Boxing Nutrition: Carbohydrates and Nutrient Timing
Floyd Mayweather is the king of timing in Boxing, but we are going to talk about a different type of timing that will be beneficial for your boxing nutrition, this is Nutrient Timing.
We have already established the importance of structuring your carbohydrate intake effectively to successfully fuel performance and lose weight, and Nutrient Timing plays a massive role.
Nutrient timing is important to ensure that you are can adapt to the training you have performed. That’s why many supplements and protein shakes are common in sports as they help aid recovery.
Consuming high carbohydrates after high intensity glycogen depleting exercise will ensure that you re synthesize muscle glycogen as well as fuel your immune system due to high intensity exercise down regulating your immune system.
Consuming low carbohydrates pre and 3 hours post low intensity exercise will allow high rates of fat oxidation (fat been used as energy) as well as contributing to molecular signalling.
Top Tips For Effective Timing
All nutritional interventions should be individualised, so you are not going to get all the answers in a single web article.
However, here are some useful tips that we have abstracted from the literature
- Consume a low carbohydrate or non carbohydrate meal 0-20g before performing low intensity cardio work such as jogging and biking as well as weight training and technique work due to these types of exercise been non glycogen depleting.
- Consume a moderate carbohydrate meal 20-40g before boxing training such as bag and pads work and after weight training due to enhanced glut 4 transportation of carbohydrate to muscle glycogen.
- Consume a high carbohydrate meal 40-60g before performing high intensity interval training and sparring to fuel the vigorous exercise that you are going to perform later on.