Preworkouts have no discernible impact on long term performance. Protein, creatine, and fish oil are properly the only tried and true supplements. Eat a banana/apple and 25 g whey protein about one hour prior to working out. They're fast digesting and won't mess up your stomach.
Here's a piece explains milk, whey, casein protein timing etc:
Whey protein has been the prodigy of the supplement industry, by far leading sales since bodybuilding supplements came in vogue up until now. Research also clearly demonstrates whey is by far the superior choice for pre and post-workout nutrition.
However still very few people seem to realize that micellar casein is probably by far the superior protein source for literally any other time of day other than around your workout.
Previous research already demonstrated it, and new research continues to validate this (14). Not only is the area under the curve (an indication of absolute volume) for casein greater than for whey, the slower rate of appearance also leads to reduced oxidation and therefor greater peripheral uptake of amino acids. Phillips et al. (13) postulated that the higher quality of whey may have been related to a greater uptake by peripheral tissue rather than the splanchnic bed, but the Soop et al. study (14) clearly demonstrates an equal distribution of amino acids from both whey and casein across splanchnic and peripheral tissues, but that total uptake in both was greater for casein than for whey.
Especially when you can’t eat frequently enough to stimulate protein synthesis around the clock, casein is a far better option to cover your basis as well. Using whey would almost necessitate feeding every 2.5h to reap the benefits it offers over casein.
Of course adding a little whey to your casein to get a higher postprandial boost in MPS, and then have mostly casein to sustain it and prevent protein loss is an even better idea. Which is roughly the composition of milk protein. Add to that that a liter of semi-skimmed milk is a complete meal at around 480 kcal with 48g of low glycemic sugar, 34g of protein and 15g of fat and sets you back less than half a buck. The fact that it is liquid and doesn’t need to be prepared makes it easy to use any time and be consumed on top of your normal meals to meet caloric and protein demands. During carb restriction you can always switch to supplemental casein in water or extra casein in a bit of milk.
Protein timing
The two last mentioned studies by Tipton et al. already shed some light on the fact that there isn’t much difference in taking your whey protein shake just prior or just after your workout. Before seems slightly more favorable since you would have elevated blood amino acid levels as the effect of exercise kicks in, but in truth I’m not so sure this should be an either/or type of debate.
There are a few things we know to be true. Exercise enhances the need for calories and consuming the bulk of calories around the time of the workout ensures they are maximally used in the anabolic window, with reduced chance of storing them as fat. The use of fast protein sources necessitates more frequent feeding. And lastly, we know that exercising in a fasted state leads to elevated AMPK (17), while training in a fed state does not (18).
AMPK being one of the primary negative regulators of mTORC1, the key signal integrator in Muscle protein synthesis. Consider the time that elapses between a pre- and post-workout protein shake and you’ll soon begin to see the sense in using both. More than just protein it is important to make sure you are training in a fed state however, this can also be achieved by eating a full mixed nutrient meal 1 to 1.5h prior to your workout, then consuming your protein shake immediately after your workout and having another full meal 1.5 to 2h after that.
13. Staples AW, Burd NA, West DW, Currie KD, Atherton PJ, Moore DR, Rennie MJ, Macdonald MJ, Baker SK, Phillips SM.Carbohydrate does not augment exercise-induced protein accretion versus protein alone.Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011 Jul;43(7):1154-61.
14. Yang J, Dolinger M, Ritaccio G, Mazurkiewicz J, Conti D, Zhu X, Huang Y.Leucine stimulates insulin secretion via down-regulation of surface expression of adrenergic α2A receptor through the mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) pathway: implication in new-onset diabetes in renal transplantation.J Biol Chem. 2012 Jul 13;287(29):24795-806.
15. Nicklin P, Bergman P, Zhang B, Triantafellow E, Wang H, Nyfeler B, Yang H, Hild M, Kung C, Wilson C, Myer VE, MacKeigan JP, Porter JA, Wang YK, Cantley LC, Finan PM, Murphy LO.Bidirectional transport of amino acids regulates mTOR and autophagy.Cell. 2009 Feb 6;136(3):521-34.
16. Mittendorfer B, Volpi E, Wolfe RR.Whole body and skeletal muscle glutamine metabolism in healthy subjects.Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Feb;280(2):E323-33.
17. Arsham AM, Neufeld TP.Thinking globally and acting locally with TOR.Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2006 Dec;18(6):589-97.
18. Jacinto E, Lorberg A.TOR regulation of AGC kinases in yeast and mammals.Biochem J. 2008 Feb 15;410(1):19-37.
19. Gong R, Li L, Liu Y, Wang P, Yang H, Wang L, Cheng J, Guan KL, Xu Y.Crystal structure of the Gtr1p-Gtr2p complex reveals new insights into the amino acid-induced TORC1 activation.Genes Dev. 2011 Aug 15;25(16):1668-73.
