What are you doing to ensure your post-workout recovery? If you’re training hard in the gym to
improve your body composition or optimize your sports performance, that is an important question
which you should be able to answer pretty easily. If you have a feeling of lethargy or fogginess after
a hard workout, you’re probably experiencing a combination of EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise
Oxygen Consumption) and depleted glycogen stores.
EPOC, also known as afterburn, is when your body increases the amount of oxygen that is taken in
after hard bouts of training in order to bring the body back to a normal resting state. The intense
training volume is what causes the body to reach exhaustion. So, whether the goal is to gain or lose
weight, our ability to build lean muscle tissue depends on how we manage our protein intake each
day, especially after intense exercise.
An important piece of the nutrition puzzle is understanding the importance of nutrient timing,
especially if you are training regularly. Our bodies are in a constant battle of either building lean
muscle tissue (anabolic) or burning off lean muscle tissue for fuel (catabolic). When we are
exercising we are actually breaking down muscle tissue and establishing a catabolic state. In other
words, the body is looking for fuel to recover and repair damaged muscle tissue immediately after
training.
The building blocks of muscle tissue are amino acids which are the byproduct of digested protein.
So, consuming a quick-digesting protein (20-30g) along with a simple carbohydrate to trigger the
insulin response needed to carry the newly digested amino acids to the damaged tissue is key!
Here are a few good sources to consume within 30-minutes of finishing your workout:
Chocolate Milk (1.5 – 2 cups)
Vanilla Kefir (1.5 – 2 cups)
Greek Yogurt & Fruit (1-cup)
Cottage Cheese & Fruit (1-cup)
Protein Powder & Coconut Water or Glycogen Powder (2-cups fluid & 1-scoop 25g powder)
Banana or Apple & Peanut Butter (1 piece of fruit & 2-tbs of PB)
Give a couple of these a try following a few workouts and pay attention to how you feel within 1-2
hours following your post-workout recovery snack and a good meal. You should notice your resting
energy level return to normal within that window.