What i was always curious , the million dollar question : "how long is the energy you eat available?"
Im not talking any energy , im talking carbs from rice, pasta or whole grain bread , thats my main energy income.
I used the same-day aproach coz i was afraid it would be wasted if i eat it the previous day.
This is an interesting topic. You have 3 sources for glucose:
1. Muscular glycogen: capacity ~300-500grams - Once it gets stored it doesn't leave until you exercise, and it takes a LOT of exercise to even come close to using it up. 300 grams of muscle glycogen is 1200 calories worth, so you'd have to be doing something that burns a TON of calories to even come close to depleting all your muscle glycogen.
2. Liver glycogen: capacity ~50-75 grams - This is what supplies your mental energy needs on a daily basis.
3. Blood sugar: <~10 grams - This is the sugar floating around in your blood either from a recent meal or that which has been released from your liver.
Your liver glycogen and blood sugar is most strongly affected by what you've eaten today. The glycogen in your muscles doesn't impact your mental energy. It will be used as fuel by the exercising muscles. Your immediate mental energy comes from sugar in your blood (a couple of teaspoons worth) and that which is stored in your liver. If you run out of liver glycogen you feel like shit mentally ( unless you're in ketosis) so you need enough carbs on a daily basis for that (50-100 grams or so). Your muscular glycogen really comes from the previous days eating.
However, unless you're engaged in really high volume exercise muscle glycogen isn't likely to be much of a limiting factor. In fact, I've seen some positive things with regard to vertical jump in the middle of a carbohydrate depletion cycle. It was a specific form of bulking and cutting I was playing around with a few years back. You take several days and do lots of high volume exercise and low carb eating to deplete the muscles of glycogen, then follow that up with several days of the opposite approach. What I noticed was 3 or 4 days into it (when I was just about fully depleted) my sprints were a little quicker and jumps a little higher. I'm not sure how replicable this is for everyone, but each gram of glycogen has 3 grams of water with it. If you deplete most of the glyocgen out of your muscles you'll also deplete 3 x that much in water, which will likely be over 5 lbs worth. You'll be weaker due to the impact that muscle glycogen has on leverage in your muscles, but that will likely be offset by the reduced water and bodyweight you're carrying around.
great post man!
yeah, i have some experience as well on these issues as I have played around with it also, here's what I've found:
When it comes to "depleting glycogen", to lose that extra water weight etc, my results have been very inconsistent. For example, at times I was able to drop 5-7 lb by depleting, but I couldn't get that "pop" every session. Sometimes I'd deplete and my legs would feel so shaky and weak, even though my mental arousal is through the roof. Other times I'd be on point, jumping at least 2" higher than if I hadn't depleted, every jump feeling so explosive. When depleting, I'd deplete for 2-3 days prior, and eat lots of bananas etc. Day of, i'd eat bananas and very light meals. It really didn't seem like what I ate THAT DAY was causing the problems when the "shaky legs" feelings persisted. Sometimes when my legs felt shaky, i'd actually jump great, but most often i'd jump normal or slightly worse. I did set alot of PR's that way though on those good jump sessions, so I definitely got it to work, it's just the consistency that would bother me.
I've only recently been eating big the day before jumping sessions, and then light day of. So i'm not sure yet in terms of PR's etc how well it effects, but one thing is for sure, I always feel good. My legs ALWAYS feel strong, I don't get that shaky feeling. So basically, all that's really changed is how much I eat the day before.
For example, yesterday I ate:
- stir fry + egg omelette
- tacos + taco chips
- big smoothie
- ice cream cup
- whole milk - 4 glasses
- 7 bananas + turkey & cheese sandwhich
Today I've eaten, and will eat:
- turkey and cheese sandwhich + coffee drink (starbucks bottled)
- iced tea + lemon + arizona ice tea packet (with ginsing) (1 glass already, another glass 1 hour before session)
- 2-3 bananas 2 hours before session
so, huge yesterday, very light today.. I woke up at 158.8 and after some bathroom duty i hit 156.. we're talking MAJOR bowel contractions from all of those bananas.. so here I ate a ton yesterday but I really think I get rid of nearly all of the excess due to all of those bananas.
so far today, my blood sugar feels great, legs feel so strong getting up out of chair/bed/walking around etc.. by the time I actually start dunking I should be around 156.. so almost 3 lb lost while staying energy-balanced.
One thing i've noticed, even though I'm loading up more glycogen on the day prior to jumping, come day of, while im eating light, im actually pissing a TON.. that calorie/diet fluctuation really has you pissing alot.
Regardless of both strategies, eating light DAY OF jumping/important training really has me feeling mentally arroused/100% mentally.. if i eat alot DAY OF, i usually feel to content mentally.. alot harder for me to get amp'd.. i have less "twitch".
So i dno, i think both can work for sure, it's just the consistency of eating big the day prior that is leading me towards this approach. This guy Dynamo on TVS was trying to get 40 RVJ, he was close like 38-39 for a while, I told him to eat very big the day before his jump session and he hit 40 right after doing this.. He had been eating very light the day prior etc. I mean of course that's only one case.
My diet is basically, light as hell on jumping days and heavy before jumping.. Sometimes i'll eat light prior to jumping just to create a more negative caloric balance during the week, but if I want to jump very good the next day, i've been WANTING to eat big prior to that session.. it's becoming a sort of adaptation.
On another topic, I really think this approach im doing is working nice..
Day 1: short workout: sprint focus
Day 2: short workout: dunk/plyo focus
If I keep the volume light on sprint days, I am so much more activated in all musculature involved in RVJ. KellyB, remember when I was running just one 400 prior to those huge PR dunk sessions I was having? Seems like I'm getting that effect again. I've noticed people do nothing the day before jumping sometimes, to try and be 100% ready, i'd honestly always recommend some short sprints the day prior, very low volume, just to fire everything up.. low volume short sprints shouldn't cause any fatigue imo.
The only "wrench" ive thrown into my jumping routine is my high frequency PMGHR's... I can sacrifice a bit right now though to focus on that, my hamstrings are just way too weak.. so far with this high frequency approach on pmghr ive made some nice progress very fast, and it doesn't seem to be effecting my jumping.
Ok, end long post.
peace
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