Train High Sleep Low
I learned about the concept of “Training hard Sleep Low” a couple of years ago. The concept did not make much sense at the time, because my focus was into “Building Muscle” at the Gym and I wanted to avoid Carbs at all cost.
The concept was strange I have to admit, but I’m going to simplify it for you in a super easy way to implement in your lifestyle as an endurance athlete.
Training High Sleep Low is based on carbohydrate intake timing; What does that mean for me? You might be asking yourselves. Well; As endurance athletes our main source of energy comes from carbohydrates, and at the same time, the over consumption of them leads to weight gain.
So, What is Training High and Sleep Low?
“Train High” means that you should focus on having “no shortage” of carbohydrates during intense workouts. This ensures a productive training session that will improve our performance.
“Sleep low” means that around your sleep schedule you should avoid consuming carbohydrates since you wont need them when you are sleeping, as well as creating a gap of time giving your body chance to burn fat during sleep hours.
How do you put it all together?
Everyone has a different life schedule, but this is how I like to advice my athletes to implement the concept of “Training High Sleep Low”
For an athlete that Trains in the Morning
You should have a carbohydrate rich breakfast before your work out, Examples are: Toast, Bagels, Bowl of cereal, Bananas, etc. and during a the workout consume high sugar sports drinks, gels, or any energy supplement you are adjusted to. The point is to make sure you are well fed, well fueled during your high intensity training.
After your workout you need to taper the carbohydrate consumption, to a less starchy based. For example, Have Brunch of a Egg omelet with vegetables and turkey ham.
As the day passes, every meal should be less and less focused on carbohydrates, up to no carbohydrate consumption in the afternoon / night. This approach will set your metabolism to fat burning state for the rest of the night while you sleep.
For an athlete that trains late in the day / night.
For Athletes that train at night. The timing is slightly different, if you follow the concept of Training High Sleep low, you will notice the pattern of surrounding the training hours being on high fueled state in order to perform well during your training session.
You should have very low (or no) Carbohydrate based breakfast, for example: Egg Omelet with Ham.
For Lunch you should consume a more carbohydrate based lunch, For example: Salmon, Rice and Steam Veggies. This will ensure that you are preparing for an afternoon workout.
During your afternoon workout, you should fuel with your regular high carbohydrate preferred options, like gels, or sports drink, etc.
After your late workout, You should consume a small salad only if you are hungry. The fat burning from an athlete that trains at night happens during the morning in this case.
Pro Tip
The more you increase the gap between the post workout meal and the next meal the more you set your body to burn fat. Many of us we are constantly are in a Over-fed state and we never give our bodies the chance to do its job of burning fat.
If you are not training high intensity that day, you should NOT consume carbohydrates during your workout.
Sergio Is ex-obese person that lost more than 100 pounds of excess body weight. He is a triathlete and Coach mentoring and helping other people like him to help them achieve their athletic and weight loss goals.
Great reminder of when to carbo load…. especially if your schedule alternates AM and PM… this way you can manage your intake with training load to maximize benefits. Thanks!
Hi brother,
Do you think that the load of carbs the night before an intense workout is not a valid choice?
I would do this when there is long intense workout or a race. But not if I’m trying to loose weight. For short intense workouts say 1.5 – 2 hours a good carb based pre meal with good workout fueling is good enough to give you the energy enough to push hard.
Hi Sergio, how about when you train twice per day (morning and evening)? How does the carb consumption approach change?
Always fuel your workouts if they are intense workouts. If one of them is easy, you don’t need to carb up. Depending on your schedule, try to schedule the hard workout in the morning. This will help you go to bed not over loaded with carbs you will not use at night.