You are what you eat, and this common phrase is seldom more literal in meaning than when you are engaged in a strength-training routine of body resistance exercises or workouts at the gym. Exploring the impact of nutrition from a balanced diet on different aspects of strength training -- during, before and after your workout -- will help you maximize your workout gains, energy levels and overall good health.
Nutrition and Energy
Since strength training requires energy -- and plenty of it -- the first aspect of nutrition to consider in relation to working your muscles is how to get that energy from healthy foods. Carbohydrates are the main source of your body's energy for day-to-day tasks, as well as fuel for strength training. Carbohydrates contained in the foods you eat provide your body with healthy calories -- or units of food energy that your metabolism will convert into energy you can use to work out.
Complex and Simple Carbohydrate Nutrition
Your body uses energy from two types of carbohydrates -- complex and simple. Complex carbohydrates from nutritious, high-fiber food sources such as unrefined pasta, brown rice and whole-grain breads and cereals. Simple carbohydrates -- although generally lower in healthy fiber and nutrients -- also provide you with energy, and healthy foods rich in these sugar-based carbs include fruits such as apples and pears as well as starchy foods, including potatoes and corn.
Protein and Strength Training
Nutritious carbohydrates give you the energy you need to work your muscles during a strength-training session. However, when it comes to building those muscles back leaner and stronger, protein is essential. While eating a diet that contains adequate protein is vital to overall health, consuming protein-rich foods is especially crucial to your muscle gains after you work out. During strength-training exercises such as pushups, squats and leg curls, your muscle fibers become traumatized and torn on a cellular level -- causing you to feel the burn. Eating healthy proteins such as those contained in lean red meat, lentils, fish, kidney beans and low-fat dairy products gives the cells of your muscles the amino acid building blocks they need to repair the trauma caused during a workout -- and contributes to healthy, rapid muscle growth.
Getting Your Vitamins and Minerals
Although carbohydrates and protein are particularly important macronutrients to strength training, since they help you stay energized to build and maintain new muscles, vitamins and minerals are key to ensuring the health of those muscles. They also help your body function properly, fuel your metabolism and maintain healthy, nonmuscular body tissues. Leafy green vegetables, other vegetables such as broccoli and cauliflower, eggs, meats and dairy products contain plenty of essential nutrients that contribute to the beneficial effects of strength training. The B-vitamin family allows for a healthy metabolism to keep you energized for working out, while maintaining cells and tissues in your body, according to the National Institutes of Health. Iron and calcium are two particularly important minerals for strength training, since iron maintains healthy red blood cells that transport oxygen to your muscles and calcium keeps your bones strong to help prevent injury during your workout.
Stay Hydrated
Water is not only instrumental in keeping literally every aspect of your health in working order -- it is an integral part of strength-training nutrition. Drinking at least eight, 8-oz. servings of water per day is especially crucial when you're committed to a regular strength-training routine, since staying hydrated will keep your metabolism going as well as allow for proper digestion of the nutritious foods you need to pump up your muscles.
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