HIIT the Pantry! Healthy Pre and Post Workout Snacks

High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) is a workout where you alternate between high intensity and low intensity exercises for a more effective sweat session in a shorter period of time. These workouts typically include a combination of body weight workouts, weight lifting, bursts of cardio … and a health nut trainer to keep you motivated! The difficulty level is in the name, it’s intense! But with the proper nutrition, HIIT and Crossfit training can be wildly rewarding, no matter what your fitness goals are.

The Role of Nutrition for HIIT workouts

HIIT workouts are no joke--the intensity is high, which means the nutrition needs to be high too. Stocking up on quick and nutritious foods that are high in carbohydrates and protein can help you kick “I can’t” to the curb. Food is fuel, so the food (input) you use to fuel your workouts (output) should reflect the amount of work you’re putting in. For pre- and post-workout snacks, timing is everything:

Before the workout

Before the workout, you want to focus on consuming energy so you have something to burn. Eat a small, high quality, high carbohydrate snack that won’t sit in your stomach like a brick. Having a little caffeine (and we mean just a little!) before a workout can also help amp up your energy for the workout ahead. 

• Oatmeal
• fresh or dried fruit
• greek yoghurt
• nuts
• hard boiled egg
• Rowdy Bars

After the workout

The focus for post-workout nutrition is to restore the energy taken up during the workout by eating a good balance of carbohydrates and protein. (Pre-workout and post-workout snacks are pretty similar in that way). Within an hour after the workout, your body will be screaming for more energy to restore those tired muscles. Eat another high quality, high carbohydrate snack before preparing your post-workout meal. Remember to stay aways from foods that are too salty, because that can lower potassium levels, which will already be low from your workout. 

Rowdy Bars, The Perfect Pocket-Sized Workout Snack

As a Crossfitter or HIIT fitness fanatic, we’d bet you get Rowdy over other quick and effective methods to optimize your life--things like sleep, hydration and, most of all, nutrition. You know it takes every ounce of energy and focus to keep up during challenging intervals (especially those dreaded burpees!), so you put in the work to recover properly and eat well. With 9g of protein and 21g of carbohydrates, Rowdy Bars make an excellent HIIT workout snack. They’re quick, they’re pocket-sized and they taste amazing. Our bars contain cashews, flax meal, egg white protein, and yacon root--ingredients that keep your fueled without sacrificing taste or enduring a full belly during your workout.

• Quinoa, brown rice, cauliflower or other complex carbohydrates
• Raw or steam vegetables like broccoli, spinach, brussel sprouts
• Tofu, fish, and other lean proteins
• Rowdy Bars (as a snack)

Wanna show off your Rowdy side at the gym? Head to our shop for Rowdy T-shirts, tanks and more!