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Just a little something that I wrote for the Iowa FitHawks
By Thom | December 16, 2009
POST WORKOUT RECOVERY
Maybe you have just spent the last hour working on those arms for the “gun show” in the Loft or running intervals on your favorite treadmill at Fitness East.
You’re tired, you’re sweaty, and all of the muscles that you wore out are screaming for nutrients to rebuild themselves. So what’s the best way to repair them?
Wrong type of shake…
I’ve seen a lot of people reach for plain water, a sport drink, or nothing at all – they just take a shower and wait for dinner a couple of hours later. All of these options are inadequate; they do not provide what the body is looking for. What the muscles need in a post workout recovery meal is a good number of simple
carbohydrates and fast-digesting proteins. You also want something that is tasty, portable and relatively inexpensive.
Most research suggests having a 3 to 1 ratio of high-glycemic carbohydrates to protein and a total amount of carbohydrates of about 50 grams. These high-glycemic carbohydrates help to spike your body’s insulin levels and shuttle in the protein and nutrients that your muscles need. Also, you have a “nutrient window,” or a time in which your body is primed for intense muscle repair. This window is only about 45 minutes long, and occurs right after you set that last weight down or hit the stop button on the treadmill. In other words, you’ve got less than 45 minutes to feed those muscles.
I recommend to my clients either two cups of fat-free chocolate milk or a generous serving of fat-free sweetened yogurt. Both of these have fast-digesting carbohydrates and are a good protein source. For those of you who would rather use a supplement, a product that contains at least 15 gram of whey protein mixed with roughly 50 grams of carbohydrates will work perfectly.
Remember: Tomorrow’s training session
is only as good as today’s recovery.
This article is based off of my previous post about making your own delicious post work out shake – you can find it right here.
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Topics: Nutrition | No Comments »