This question arrives after a few months of training, when you notice that some classes leave you short of energy and others leave you heavy. The answer is less complicated than the nutrition industry makes it - and has nothing to do with supplements.
Before class, timing matters more than content
Most trouble comes not from what you eat but when. Our warm-up involves rotations, forward folds and twisting, and a full stomach simply does not tolerate that well.
- A full meal: two to three hours before.
- Something light: an hour before - fruit, yoghurt, a slice of bread.
- Nothing: in the last thirty minutes, beyond a sip of water.
If you train at six in the morning the question changes: most people train better on an empty stomach then, because the body is used to it. If that does not suit you, something small is enough - a banana, a spoon of honey in water.
After class: no need to panic about a window
The story of a thirty-minute window in which you must consume protein comes from competitive bodybuilding and means nothing for training twice a week. The body rebuilds muscle for hours and days after the effort.
What genuinely helps: a normal meal within the next couple of hours, with some protein and carbohydrate, and enough water. It also reduces muscle soreness the next day, though it will not remove it.
Sleep matters more for recovery than anything you eat. No combination of food repairs three short nights.
Water
Ninety minutes in a warm hall means losses you will not register through thirst in time. A practical rule: half a litre in the hour before, sips during, a glass or two afterwards. If your urine is completely clear you are drinking too much; if it is dark, too little.
What the Chinese tradition says
Interestingly, the old Chinese view of food barely concerns itself with carbohydrates and protein, and concentrates instead on warmth and digestibility. The recommendations are simple: warm, cooked food rather than cold and raw, especially in winter; eat slowly and not to fullness; less in the evening than during the day.
An old saying advises leaving the table when you are seven tenths full. Modern nutrition science reached a similar recommendation by a considerably longer route.
What we do not recommend
We sell no supplements and will not recommend any. For training two or three times a week, a person eating a varied diet needs no protein shakes, creatine or pre-workout preparations. If you have a particular dietary condition, allergies or an illness, that is a question for a doctor or dietitian rather than a martial arts teacher - and that is how we will answer it.
The most common mistake
Not too little protein, but too little food altogether, in people who start training and cutting calories at the same time. The result is fatigue in class, poorer recovery and a sense that the training is not working. If that is happening to you, try adding one normal meal before changing anything about the training.
