Lifting pre-breakfast

Zoodlebop

So I saw on another thread that some people were very anti-lifting without any breakfast in you.

I lift 4 days a week at 8am (college at 10am, don't worry, I cycle), and I never eat before lifting, just chug a pint or two of water. I feel grand and my lifts have been progressing well, but I wonder if I'd do even better with a small bit of food inside me. It just means getting up even earlier though. I'm still carrying a bit of body fat that I want to burn off. My possibly misguided notion was that pre-breaky lifting was helping with this.

Any advice/opinions?

Nate--IRL--

I would guess it'd depend on your goals, but I've always been of the opinion that you should fuel your workout, whether cutting or bulking.

Also note that your body is still in a catabolic state until you eat, so eating as soon as you wake is important regardless of working out or not.

Nate

dioltas

I find I don't lift as well in the mornings anyway, but I don't know if I'd be able for it at all without food in me!
If it's working for you and your lifts are progressing though then I don't think there's a problem. Probably will help with burning fat. I'd say it'd be important to get some grub into you afterwards at least.

BossArky

I have been deadlifting and squatting at 6:30am for the past 8 weeks on tuesday and thursday respectively. It is grand once you get into the habit.

Wild horses couldn't have dragged me there that early back in 2008, however it is not half as bad as I expected.

It gives a great feeling of accomplishment to have the gym over and done with before work.

The gym is practically empty so no waiting around for bars/clips/plates. I also now have the full evenings to do other stuff. I cannot see myself going back to evening gym at all.

6:00 am - wake up
6:10 am - have porridge/water/apple
6:20am - jog to gym
6:30am - gym
7:10am - jog home

In the 8 weeks I have put on about 4kg of which seems to be mainly muscle (strength up / waist the same). I put this down to having a more structured program as I'm not fighting for equipment. I can then stuff myself with food post workout during the workday.

I recommend early morning workouts :pac:

rubadub

I often do a few sets in the morning. I would say on average I would only manage 80-90% of the max I could when fully fuelled, be it weights or reps.

but I wonder if I'd do even better with a small bit of food inside me.

So in my case I could do more reps to stimulate more growth. I have wondered about negatives in this case, are they "real" negatives. i.e. are my forced negatives really as stressful on the muscle. e.g. if I can do 10 weighted chins normally, but only 8 in the morning then are my 2-3 forced negatives just the same as doing 10 reps later on? People say you need extra rest after negatives as they are so taxing, but if fuelled properly I would have managed them easily.

AARRRGH

Schwarzenegger used to lift pre-breakfast in his early years.

delllat

AARRRGH wrote: »

Schwarzenegger used to lift pre-breakfast in his early years.

he was also taking anabolic steroids like dbol and winstrol

i think u shouldnt train on an empty stomach unless ur trying to lose weight