All About Post-Workout Nutrition
Egger29
Posts: 14,741 Member
Every day I see a new post from people asking about protein shakes, workout recovery, what to eat after a workout and such, with numerous responses that range from "Down 100 grams of protein, to "You don't need anything at all".
With this in mind, I thought I would share the following article to assist those with questions and curiousities of what you could be doing after your workouts to gain maximum benefit from your training.
Cheers!! :-)
"All About Post-Workout Nutrition" by Ryan Andrews (Published January 11th, 2010)
What is post-workout nutrition? Post-workout nutrition is an intriguing topic and rightfully so.
The basic idea is threefold:
- The body deals with nutrients differently at different times, depending on activity.
- What you consume before, during, and especially after your workout is important.
- By consuming particular nutrients after your workouts (aka post-workout nutrition), you improve your body composition, performance, and overall recovery.
Numerous studies have examined everything from the composition of the carbohydrate in post-workout drinks to exact amino acid combinations. Studies continue to reveal effective post-workout nutrition strategies for athletes and recreational exercisers of all types.
Generally, post-workout nutrition has three specific purposes:
- Replenish glycogen
- Decrease protein breakdown
- Increase protein synthesis
In other words, athletes/exercisers want to:
- Replenish their energy stores
- Increase muscle size and/or muscle quality
- Repair any damage caused by the workout
In doing so, they want to increase performance, improve their appearance, and enable their bodies to remain injury-free.
Proposed benefits of good post-workout nutrition include:
- Improved recovery
- Less muscle soreness
- Increased ability to build muscle
- Improved immune function
- Improved bone mass
- Improved ability to utilize body fat
These benefits seem to work for everyone, regardless of gender or age.
Why are workout and post-workout nutrition so important?
When we work out intensely, we damage tissues at the microlevel, and we use fuel. This is what ultimately makes us stronger, leaner, fitter, and more muscular, but in the short term it requires repair.
Repair and rebuilding occurs through the breakdown of old, damaged proteins (aka protein breakdown) and the construction of new ones (aka protein synthesis) — a process known collectively as protein turnover. Muscle protein synthesis is increased slightly (or unchanged) after resistance workouts, while protein breakdown increases dramatically. We’re doing a lot more breaking-down than building-up. The relationship between these two parameters (rate of muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown) represents the metabolic basis for muscle growth.
Muscle hypertrophy occurs when a positive protein balance can be established during recovery — in other words, when we make sure we have enough raw materials available for protein synthesis to occur, so that it doesn’t lag behind protein breakdown. This is especially difficult with endurance athletes as protein synthesis drops and protein breakdown goes up.
Studies show that this trend can be reversed – specifically, protein synthesis is stimulated and protein breakdown is suppressed when you consume the right type of nutrients after exercise.
Protein is not the only concern, however. During exercise sessions, stored carbohydrates can be substantially depleted. Thus, during the postworkout period, we require protein and carbohydrates. The raw materials we give our body through the consumption of food/supplements in the workout and post-workout periods are critical to creating the metabolic environment we desire.
What you should know about workout nutrition:
1) Availability - Availability strongly influences the amino acid/glucose delivery and transport. In other words, in order for our bodies to use raw materials to rebuild and recover, those raw materials have to be available. And if they’re available, then our body is more likely to use them. Simply having the materials around can signal to our body that it’s time to rebuild.
We improve availability in two ways:
- Increased blood flow to skeletal muscle during and after exercise means that more nutrients are floating around more quickly.
- Providing an amino acid and glucose dense blood supply during and after exercise means that the rate of protein synthesis goes up.
Thus, we improve availability by having more blood circulating more rapidly, and by having more nutrients in that blood.
2) The “window of opportunity” - Some refer to this workout and post-workout phenomenon as “the window of opportunity”. During this window, your muscles are primed to accept nutrients that can stimulate muscle repair, muscle growth, and muscle strength. This window opens immediately after your workout and starts to close pretty quickly. Research suggests that while protein synthesis persists for at least 48 hours after exercise, it’s most important to get postworkout nutrition immediately, and within 2 hours afterwards.
If you feed your body properly while this window is open, you’ll get the benefits. If you don’t provide adequate post exercise nutrition fast enough — even if you delay by only a couple of hours — you decrease muscle glycogen storage and protein synthesis. As soon as you drop that last dumbbell, you should be consuming some postworkout nutrition.
3) What to eat- As we’ve mentioned, post-workout nutrition requires two things:
- Protein to aid in protein synthesis
- Carbohydrates to help replace muscle glycogen (and to enhance the role of insulin in transporting nutrients into cells)
You could certainly eat a whole food meal that meets these requirements after exercise. However:
- Whole food meals aren’t always practical
- Some people aren’t hungry immediately after exercise.
- Whole food digests slowly, and we want nutrients to be available quickly.
- A whole food meal that requires refrigeration might be less practical.
On the other hand, consuming a liquid form of nutrition that contains rapidly digesting carbohydrates (e.g., maltodextrin, dextrose, glucose, etc) and proteins (e.g., protein hydrolysates or isolates:
- Can accelerate recovery by utilizing insulin for nutrient transport into cells
- Can result in rapid digestion and absorption
- Is often better tolerated during and after workouts.
Data indicates that it may only take about 20 grams of protein after a workout to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
4) Which workouts qualify? - Save your workout drink for weight training, interval, and endurance training lasting 45 minutes or longer. Casual exercise like walking the dog, moving cobblestones for grandpa, or riding your bike to the arcade doesn’t require a recovery drink.
When performing energy expenditure work to burn energy or lose fat, a recovery drink is not necessary. If you’re prioritizing fat loss, performance and recovery from these sessions are not as important as creating an energy deficit. Still, if overall energy intake is low from food intake, and lots of time is being spent performing energy expenditure work, consuming a branched chain amino acid (BCAA) supplement may be helpful.
Summary and recommendations
With intense workouts/training, start by ingesting 30 grams of carbohydrate and 15 grams of protein (in 500 ml water) per hour of workout time.
You can sip this during the workout or consume it immediately after.
You can either make your own post-workout drink or find a pre-formulated drink that contains rapidly digesting carbohydrates (e.g., maltodextrin, dextrose, glucose, etc) and proteins (e.g., protein hydrolysates or isolates).
Once your workout is complete, have a whole food meal within an hour or two.
If priority #1 is to lose body fat, use only BCAAs as a workout drink. About 5 to 15 grams per hour of training (200 pounds or more = closer to 15 grams, 200 pounds or less = closer to 5 grams).
If you’re leaner but still want to lose fat, choose a smaller dose (like 1/2 dose) of the protein + carb combination, or opt for BCAAs.
For extra credi: The combination of carbohydrate and amino acids during/after exercise creates a stimulatory effect of growth hormone and testosterone that doesn’t happen during the rest of the day. In other words, if you just drink a carb + protein drink while sitting on the couch, it won’t have the same effect.
When choosing carbohydrates, keep in mind that glucose is absorbed faster than fructose, and solutions high in fructose have been linked to gastrointestinal distress, greater fatigue, and higher cortisol levels.
It may be helpful to add creatine to your workout nutrition.
Essential amino acids may be more important than nonessential for promoting positive nitrogen balance after workouts.
Further resources:
- Importance of post-workout nutrition - (http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/importance.htm)
- Advanced workout nutrition - (http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/advanced_workout_nutrition.htm)
References
Volek JS & Rawson ES. Scientific basis and practical aspects of creatine supplementation for atheletes. Nutrition 2004;20:609-614.
Pitkanen H, et al. Free Amino Acid pool and Muscle Protein Balance after Resistance Exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2003;35:784.
Chandler RM, et al. Dietary supplements affect the anabolic hormones after weight-training exercise. J Appl Physiol 1994;76:839.
Jentjens R & Jeukendrup A. Determinants of Post-Exercise Glycogen Synthesis during short term recovery. Sports Med 2003;33:117.
Levenhagen, et al. Postexercise nutrient intake timing in humans is critical to recovery of leg glucose and protein homeostasis. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2001;280:E982.
Tipton, et al. Timing of amino acid-carbohydrate ingestion alters anabolic response of muscle to resistance exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2001;281:E197.
Van Loon, et al. Maximizing postexercise muscle glycogen synthesis: carbohydrate supplementation and the application of amino acid or protein hydrolysate mixtures. Am J Clin Nutr 2000;72:106.
Van Loon, et al. Ingestion of protein hydrolysate and amino acid-carbohydrate mixtures increases postexercise plasma insulin responses in men. J Nutr 2000;130:2508.
Borsheim E, et al. Essential amino acids and muscle protein recovery from resistance exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2002;283:E648.
Bemben MG & Lamont HS. Creatine supplementation and exercise performance: recent findings. Sports Med 2005;35:107.
Moore DR, et al. Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. Am J Clin Nutr 2009;89:161-168.
Symons TB, et al. A moderate serving of high-quality protein maximally stimulates skeletal muscle protein synthesis in young and elderly subjects. J Am Diet Assoc 2009;109:1582-1586.
Campos GE, et al. Muscular adaptations in response to three different resistance-training regimens: specificity of repetition maximum training zones. Eur J Appl Physiol 2002;88:50-60.
ADA, Dietitians of Canada, ACSM, et al. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Nutritions and athletic performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2009;41:709-731.
Haub MD, et al. Effect of protein source on resistive-training-induced changes in body composition and muscle size in older men. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;76:511-517.
Tipton KD, et al. Stimulation of net muscle protein synthesis by whey protein ingestion before and after exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2007;292:E71-E76.
With this in mind, I thought I would share the following article to assist those with questions and curiousities of what you could be doing after your workouts to gain maximum benefit from your training.
Cheers!! :-)
"All About Post-Workout Nutrition" by Ryan Andrews (Published January 11th, 2010)
What is post-workout nutrition? Post-workout nutrition is an intriguing topic and rightfully so.
The basic idea is threefold:
- The body deals with nutrients differently at different times, depending on activity.
- What you consume before, during, and especially after your workout is important.
- By consuming particular nutrients after your workouts (aka post-workout nutrition), you improve your body composition, performance, and overall recovery.
Numerous studies have examined everything from the composition of the carbohydrate in post-workout drinks to exact amino acid combinations. Studies continue to reveal effective post-workout nutrition strategies for athletes and recreational exercisers of all types.
Generally, post-workout nutrition has three specific purposes:
- Replenish glycogen
- Decrease protein breakdown
- Increase protein synthesis
In other words, athletes/exercisers want to:
- Replenish their energy stores
- Increase muscle size and/or muscle quality
- Repair any damage caused by the workout
In doing so, they want to increase performance, improve their appearance, and enable their bodies to remain injury-free.
Proposed benefits of good post-workout nutrition include:
- Improved recovery
- Less muscle soreness
- Increased ability to build muscle
- Improved immune function
- Improved bone mass
- Improved ability to utilize body fat
These benefits seem to work for everyone, regardless of gender or age.
Why are workout and post-workout nutrition so important?
When we work out intensely, we damage tissues at the microlevel, and we use fuel. This is what ultimately makes us stronger, leaner, fitter, and more muscular, but in the short term it requires repair.
Repair and rebuilding occurs through the breakdown of old, damaged proteins (aka protein breakdown) and the construction of new ones (aka protein synthesis) — a process known collectively as protein turnover. Muscle protein synthesis is increased slightly (or unchanged) after resistance workouts, while protein breakdown increases dramatically. We’re doing a lot more breaking-down than building-up. The relationship between these two parameters (rate of muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown) represents the metabolic basis for muscle growth.
Muscle hypertrophy occurs when a positive protein balance can be established during recovery — in other words, when we make sure we have enough raw materials available for protein synthesis to occur, so that it doesn’t lag behind protein breakdown. This is especially difficult with endurance athletes as protein synthesis drops and protein breakdown goes up.
Studies show that this trend can be reversed – specifically, protein synthesis is stimulated and protein breakdown is suppressed when you consume the right type of nutrients after exercise.
Protein is not the only concern, however. During exercise sessions, stored carbohydrates can be substantially depleted. Thus, during the postworkout period, we require protein and carbohydrates. The raw materials we give our body through the consumption of food/supplements in the workout and post-workout periods are critical to creating the metabolic environment we desire.
What you should know about workout nutrition:
1) Availability - Availability strongly influences the amino acid/glucose delivery and transport. In other words, in order for our bodies to use raw materials to rebuild and recover, those raw materials have to be available. And if they’re available, then our body is more likely to use them. Simply having the materials around can signal to our body that it’s time to rebuild.
We improve availability in two ways:
- Increased blood flow to skeletal muscle during and after exercise means that more nutrients are floating around more quickly.
- Providing an amino acid and glucose dense blood supply during and after exercise means that the rate of protein synthesis goes up.
Thus, we improve availability by having more blood circulating more rapidly, and by having more nutrients in that blood.
2) The “window of opportunity” - Some refer to this workout and post-workout phenomenon as “the window of opportunity”. During this window, your muscles are primed to accept nutrients that can stimulate muscle repair, muscle growth, and muscle strength. This window opens immediately after your workout and starts to close pretty quickly. Research suggests that while protein synthesis persists for at least 48 hours after exercise, it’s most important to get postworkout nutrition immediately, and within 2 hours afterwards.
If you feed your body properly while this window is open, you’ll get the benefits. If you don’t provide adequate post exercise nutrition fast enough — even if you delay by only a couple of hours — you decrease muscle glycogen storage and protein synthesis. As soon as you drop that last dumbbell, you should be consuming some postworkout nutrition.
3) What to eat- As we’ve mentioned, post-workout nutrition requires two things:
- Protein to aid in protein synthesis
- Carbohydrates to help replace muscle glycogen (and to enhance the role of insulin in transporting nutrients into cells)
You could certainly eat a whole food meal that meets these requirements after exercise. However:
- Whole food meals aren’t always practical
- Some people aren’t hungry immediately after exercise.
- Whole food digests slowly, and we want nutrients to be available quickly.
- A whole food meal that requires refrigeration might be less practical.
On the other hand, consuming a liquid form of nutrition that contains rapidly digesting carbohydrates (e.g., maltodextrin, dextrose, glucose, etc) and proteins (e.g., protein hydrolysates or isolates:
- Can accelerate recovery by utilizing insulin for nutrient transport into cells
- Can result in rapid digestion and absorption
- Is often better tolerated during and after workouts.
Data indicates that it may only take about 20 grams of protein after a workout to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis.
4) Which workouts qualify? - Save your workout drink for weight training, interval, and endurance training lasting 45 minutes or longer. Casual exercise like walking the dog, moving cobblestones for grandpa, or riding your bike to the arcade doesn’t require a recovery drink.
When performing energy expenditure work to burn energy or lose fat, a recovery drink is not necessary. If you’re prioritizing fat loss, performance and recovery from these sessions are not as important as creating an energy deficit. Still, if overall energy intake is low from food intake, and lots of time is being spent performing energy expenditure work, consuming a branched chain amino acid (BCAA) supplement may be helpful.
Summary and recommendations
With intense workouts/training, start by ingesting 30 grams of carbohydrate and 15 grams of protein (in 500 ml water) per hour of workout time.
You can sip this during the workout or consume it immediately after.
You can either make your own post-workout drink or find a pre-formulated drink that contains rapidly digesting carbohydrates (e.g., maltodextrin, dextrose, glucose, etc) and proteins (e.g., protein hydrolysates or isolates).
Once your workout is complete, have a whole food meal within an hour or two.
If priority #1 is to lose body fat, use only BCAAs as a workout drink. About 5 to 15 grams per hour of training (200 pounds or more = closer to 15 grams, 200 pounds or less = closer to 5 grams).
If you’re leaner but still want to lose fat, choose a smaller dose (like 1/2 dose) of the protein + carb combination, or opt for BCAAs.
For extra credi: The combination of carbohydrate and amino acids during/after exercise creates a stimulatory effect of growth hormone and testosterone that doesn’t happen during the rest of the day. In other words, if you just drink a carb + protein drink while sitting on the couch, it won’t have the same effect.
When choosing carbohydrates, keep in mind that glucose is absorbed faster than fructose, and solutions high in fructose have been linked to gastrointestinal distress, greater fatigue, and higher cortisol levels.
It may be helpful to add creatine to your workout nutrition.
Essential amino acids may be more important than nonessential for promoting positive nitrogen balance after workouts.
Further resources:
- Importance of post-workout nutrition - (http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/importance.htm)
- Advanced workout nutrition - (http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/advanced_workout_nutrition.htm)
References
Volek JS & Rawson ES. Scientific basis and practical aspects of creatine supplementation for atheletes. Nutrition 2004;20:609-614.
Pitkanen H, et al. Free Amino Acid pool and Muscle Protein Balance after Resistance Exercise. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2003;35:784.
Chandler RM, et al. Dietary supplements affect the anabolic hormones after weight-training exercise. J Appl Physiol 1994;76:839.
Jentjens R & Jeukendrup A. Determinants of Post-Exercise Glycogen Synthesis during short term recovery. Sports Med 2003;33:117.
Levenhagen, et al. Postexercise nutrient intake timing in humans is critical to recovery of leg glucose and protein homeostasis. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2001;280:E982.
Tipton, et al. Timing of amino acid-carbohydrate ingestion alters anabolic response of muscle to resistance exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2001;281:E197.
Van Loon, et al. Maximizing postexercise muscle glycogen synthesis: carbohydrate supplementation and the application of amino acid or protein hydrolysate mixtures. Am J Clin Nutr 2000;72:106.
Van Loon, et al. Ingestion of protein hydrolysate and amino acid-carbohydrate mixtures increases postexercise plasma insulin responses in men. J Nutr 2000;130:2508.
Borsheim E, et al. Essential amino acids and muscle protein recovery from resistance exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2002;283:E648.
Bemben MG & Lamont HS. Creatine supplementation and exercise performance: recent findings. Sports Med 2005;35:107.
Moore DR, et al. Ingested protein dose response of muscle and albumin protein synthesis after resistance exercise in young men. Am J Clin Nutr 2009;89:161-168.
Symons TB, et al. A moderate serving of high-quality protein maximally stimulates skeletal muscle protein synthesis in young and elderly subjects. J Am Diet Assoc 2009;109:1582-1586.
Campos GE, et al. Muscular adaptations in response to three different resistance-training regimens: specificity of repetition maximum training zones. Eur J Appl Physiol 2002;88:50-60.
ADA, Dietitians of Canada, ACSM, et al. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Nutritions and athletic performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2009;41:709-731.
Haub MD, et al. Effect of protein source on resistive-training-induced changes in body composition and muscle size in older men. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;76:511-517.
Tipton KD, et al. Stimulation of net muscle protein synthesis by whey protein ingestion before and after exercise. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2007;292:E71-E76.
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Replies
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Finally! Thanks for sharing a great, scientific article that explains EXACTLY what people should be doing.0
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bump0
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This is very helpful. Thank you.0
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Great post, really nicely written.0
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bump0
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Now if someone will just write down for me what to eat...0
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Thanks for this!
I have a question about BCAA's - what are they? where do you get them and what do they do? :-) I have heard the term before but am not familiar with them.0 -
bump0
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branched-chain amino acid (BCAA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branched-chain_amino_acid,
http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1005-BRANCHED-CHAIN AMINO ACIDS.aspx?activeIngredientId=1005&activeIngredientName=BRANCHED-CHAIN AMINO ACIDS
You can get them at most of the health food stores like GNC or Popeye's and are usually part of "post-workout" drinks or powders.
P.S. Another Excellent Post Egger!0 -
Eh.
First off, glycogen replenishment is only needed when glycogen is being depleted. If you're working out intensely then glucose (coming from free glucose in your blood or stored muscle glycogen) will be used to fuel your exercise. If you're not working out intensely then you're not really burning through your glucose stores.
That being said, you don't need the post workout nutrition in order to replenish glycogen if you're not really using it. You also don't need the post workout nutrition in order to replenish glycogen if your next workout is ~24 hours away. By that time, even if you skipped eating post workout and just had your normal/healthy balanced diet, you will replenish your glycogen before your next bout of exercise.
Glycogen replenishment is important for certain types of people who exercise in certain ways:
a) those who exercise 2+ times a day
b) those who exercise very very intensely
c) those who exercise for hours at a time
For everyone else, the glycogen replenishment isn't as necessary as you think and a lot of the talk about it comes from companies pushing products (BCAA's, carb replenishment, protein companies, etc)0 -
Will have to agree with Ranger here. Most people don't really train that intensely at the gym and really don't need a post recovery shake.0
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Nice post Egger..Doing P90X..the post recovery protein drink has definitely helped and alleviated soreness.0
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Eh.
First off, glycogen replenishment is only needed when glycogen is being depleted. If you're working out intensely then glucose (coming from free glucose in your blood or stored muscle glycogen) will be used to fuel your exercise. If you're not working out intensely then you're not really burning through your glucose stores.
That being said, you don't need the post workout nutrition in order to replenish glycogen if you're not really using it. You also don't need the post workout nutrition in order to replenish glycogen if your next workout is ~24 hours away. By that time, even if you skipped eating post workout and just had your normal/healthy balanced diet, you will replenish your glycogen before your next bout of exercise.
Glycogen replenishment is important for certain types of people who exercise in certain ways:
a) those who exercise 2+ times a day
b) those who exercise very very intensely
c) those who exercise for hours at a time
For everyone else, the glycogen replenishment isn't as necessary as you think and a lot of the talk about it comes from companies pushing products (BCAA's, carb replenishment, protein companies, etc)
haha disagree0 -
bump0
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Eh.
First off, glycogen replenishment is only needed when glycogen is being depleted. If you're working out intensely then glucose (coming from free glucose in your blood or stored muscle glycogen) will be used to fuel your exercise. If you're not working out intensely then you're not really burning through your glucose stores.
That being said, you don't need the post workout nutrition in order to replenish glycogen if you're not really using it. You also don't need the post workout nutrition in order to replenish glycogen if your next workout is ~24 hours away. By that time, even if you skipped eating post workout and just had your normal/healthy balanced diet, you will replenish your glycogen before your next bout of exercise.
Glycogen replenishment is important for certain types of people who exercise in certain ways:
a) those who exercise 2+ times a day
b) those who exercise very very intensely
c) those who exercise for hours at a time
For everyone else, the glycogen replenishment isn't as necessary as you think and a lot of the talk about it comes from companies pushing products (BCAA's, carb replenishment, protein companies, etc)
haha disagree
Great rebuttal, thanks for the insight!0 -
I started drinking chocolate milk as a post workout snack and find the sugar rush pleasant. I figure the milk at least is good for me, and it is a mix of protein and carbs. 0
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so my question is what is considered intense workouts? I do zumba for an hour and burn anywhere from 500 to 600 plus calories according to my heart rate monitor. So do I need a shake or something afterward? This is so confusing!0
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Bump!0
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so my question is what is considered intense workouts? I do zumba for an hour and burn anywhere from 500 to 600 plus calories according to my heart rate monitor. So do I need a shake or something afterward? This is so confusing!
Here is a little wiki article about "hitting the wall" so to speak:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitting_the_wallHow much energy comes from either source depends on the intensity of the exercise. During intense exercise that approaches one's VO2 max, most of the energy comes from glycogen.
A typical untrained individual on an average diet is able to store about 380 grams of glycogen, or 1500 kcal, in the body, though much of that amount is spread throughout the muscular system and may not be available for any specific type of exercise.[2] Intense cycling or running can easily consume 600-800 or more kcal per hour. Unless glycogen stores are replenished during exercise, glycogen stores in such an individual will be depleted after less than 2 hours of continuous cycling or 15 miles (24 km) of running. Training and carbohydrate loading can raise these reserves as high as 880 g (3600 kcal), correspondingly raising the potential for uninterrupted exercise.
Effects
Such fatigue can become seriously debilitating; in cycling, exhaustion can reach the point where the cyclist is unable to stand without the support provided by the bicycle. Symptoms of depletion include general weakness, fatigue, and manifestations of hypoglycemia, such as dizziness and even hallucinations. This dangerous condition will not be relieved by brief periods of rest.
^^^^^
So, if you're suffering from any symptoms of glycogen depletion, it's probably best that you get a post workout shake in for plenty of reasons. If this doesn't describe you and you feel fine after your zumba or other exercise then there is no rush to hurry and intake any post workout shake. As long as you meet your protein requirements for the day and get enough nutrients (vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids) you'll be fine and you'll be recovered enough for your next session assuming it's not in the same day.0 -
Post-Workout Nutrition isn't simply about glycogen depletion or hitting the wall.
Following exercise, the body is in a Catabolic state. In other words, tissues are being broken down faster than they are being re-built. This catabolic state can last for up to 24 hours.
Injestion of a Carb/Protein within the "Window of Opportunity" after exercise, counteracts this effect and leads to quicker recovery, change from protein breakdown to protein synthesis, and restores muscle glycogen as needed while the body is hungry for it.
It's about maximum efficiency in your recovery so that you get the most out of your workouts.
For the record: There is alot of modern research that goes against conventional beliefs from a few years ago. The key to success is to always continue to look for the latest and most accurate information in a quest to continually education one-self as to what's what. The sources from the article above devote their entire lifes work towards exercise nutrition so I stand by their results and expertise.0 -
Injestion of a Carb/Protein within the "Window of Opportunity" after exercise, counteracts this effect and leads to quicker recovery, change from protein breakdown to protein synthesis, and restores muscle glycogen as needed while the body is hungry for it.
What's the "Window of Opportunity"? Sometimes I forget my drink and need to run to the store or something. At what point do I lose the benefits of it and I shouldn't even bother with it?0 -
Within 90 mins of the end of your workout. Anything later than that, there's no additional benefit. I have my post-workout drink ready in my locker and can slam back the 500mls in about 2 mins before hitting the shower or hot tub...hense, the convenience of something in liquid form.0
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Wonderful info !!0
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I started drinking chocolate milk as a post workout snack and find the sugar rush pleasant. I figure the milk at least is good for me, and it is a mix of protein and carbs.
Chocolate Milk is one of the easiest, readily available and quickest to inject sources of a post-workout drink. It's got about a 2:1 ratio of Carb:Protein and 500ml will give you close to 40g Carb with 20g Protein.
The only real reason why it's not widely recommended overall is simply due to the large population of people who either have milk protein allergies or are lactose intolerant. As a result, it's not a catch-all solution for the vast majority and cannot be endorsed as such.
Another thing to consider is that Fat in the stomach during digestion can inhibit the absorption of carbs and proteins so the ideal recovery drink is something that is fat free.
That being said "Ideal" is the key word....If chocolate milk is what's most convenient for you, you'll still get benefits regardless. :-)0 -
thanks everyone for the information. I think this proves the point that we need to do what works for us. I feel tired after a workout like zumba but don't think I need a protein shake. I do like the option of chocolate milk! This was my one craving when I was pregnant with my daughter.0
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thanks everyone for the information. I think this proves the point that we need to do what works for us. I feel tired after a workout like zumba but don't think I need a protein shake. I do like the option of chocolate milk! This was my one craving when I was pregnant with my daughter.
It is a great treat - although I sometimes cringe at the amount of calories. I have to drink 16 oz to get about 16g protein, which is about 350 cals. Someone on MFP suggested Kefir as well, which seems to be another reasonably easy to obtain and convenient option. It would have less calories probably. Although one can argue very easily that 350 calories for a post workout drink after you've just burned 350 calories or more is perfectly ok. 0 -
about the topic of bcaas, i currently ingest bcaas pre and post workout. i just put in 1 scoop in my water...when you say 5-15 grams of bcaa, do you mean the weight of the powder or the amount of amino acids? my bcaa is composed of 2 g l-leucine, 1 g l-isoleucine, and 1 g l-valine per scoop, but each scoop weights approx 6.5 g. is the 1 scoop insufficient seeing that the total g of amino acids per scoop is 4 g? thank you for your information!0
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5-15 Grams would refer to the amount of BCAA in the dose, not the scoops size since different formats would contain different amounts of BCAAs. So if your scoop gives you 4 g, you'd ideally go with 2 scoops.0
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thank you very much, your response is helpful.0
This discussion has been closed.
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