Would Eating More Sugar Make Leg Day Easier?
Please say yes, please say yes
Upon completing another brutal leg exercise, drenched in sweat and desperately trying to recover my ability to get up and walk around the gym, I asked Joe the question every pro bodybuilder must have heard a thousand times: Is there anything I could be eating, drinking or taking that would make this workout easier?!
Joe just chuckled and gave me a look I knew meant “easy” and “leg day” should never be put together in the same sentence. Undeterred, I pressed on. I told him I was thinking I should pound some sugar right before the workout began. Maybe eat a banana or, heck, even a candy bar. Would that work?
Joe considered the question for a moment. “Tom Platz (aka ‘The Quadfather’) used to sip a can of Coke between sets,” he said. “But if you want something more than an anecdotal answer, we need to ask Alan.”
He was referring to Alan Aragon, a nutrition scientist who has been publishing peer-reviewed research for more than 25 years. Apparently, he is also a super-nice guy who will take the time to answer random fitness questions from his friends. Joe whipped out his phone and sent off a message. Minutes later, we had an answer.
As it turns out, Alan has just completed a book that provides in-depth, evidence-based answers to this question and many others. It’s called Flexible Dieting, and it’s due out on June 7. You can check out the table of contents and pre-order the book here.
In the meantime, Alan was kind enough to give us what he called the “nutshell version” of the answer to our question:
If you’re consuming total daily carbs at a minimum of about 3g/kg (the optimal range for strength-oriented athletes is 3-8g/kg), your resting and ongoing glycogen levels will support typical-volume, resistance-training bouts — regardless of the timing of carb doses.
If your training session exceeds 90 minutes, then it can be beneficial from a performance standpoint to consume a dose of about 1g/kg within 1-2 hours pre-exercise, or consume 30-60g per hour during training.
Let’s translate this into actual numbers for someone like me. I weigh north of 100kg and work out for close to two hours each training session. That means my daily carb intake should be at least 300g, according to Alan, and I should consider consuming 100g of carbs before my workout or 30-60g twice during my workout.
That’s about five bananas in the first case, or two cans of Coke in the second case.
I guess The Quadfather was onto something!