Eating to Recover: How and What to Eat Post Workout

Brad Sly

Contributor - Nutrition

 

 For years the most important meal of the day has been said to be breakfast, but I believe that to be wrong. I suspect most of the readers here could agree that with all the effort you put into your training that your post-workout nutrition just may be more important to you than breakfast. In fact, I believe your post-workout meal is one of the most important meals you can have all day.

 

 The reason I believe this is because in a hard workout, you can use up all your stored glycogen, easily sweat over two liters of water, and break down both muscle and red blood cells. This is why what you as an athlete consume in the minutes and hours after your training or competition is so crucial to both performance and recovery. This week I will look at nutrition recovery and explain it's importance and the best ways to use it to maximize your results.

 

 The Goals and Timeframe of Post Exercise Nutrition

“Recovery” covers a range of processes that include:

• Replenishing the muscle and liver glycogen stores
• Consuming protein to assist with muscle repair
• Restoring fluid and electrolytes lost in sweat
• Supporting the immune system to handle the damage

It has been determined that the body's cells are most receptive to replenishment, particularly glycogen stores, within the first thirty minutes after intense training. Essentially the clock starts ticking for an athlete as soon as they enter their cool down. This is just one part of the equation as recovery nutrition can be broken into two stages - stage one occurs within thirty minutes of the workout and stage two occurs one to two hours after exercise.

For the full article, go to: 
http://breakingmuscle.com/mobility-recovery/eating-to-recover-how-and-what-to-eat-post-workout

Myth #1: Crunches and other abdominal muscles workouts will get you a flat stomach

Let's see what fitness myths can be debunked and how they related to your personal experiences and thoughts. 

Crunches, sit-ups, abdominal rollers and the like are great for toning your stomach, right? Yes and no. Your abdominal muscles are covered with body fat, and the only way to get the six pack you want is to get rid of the fat first. Since you can't target areas on your body for fat removal, replacing abdominal workouts with cardio exercises and weight lifting training will help you burn fat, not only in your stomach, but other areas of the body as well. Cardio by itself will burn belly fat, but at a much slower rate than combining it with weight training.

--As stated on Yahoo! Health--


Hmm....I can agree with this. I've just started adding lots more cardio to my training regimen. At first, I wasn't doing enough, by comparison to other ways I trained, and having a round belly, with all the crunches and ab wheel reps I was doing, it turned into a rock. Now, with the more cardio I log, the more I'm beginning to cut into this stone to chisel out those abs......yeah buddy. And I've added calisthenics to the mix.....I like to keep it as a constant, since I don't get to the gym as much; in school and gotsta keep a focus on that. I like to alternate the sequence and it seems to help me get better with cardio. I do long distance one day...as a matter of fact, going in a few to get in about 2hours, and then tomorrow will be short, about 30 to 40 minutes. This is working for me right now. Plus, I had to start eating better, thus, the Dolce Diet experiment.

What do you think, or what has your experience been?

Myth #2 coming tomorrow.

A New Way to Start the Day

So, I've started reading "The Dolce Diet" by Mike Dolce, nutrition expert in the UFC. I want to put it to the test personally. Here goes everything, HAHAHA. Starting my day with oatmeal, a glass of water, and.....well, I haven't decided on a protein yet......maybe some egg white. Feeling good already.

Feel free to post ANY fitness and nutrition news, info, events, or accomplishments on this site.

Back atcha later.