Joe: 00:00

Welcome back to another episode of the Freedom Talks podcast, everybody. This is your host, Joe Ogden, and we're here this week to talk about nutrition on how to boost your workouts. So we're recording this at the beginning of 2025, which historically, statistically speaking, most common time for people to start working out. New year, new goals. And I wanna focus today on just kinda giving some tips on how to boost your workouts, how to make sure that that is most effective because a lot of people were just starting out, and we wanna see as much results as possible.

Joe: 00:48

One thing, and I've I talked about this before on previous podcasts, and I talk about this a lot, with my own patients and on my own life and all this, is nutrition is so important. You've got one pedestal, which is the workout itself. You've got another pedestal, which is the nutrition. And that's something that's not talked about enough, I don't think, is how important nutrition is to make sure that we're, working towards our goals and helping get towards our goals. So first off with nutrition, one, it's super important to, I think, track what you're eating just to have an objective idea of what you're actually taking into your system.

Joe: 01:26

Oftentimes, one of 2 things happens, and I think it's one extreme or the other. People either think that they're eating enough, and then when you actually start tracking it, essentially, you're bringing in nothing throughout the day. Or it's the opposite where people are like, ah, you know, I'm not eating that much. But when you really break it down, you're you're really eating a ton, so you're overeating. I'm a big believer that you can't outwork a bad diet.

Joe: 01:47

And oftentimes, when that's said, I think people go down this rabbit hole of being way too restrictive. Our goal with nutrition and helping boost our workouts and just boosting our life is overall 80% of our nutrition should be good. The last 20% should be eat based on how you feel. Eat what you want. I think that helps just create this longevity, create this well rounded, nutritious ability for us to have and just to keep things going for a longer period of time.

Joe: 02:18

So right off the bat, I think it's important just to track. Just to have an idea of what, your caloric needs are, whether that's 2,000 calories, 25 100, 3000, what whatever it is. Just having an idea of how much your body needs to survive and need needs to thrive really, quite honestly. So basing this around our workouts, the biggest thing that we need with rebuilding tissue regardless of what the workout we're doing is, is protein. We need to make sure that we have enough protein.

Joe: 02:51

Easy way to calculate how much protein we need, especially when working out and trying to repair tissue, is I use a very simple equation with grams per pound of body weight. So you need point 8 to 1.2 grams per pound of body weight. So, for instance, if you're 200 pounds, need between a 182120 grams of protein. It's super easy just to have 1 gram. I mean, it's an easy, easy calculation.

Joe: 03:19

But point 8 to 1.2 is a pretty good range to be in. If we have it too high, then I think there's some negative effects there that aren't necessarily worth, the benefit. And then, obviously, if we're not eating enough protein, like, let's say you're half that, you're at 0.5, your body just can't repair those muscles that we're breaking down with the workout. So making sure, one, that we get enough protein. The second big thing that I think is important, especially when talking about right before our workout and right after our workout, is carbohydrates.

Joe: 03:48

There's so much negativity around carbohydrates that I just don't like. I'm not a big nutrition educator using fear. I think so many people are are fearful when it comes to eating because there's so much negative reinforcement out there. And I'm a big positive reinforcement person. I always say food is fuel.

Joe: 04:07

We have to fuel our bodies correctly. And carbs are our energy source. So right before our workout, getting a good carb source in, depending on how how you digest it. I like taking it probably an hour before a workout depending on what it is. If it's like a run, I have a carb powder that is easy to digest.

Joe: 04:23

But if it's food, I like to get an hour to 90 minutes before a workout, because that's just gonna fuel our muscles. Our car our body needs the carb to actually have energy. I mean, that's basic basic, nutrition is understanding that carbs are our fuel to the engine. So putting in carbs right before the workout is super important. And then to restore the glycogen after our workout, after we broke it down so that the protein can get into our tissue and help repair that, having carbs right after a workout is super important too.

Joe: 04:56

So if you're someone who's, you know, know, I don't like eating carbs that much, that's perfectly fine. If you're gonna have a carb and be limit yourself, fine. Have it right before or right after your workout. I mean, that's really the most important time to have it. Now I'm not one of those that does the, you know, keto diet or low carb diet.

Joe: 05:11

That's just not for me. So I try and squeeze it in throughout the day just with every meal pretty basic. But the big thing around workouts is you gotta have carbs for fuel, and then you have to have protein to repair that tissue. Another thing that's negatively talked about that I just think is super unwarranted is fats. Fats help us go for a longer period of time.

Joe: 05:34

So if you're doing long steady state cardio or just long workouts in general, fats are really good because that's your fuel source for a long period of time. So peanut butter, any nuts, I mean, some oils. I mean, there's so many good healthy fat sources out there that also add flavor to our food quite honestly. A couple a tablespoon here and there of good healthy fats is actually really good for us. Again, there's so much negativity out there about fat, that research has kind of disproved a lot of that, I think.

Joe: 06:04

And people are kind of, you know, being a little more objective with it and just having a little more sway with it, not being so direct and so kinda tight about the fats. The biggest thing in general and this is a carb, fat, protein. I mean, if you have it in moderation, it it's okay. You just can't go crazy and just put in 10 tablespoons of butter into your your eggs in the morning. I I use a a natural butter, Irish butter, I like a lot.

Joe: 06:36

I also have beef tallow that I think is super flavorful and super helpful. But just adding in, you know, a good fat source, I think, is good just to keep you going for a longer period of time. Now one thing I really wanted to talk about too in this podcast with boosting your workout, I'm a big believer in creatine. It's very safe to use, and there's so much positive research out there about it. I'm a for the most part, I think most people should be taking 5 grams of creatine a day.

Joe: 07:06

It helps with muscle contraction. It helps with mental acuity. There's also long term health benefits of having creatine, and it's super simple. It's unfavored. It doesn't taste like anything.

Joe: 07:17

You can put it in water. You can put it in anything. It's super easy to mix in. Five grams a day, it's very cheap. It's actually probably one of the cheapest supplements out there, with the benefits that it has.

Joe: 07:28

So adding in 5 grams of creatine, I think, is so helpful. It will help your workout, help your intensity, help your how strong you are in workouts, quite honestly, help how long you can go and it helps actually recover as well because you don't get as fatigued just because it helps get moisture and helps get water into the tissues to help you just function better. So big thing around your workout as going in as we go into the new year here and hopefully keep this going long term is, 1, for sure, no matter what, make sure you're eating enough protein. So 0.8 to 1.2 grams per pound of body weight. 2, make sure you're having some sort of carb source.

Joe: 08:05

You gotta have carbs to have good workouts. Again, if you're a low carb person and even a no carb person, if you're gonna have it at all before your workout or after are two really key times to do it. I throw people a bone a little bit again on that one. I'm not a big fan personally of going on those extreme diets like that unless you've had your blood work checked and have seen a doctor. But in general, as far as longevity, not a big fan of it.

Joe: 08:27

That's just my personal and professional opinion. By all means, if you disagree, that's okay. I'm not not rigid on that. That's just what I think with it. The other one is make sure you have a good healthy fat source in, I think, is just really good for just longer durations of activity.

Joe: 08:43

Then the other kinda big thing too, I think, is adding in some creatine. Again, as long as it it's safe to do 5 grams a day, you don't need anything more. It's not one of those. If you keep doubling up, doubling up, doubling up, it's you're gonna see better benefits. Just 5 grams a day.

Joe: 08:59

That's it. And, I don't personally don't care when that that's taken in. I take it after my workouts just because it's in the food that I have after, But that's just what works for me. I don't think there's any better time to do it. There's studies out there on timing of it and dosing.

Joe: 09:16

As long as you're getting the 5 grams a day, I don't think it really matters. So big thing to help boost your workout is make sure we're getting the right nutrition in and make sure we're getting enough to help fuel our body moving forward. So thanks again for listening to yet another episode of the Freedom Talks podcast. It's been just a joy to do this and and provide some positive information out there to, any listener, whether they're old, young, provider, know anything about physical therapy or don't. It's it's super fun just to spread some positive information about what our bodies can do and how to keep our bodies moving well.

Joe: 09:49

If anybody has any questions or concerns or wants to be seen here at Freedom Physical Therapy, remember, we have a location here in Fox Point up in Grafton, in Brookfield, and out in Mukwonago. Thanks for listening everybody, and we'll see everybody in next week's episode.