What to Eat Before Muay Thai Training?

The best way to get a cutting diet and a slim and dense body is through exercise. For example, you can try Muay Thai that is quite popular among athletes. Muay Thai is a good sport for weight loss. For safety, wearing a mouth guard is the best way. Muay Thai is a good exercise but it requires good stamina. However, a mistake often made during Muay Thai is to reduce food intake.

Reducing food intake is not the right way because food is a source of energy for activities. If you want to exercise effectively and get the desired results, the way these athletes manage their eating patterns is worth emulating.

Muay Thai fighters go on a balanced diet by consuming lots of fruits and vegetables. Usually, they will consume complex carbohydrates before exercise. And after training, they will be given food intake containing glycogen, carbohydrates, lean protein for muscle repair. Some foods are commonly eaten by martial artists including Muay Thai fighters. These foods are considered ideal for them to help stabilize their weight and stay healthy.

1. Banana

Consumption of bananas can provide a variety of nutrients such as potassium, vitamin C, vitamin B6, and carbohydrates. Bananas have high energy and are easily digested by the body and become the perfect snack before exercise, including

2. Milk and yogurt

To keep the body energized, Muay Thai fighters always consume organic chocolate milk every time. Milk can help with energy recovery after practicing Muay Thai. In terms of nutrition, milk and yogurt are good sources of carbohydrates, protein, and calcium to strengthen bones. Milk is very good for those of you who like to exercise hard because carbohydrates from sugar in milk can help increase energy before exercise and help store glycogen in muscles after exercise. However, you should consume low-fat milk to make it easier to digest.

3. Nuts

Nuts are the athletes’ best friends because they can be a perfect source of energy as well as diet food. For Muay Thai athletes, peanut butter is a good energy recovery food because of the protein and carbohydrate content in it. Besides, nuts are also known to protect the heart and prevent fat deposits in the long run. However, avoid consuming nuts before jogging or running. The content of carbohydrates, protein, and fat contained makes the beans slow to digest, so that it can cause digestive disorders.

4. Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a popular food for Muay Thai athletes because it provides long-lasting energy and it is digested slowly. To make it more delicious, try adding dried or fresh fruit, milk, nuts, or yogurt to it.

5. Salad

During Muay Thai training, you can eat a salad with the addition of chicken, or fish. The protein added to this salad works to increase energy and repair muscles. To be more energetic, combine salad with beans, corn, beets, or croutons (toasted bread).

6. Orange

When training Muay Thai, the muscles will feel tired and may experience pain. The intake of vitamin C in oranges and fruit will help to repair muscles. Other foods that are good for muscles are including oranges, berries, pineapple, oranges, bananas, strawberries, and yogurt.

7. Dried fruit

Sometimes, many people avoid dried fruit because they think that it contains a lot of calories. In fact, dried fruit has good portability, nutrient density, and carbohydrates and is a healthy food choice for Muay Thai fighters. Dried fruit is good for consumption when going to strenuous sports biking, cycling, and boxing.

8. Good fat

Fat is not always a bad choice and increases your body weight. Fats contained in olive oil, fish, avocados, nuts, and seeds can protect the heart and increase energy. Research shows that professional Muay Thai athletes show better performance when given a higher intake of good fats. This fat will be stored in the muscles and used as fuel during Muay Thai training. It can also make the body more powerful and gives more stamina.

What you should drink?

In addition to the above foods, you should also pay attention to some drinks that are suitable for Muay Thai training, including:

• Water will replace your body fluids lost during training.
• High in anti-oxidants, such as green tea or black tea, which will help restore your body.
• Coffee, especially if you still have a myriad of activities after training that day. Coffee, in moderation, will help you improve brain performance. But don’t drink coffee if you can’t tolerate caffeine.
• Contains protein and carbohydrates, such as protein shakes, yogurt, chocolate milk (low-fat or non-fat without the addition of artificial sugar). Serves to repair and build muscle.
• Substitute body electrolytes that are lost through sweat during exercise, for example, pineapple juice, coconut water, sour cherry juice, beet juice.
• Don’t add sugar to drinks after your practice. You can add a little honey or stevia sugar if you want.
• Avoid drinking soft drinks because they contain high levels of sugar and make the kidneys work harder.

What should you eat after training?

You can eat:

Snack: about 60 – 90 minutes after the MuayThaimu training session ends, is the most effective time to replace lost energy. Eat snacks, such as whole-wheat bread with peanut butter or cheese, fruits, nuts, or vegetables that are boiled briefly. You can bring these foods as provisions when leaving for training.

Heavy meals: if it is still possible for you to eat heavy, eat 1-2 hours after exercise. You can eat brown rice with stir-fried tofu and vegetables, meat or fish sauteed/boiled with vegetables. But if you finish training too late, choose foods that are quickly digested so that it does not burden your digestion while sleeping such as whole wheat bread with beef / scrambled eggs/fish and vegetables.

Remember to keep your food portions especially if you have no more activities after exercise, you are losing weight or if it’s late.

Meanwhile, you can drink:

Drink water immediately after the exercise. Weigh your body weight before and after exercise, and drink 2 glasses of water (about 400-500 ml) for every half kilogram of your bodyweight that is lost after finishing training.

You can drink another drink all day after Muay Thai training. If you exercise at night, choose coconut water in addition to your white water. Finally, those are foods that you can eat when you want to start Muay Thai training. Muay Thai is good for cutting diet, but you still need to pay attention to the nutrition intakes. Also, you should keep wearing a mouth guard during safety training.