14/09/2026
🫣 Protein before or after training? 🍗
There’s been a bit of discussion recently about whether women should have protein before training, particularly as they get older.
I don’t think the recommendation is wrong. I think the distinction is between what’s important and what’s optimising.
Protein before and after training could potentially be beneficial for everyone. And as we get older, there are good reasons to pay more attention to protein intake because our muscles become somewhat less responsive to smaller amounts of protein.
Where I think the importance can get inflated is around the timing itself.
For both men and women, getting enough protein across the whole day is far more important than precisely when you have it.
If your total protein intake is inadequate, worrying about pre- and post-workout protein is majoring in the minors.
If you’re already getting roughly 1.6–2.0g/kg per day, spread across 3–5 decent servings, then paying closer attention to protein around training becomes a smaller additional optimisation.
One situation where I’d pay more attention is early-morning training.
If you’re training at 6 or 7am, you may have gone 8–12+ hours without eating. In that situation, having some protein before training makes more sense than it does for someone training later in the day who has already eaten several protein-containing meals.
This may become increasingly relevant as we get older because of anabolic resistance.
Even then, I wouldn’t say you need protein immediately before and immediately after training.
Have 25–40g of good-quality protein before training? Great.
Prefer training without eating and having a protein-rich breakfast afterwards? Also perfectly reasonable.
I’d look at the priorities like this:
Total daily protein → spreading protein across the day → protein around early-morning training → worrying about precise timing.
The further you’ve already optimised the basics, the more worthwhile these smaller details become.
But they’re still optimisations rather than requirements.
