This morning was the last med ball session of the year. Next week, I’ll transition to a strength and hypertrophy phase (i.e., the first phase of Mass Explosion).
I never eat before doing med ball training. I’m up at 5:00 a.m., take some BCAAs as outlined in Lean and Mean, and then on the field by 6:00 a.m. Once I’m done around 7:00 a.m., I come home, shower, and then eat breakfast. I’ve been doing that for years and it works great!
When it comes to weight training, however, it’s a different story. I have to “break the fast” before I lift, or my performance will suffer. I wake up around 5:00 a.m., eat by 6:00 a.m., and then train a couple hours later. Without a good breakfast, I don’t have a good workout.
Looks like I’m not alone! The results of a recent study in the Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research confirm that “omission of a pre-exercise breakfast might impair resistance exercise performance in habitual breakfast consumers.”
Bottom Line: Taking an anti-catabolic agent like BCAAs may be sufficient in a fasted state before moderate- to high-intensity cardio, but if you plan to perform weight training in the morning, it’s best to have a healthy breakfast beforehand.
