The timing of my workouts depends on what i’m training/work commitments and general scheduling, but the routine of nutrition stays constant whatever time of day. At the moment i’m training during the morning, but when commuting into central london on a daily basis, i’m lucky to get a workout in before 8pm.
I like to increase general sleeping fasting time by a few hours, or as much as I can to improve GH release, metabolic rate, and improve blood sugar control. So if I have my final meal of the day at 7pm, and maybe a shake at 8pm, I will then fast until 10.30/11am the next day. If i’m generally waking up at between 7-8am, I will have a few BCAA’s, and maybe get the daily stretching/cardio in; protecting muscle mass with the amino acids.
About 10.30am, i’ll have a breakfast smoothie, getting in some fruit, complex carbs and protein to break my fast.
Half an hour later i’ll start to set up the bar outside whilst sipping a pre-workout concoction based around BCAA’s, creatine, and dextrose. These all have fast absorption times, useful in elevating blood amino acid, blood sugar and insulin levels throughout the workout.
Depending on money and the specifics of the workout, i’ll sip on 20/30g of BCCA’s, but generally due to finances, i’ll just stick to water.
After finishing off all main sets, i’ll make up a protein shake whilst stretching/doing any conditioning aspects of the workout. Total Protein from MyProtein is my favourite protein source for post-workout nutrition, with over 46g of tapered protein release, flax seed and glutamine peptide, you’re sorted until the next meal.
About 45mins-1hour after training, i’ll fix a full balanced meal, protein, complex carbs (depending on the severity of the workout) as much raw veg as i can manage, and maybe a dose of Vitamin D3.
Everyones take on workout nutrition differs with personal preference/supplement knowledge/daily trends. This routine seems to suit me and my body as well as possible, as I hate working out on a fully empty stomach and supplementing with stimulant-based pre-workouts; if i need an extra boost i’ll have a bunch of grapes and a nice cup ‘a tea.

Yesterday, I finally got round to constructing my garden squat rack after almost a year of everything sitting in the garage collecting dust.
I invited some mates over who are slightly more practical than me, and we got down to it; sorting it out in a few almost pain-free hours. It managed to come out on the cheap side as I didn’t need as much concrete as previously thought. Gave it a bit of a trial after it set, managing to balance 105kg on the bar, plus an 80kg me hanging from it, so all in all, it looks to be quite cost-effective and durable.
The bits and bobs i needed to put this all together are as follows:
The website I first found the instructions on a year ago has since disappeared off the face of the world wide web, so we kind of winged the whole job. But luckily it’s fixed to a perfect height for me. Unfortunately one of the workforce is 5ft8, and had to tiptoe the bar out of the rack, but most other people using it won’t be so vertically challenged.
I don’t have a huge amount of space in the garage, so it’s nice that each side of the rack can be moved and stored individually although they’re a bit of an arse-ache to move, but it’s all worth it in the end.
Since I haven’t squatted over 55kg in a while due to having to power clean then bradford press the bar to get it on my back, I managed a 35kg 1-rep-max PR, and narrowly missed 105kg.
Hopefully should be trying to construct more aspects of the home gym over the course of summer.