most efficient source of fuel. These glycogen stores are in both the liver and muscles throughout the body. Two and a half hours of high intensity exercise without refueling can completely deplete liver and muscle glycogen stores.

Though most people don’t exercise for such a duration, it doesn’t mean that we can’t also suffer from depleted glycogen stores; high intensity aerobic exercise that lasts for just one hour depletes more than 50% of the glycogen stores in one’s liver (assuming the stores were full to begin with). Successive days of training without proper recovery (in the form of refueling with food) can gradually lead to empty glycogen stores, which result in decreased performance; your body just can’t run efficiently without glycogen during exercise.

What’s the best way to replenish your glycogen stores after a workout? Timing is key. Some people don’t like to eat directly after a workout, but eating within 15-20 minutes of a workout actually accelerates rates of glycogen storage by a whopping 300%. Conversely, eating two hours post-exercise reduces glycogen synthesis by about 50%. Yikes! Why? Two hours after exercise, your body no longer processes the food as recovery fuel, and the energy will most likely be stored in some other form (e.g. fats). Recovery is impaired, which could contribute to one’s soreness on the following day.

What should you eat? Ideally, one would consume a blend of carbohydrates (to refill your glycogen stores) and proteins (to repair your muscles). It has been said that chocolate milk has the “golden ratio” of carbohydrates and proteins; however, it’s most important to simply get something into your system as soon as possible. After workouts, eating foods with a high glycemic index (i.e. sugary foods or drinks, which are usually a no-no) is several times better than eating nothing at all. Exact needs depend on workout length and one’s body weight, among other factors. If you have to take time to prepare a meal, to shower, or to drive back home or to the office, it is easy to miss the essential time-frame.

Tip: Before every workout, plan out a quick snack that you will be able to consume when you’re done exercising, no matter what.

Workout well, refuel well, recover well. Repeat.

Food can be a stumbling block for those keen on building cardiovascular fitness. What if eating before a workout makes you feel ill or nauseated halfway through, or what if you don’t eat enough and fail to produce a quality workout due to a lack of energy?

If, like many people, you’re up for a run first thing in the morning, then pre-cardio eating is less of a concern. If you must eat before a cardio workout, what you eat depends on the type of cardio you’re going to do. Generally, a steady-state cardio workout carried out at moderate pace would not require special fueling up; some quarters believe you will use fat more quickly on an empty stomach.

However, you need to ensure that you have enough energy if you have high-intensity workouts planned. Failing to eat approximately 1 hour (less than that, and an upset stomach will result) before such a workout can result in catabolism, where muscle tissue, not fat, is used. Moreover, not having a small meal of proteins and carbohydrates means that you will fail to sustain the intensity levels required.

One thing to remember when it comes to pre-workout meals is that the more complex the nutrient, e.g., high-fiber carbohydrates, protein, or fat, the longer digestion will take, which can interfere with the workout; therefore, finishing that small meal an hour before working out is a good rule of thumb to follow.

I’m usually guilty of not eating properly after a cardio workout, even though I know it’s important to refuel to replenish energy and to avoid going into a catabolic state. Lately though, I have been making the effort to get the nutrients I need, which is actually quite easy.

What you need after cardio is mostly carbohydrates; however, these should be nutrient-rich, such as grains, vegetables, and fruit. The opposite would be nutrient-void carbohydrates, such as sweets, which are easy and quick to eat, but provide no nutritional benefit. As boring as they sound, oats do the job. Since plain oats are, well, plain, I stir in raw honey, dried fruits, or Marmite.

Some might say you’re better off without Marmite though, but it’s good for you! Why not just have all that stuff on whole-grain toast? You can, but any meal you can prepare ahead of time gets my vote any day.

* Name changed to maintain anonymity

Thus, recovery after strength training is important, but most of us, myself included, tend to neglect this aspect. In fact, post-strength training recovery is easy, but as with almost everything else in life, requires persistence to ensure success.

One of the first things you should do following a strength training session is to consume protein. My brother swears by his post-weights protein shake, but you can easily provide the protein your body needs with a scrambled egg or two. If you’re averse to animal protein or protein in powdered form, tempeh or other legume products are always an alternative. Similarly to how you should have breakfast within two hours of waking up, protein should be ingested soon after strength training.

Keeping hydrated is another key to recovering after strength training. Aside from being an obvious means of staving off dehydration, water is a “conductor” that enables electrolyte exchange to take place in the body, i.e., it facilitates nerve impulse conduction and muscle contraction. Additionally, adequate consumption of water ensures that any weight you lose is from the loss of fat, not water.

Adequate rest is also a component of recovery after a strength training session. It doesn’t mean zoning out on the couch in front of the TV or surfing the Internet mindlessly (although many of us have certainly been guilty of that). Rather, rest means not throwing yourself headlong into more exertion, such as another set of strength training exercises, or a jog around the block.

Theoretically, strength training would have worked your muscles to their limit, and any exertion that comes after that is likely to be injurious instead of beneficial. Thus, giving yourself time to do nothing is how you recover from strength training. Sleep is an important facet of the rest and recovery period, so don’t skimp on the recommended eight hours!

For the purpose of exercise, your goal should be to have nutrients in your body – on an empty stomach. This will allow your body to have stamina and reduce any feelings of hunger while keeping any nausea at bay. To accomplish this, you’ll need to eat early enough so that food can pass through your stomach before you begin your workout. Small meals usually empty the stomach within a few hours, while larger meals, especially those with high protein content, may take up to six hours or more.

For afternoon workouts, a pre-workout snack is probably unnecessary as long as a well balanced lunch was eaten earlier in the day. The same goes for late evening workouts. Just wait several hours after a light dinner.

For workouts in the morning before lunch, or in the afternoon before dinner, consider eating a light, but highly nutritious snack about two hours before you exercise. Choose foods that are high in carbohydrates, but low in fat. Add just enough protein to satisfy hunger without weighing you down. Combine plenty of fluids with your meal, since your body will need to be well-hydrated to get the most out of your workout. This can be accomplished by having a liquid meal, such as a fruit and vegetable smoothie with a little protein added, if necessary.

It’s always best to listen to your body. Follow these guidelines as long as you’re getting an overall balanced diet. After trying different meals and foods out, you’ll get a feel for what works and what doesn’t work.

Although an athlete who participates in competitive sports or who has a tough training routine will require more protein than the same person who is sedentary, this protein is easily acquired through meals. The typical American diet actually provides too much protein. Consuming a portion of meat at each meal will likely provide all the protein you need and then some. The only people who would need supplementation would be those who cannot consume enough food to begin with, such as individuals in the late stages of AIDs. Those people are unlikely to be athletes.

Eating protein beyond the recommended levels provides no enhanced effect for athletes. In fact, doing so can actually hamper performance. If you’re eating protein shakes and bars for most of your nutrition, you’re likely losing out on carbohydrate foods that are essential to proper muscle development and performance. Your nutrition can be diminished as well if you consume protein foods instead of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains that provide a plethora of vitamins and minerals that your body needs to thrive and prevent disease.

To get the best benefits for your sports activities, choose balanced meals with plenty of unprocessed foods, drink ample amounts of clean, filtered water, and avoid fad diets, including supplementation that is not approved by your doctor.

The thing that can hamper everybody’s exercise regimen is not eating properly before a workout. It is very common, and this theory has beaten to death that eating too much food can cause people to have a less than adequate workout and other undesired effects like nausea and vomiting. Additionally, if you don’t eat at all before a workout, you can be easily become unmotivated. So it is important to eat the right way before exercising to maximize your workout’s benefits.

First of all, everyone needs to avoid those fatty meals before going to a workout because those who are trying to workout after consuming a Quad-Stacker from Burger King are not going to look very good in their workouts. Secondly, meals should be moderate in protein and just enough to satisfy hunger so a buffet meal before a workout is not the best way to go.

It is also important what you eat after an intense workout. Usually, the most precious time after a workout is the initial two hours after your workout. It is a time where many can relax, and it is when people can rebuild their tissues damaged in the workouts. A post-workout meal should include food rich in carbohydrates because we tend to lose some of it during working out, it only makes sense to get it back during the post-workout meal. In addition, protein is very important as it can help you to recover from your workout quickly.

Lastly, water is a key part of surviving not just workouts but life as well, so drink plenty of water to help you recover from the tissues that you have damaged during the workouts.

Carbohydrates are the best source of fuel. Foods high in carbohydrates and low in fat are going to be your best friend. Your body stores excess carbohydrates as glycogen, and this is what your muscles use when energy is needed. Some great sources of carbohydrates are cereals, breads, vegetables, pasta, rice and fruit. If you do not like to get your carbohydrates from food, you also can drink your carbohydrates in sports beverages or fruit juices before you exercise.

People always say that you should consume proteins to build your muscles. Well, although this is true, you do not have to have a diet that is heavy in protein. Protein is not your body’s food of choice for fueling exercise, but you do need it to for muscle repair and growth. Some good sources of protein are meat, dairy products, and nuts.

Fats are good, too! Fats can be a source of fuel for your muscles during your exercises. The best type of fat comes from unsaturated fats from foods such as vegetable oils, nuts, and fatty fish. Just make sure that you only eat these foods after or well before you exercise.

You should learn to stay away from foods high in fiber and fructose right before an intense workout, as they probably will cause some problems. Why? Well, foods containing a lot of fiber, such as beans and lentils, bran cereals and fruit, could cause gas or cramping while fructose can increase the tendency for diarrhea with high-intensity exercise.

Foods are an important part of your diet if you are an athlete. Without the right foods, you make be weak and not live up to your full potential.

Before your workout, drink a cup of coffee.  Athletes used to frown on this because it is a diuretic.  Those working out take in as much water as they can during the workout.  Coffee may cause you to lose water and therefore decrease your muscle efficiency…so it was thought.

Taking in some coffee before the workout gives you a needed boost of energy from the caffeine.  That is the obvious result.  What is not so apparent is caffeine actually is a pain inhibitor.  A study done at the University of Illinois researched the effects of coffee on athletes.  It was discovered it blocked certain pain receptors in the brain.  This means when you get to the point you are feeling the pain and usually decide to stop can be pushed even further.  “No pain, no gain.”

Coffee before the workout, and for afterward another treat for you.  Chocolate milk.  Not only is it delicious, it is better for you than almost every other drink at replenishing your fluids.  Water is the best at replacing the water you lose, obviously.  However, chocolate milk does have water and does replace those fluids.

Many turn to sports drinks for replacing the electrolytes lost.  Sports drinks actually have too many of these carbs and often are best for you when watered down.  Also they have almost no protein, which is the most important nutrient for muscle recovery.  Chocolate milk has all the essential carbs and sodium to aid in water retention and electrolyte replacement.  Not to mention, chocolate milk also contains protein making it even better than sports drinks.

Save money on expensive supplements, and buy two cheap alternatives that are even better for you.