You’ve heard of the saying results are 80% what you eat and 20% how you train, but good nutrition goes beyond what you are fuelling your body with.
When you eat, is just as important to get the most out of your nutrition and training, in particular what and when you eat post-workout.
Caroline Bakker
Proper nutrition post workout will help you reach optimal recovery, ensuring your body is refuelled, rehydrated and can rebuild.
Nutrition unfortunately isn’t a one size fits all process but rather finding the right balance of carbohydrates, proteins and other nutrients depends on your fitness level, training duration and intensity, body weight, age and gender.
The three R’s of recovery nutrition are the best place to start.
The three R’s are Refuel, Rehydrate and Rebuild – No matter the type of activity, workout or sport you are undertaking, these three R’s are essential requirements for successful recovery.
Refuel Your Body To Maximise Your Workouts
After a workout, it is essential to refuel your body and replenish the energy stores you have just depleted. Our body’s store carbohydrates as glycogen to be used during exercise and need to be restocked after a workout.
Consuming High Glycaemic Index carbohydrates within 2 hours of training is the best way to restore your glycogen levels.
Beyond this, your total daily carbohydrate intake is important. Maintaining a balanced diet of protein and carbohydrates is the best way to make sure your body has the energy to train and recover.
Depleting your body’s glycogen stores can lead to fatigue, negatively impact your fitness goals and results.
Rebuild Your Muscles Post Workout
Rebuilding begins with protein. Eating a healthy source of protein after a workout significantly aids the synthesis of protein, a key process for building muscle. Whether in the form of whole foods or a protein powder, a small amount of protein within 90 minutes is vital for optimal recovery. However, it is important to remember more protein does not equal more muscle.
Consuming a post workout snack which includes protein and carbohydrates will maximise your body’s recovery and training results. Post workout protein can also be a valuable source of BCAAs for your body, which significantly impacts muscle soreness, muscle synthesis and energy levels.
BCAAs are 3 branched amino acids (leucine, isoleucine and valine), which our body can’t naturally produce and must be obtained from your diet. Whether through protein sources such as meat, fish, whey protein powder or a BCAA supplement, consuming BCAAs and protein post workout is key to maximising your results during recovery.
Rehydrate Your System To Maximise Recovery
Hydration plays a major role in recovery and mustn’t be overlooked as part of your post workout nutrition. As a base level, it is crucial that you are hydrated and meeting your everyday fluid needs. Starting a workout dehydrated can significantly lower your overall performance, leaving you feeling fatigued. Beyond this, it is essential to restore the fluids and electrolytes lost during a workout through sweating. Water should always be your first choice to rehydrate.
During a workout, you should be consuming approximately 150ml every 15 minutes to stay hydrated and continue to sip water afterwards. As well as restoring the fluids lost, it is important to restore electrolytes as well, this is usually attainable through post workout meals which contain small amounts of sodium and potassium (foods such as potatoes and bananas). However, after a particularly high intensity or long workout, replenishing your electrolytes may require more than your standard post workout meal. In these cases, a small amount of sports drink or electrolyte fluid can help replenish your body to help aid recovery.
Proper post workout nutrition not only helps maximise results but also maximise recovery, allowing you to train harder. By ensuring your body has the right building blocks to refuel, rebuild and rehydrate has numerous positive benefits including better recovery, less muscle soreness, increased muscle synthesis, and long term better performance. Finding the balance of carbohydrates, protein and other nutrients that works for you will amplify the results from your efforts in the gym.
The Bottom Line
Incorporating the right quantity of high quality sleep as part of your post workout recovery can not only have positive long-term effects on your overall wellbeing but also contribute to faster muscle growth.
You can train as hard as you like, take the right supplements, have your nutrition sorted, lift weights, and still not be getting the best from your workouts.
Sleep plays a crucial role as part of a holistic approach for optimal health, especially for gym goers and bodybuilders. Continue reading ‘The importance of sleep for muscle recovery’.
I’d love to hear what your favourite tips are for optimal recovery. Stay in touch!
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