I get to go back to CrossFit today! I'm very excited. Well, and dreading it a bit…but mostly excited.

I was hoping to get some tips about how to handle Water intake at the gym, as well as what your individual experiences have been with food/protein shakes or whatever, either pre or post exercise. What works for you? What would you never do again?

I'm thinking about having half a shake about 30 minutes prior, and then finishing it immediately after the workout. Well, that's if I can crawl to my car and lift my arms after not being there for 6 weeks.

Fluff....what I concentrate on is hydration before the workout and Protein after. It means I have to start drinking Water an hour before the workout and get down as much as possible, cause during the workout I will not be able to drink enough.

Right now it probably takes you a long time to get down water or protein. And that is going to affect your workout some what. But in time your Fluid intake will get alot easier.

Protein is good, but you can't workout without proper hydration.

I would avoid the shake pre workout. Protein digests a lot slower and your body really is looking for it AFTER the workout. I would have a snack which is pretty much void of protein if you are needing something before hand, like a piece of fruit or something between half an hour to an hour prior to your workout. Then, 15 minutes after that, start in on your Water. Get yourself well hydrated. While working out doing CrossFit, be sure to drink more water at EVERY opportunity. You'll notice that everybody else is not drinking at every break, but everybody else isn't missing 85% of their stomach, either. Your capacity to hydrate is a lot different than everybody else's.

Drink smaller amounts, too. I was explaining this awhile back ago. A "normal" person can drink 8 oz of water no problem which would occupy about 10% of their stomach. It can swoosh around in there while working out and be fine. If we try to drink 4 oz of water, which can be 50% of our stomach and then try to exercise at a high level, it would irritate us something fierce. A normal person would never drink 40 oz of water and then go do Zumba or something ... right? Neither can we.

Edited December 5, 201312 yr by PdxMan

This is great. Our WoD is at 5:30 today, and I am trying to get in plenty of Water ahead of time starting now.

I don't really know if I will need a snack or not. I sort of eat around every three hours or so, starting at about 8. So maybe I'll just have my 2:00 feeding as usual and see how it goes today.

I am glad to have that visual of 4 oz in my stomach, PDX. I probably wouldn't have thought of it that way...

Appreciate the input!