Post Workout – Important Recovery Time

Your body gets depleted with its natural stores of essential nutrients right after a strenuous workout. You may have filled up your body with some pre-workout supplements. In a post workout, however, your body needs as much as before.

There is need for a body fill up in your after-workout recovery. Your muscles have been torn under the stress and the intensity of the routine. Essential nutrients like glycogen and proteins are breaking down.

For body building buffs, a good set of pre-workout supplements is one necessity they cannot do without. However, not many of them are aware that after the workout, the body does need just as much as before. There is need for an after workout recovery supplement.

Muscle breakage

Right after your workout, you depleted your body of its natural stores of essential nutrients. Your muscles have been torn under the stress in your workout. Glycogen, the carbohydrates stored in your muscles and the proteins are breaking down.

Your pre-workout nutrients may have helped greatly, but the breakage of the muscles can be more than what you prepared for. The following are some good tips to keep you in check of your body, mind and fitness.

Rehydration

It might be tempting to go out to the coffee shop or the deli right after leaving the gym. The coffee might smell amazing but it’s not what your body needs at the moment.  The body needs rehydration, meaning gulping down good old water.

 

For some optimal recovery, 20 ounces is good. Get your water bottle, and drink all the water slowly after exercise, even if that is the only thing you do.

  

Rest and relaxation

Simply lie down on your back, palms turned upward with eyes closed, as yogis have it. Allow your body to recuperate and integrate itself back on its systems. The exercise is energizing but it is also tough and depleting.

After post workout, the muscles took the strain, it is important to honor how your body feels and not pushing through the next thing. The body recovers every chance it gets. A 15-minute break after the high-energy workout and sit or lie down completely relaxed will do your system good.

Bananas

Within 15 to 30 minutes, your body will need to replenish the nutrients you used up in the workout. Take some healthy whole-food snacks so you need not look for them tired and spent or maybe have to go home and blend some veggies to fill you up.

Bananas are one of the best foods for post-exercise restoration. Packed with potassium (the electrolytes help keep out cramps and muscle spasms) they are plain perfect to take. Some pumpkin seeds can bring in the manganese and phosphorous and some proteins.

Some don’ts

There are also a couple of “don’ts” which are all self-explanatory and obvious. Don’t eat the wrong snacks (unless it’s a nut bar full of proteins and vitamins and low on sugar).

Don’t refuel with empty carbs (pastries and such), don’t drink alcohol (it dehydrates) and don’t overload on your workout. You are already doing a post workout. Give yourself some rest and follow your regular schedule.

Pre-Workout Nutrition – Some Notes

Pre-workout nutrition has many contradictions, especially on the food intakes needed before workout routines are executed on the gym floor. At most, it deals with such subjects as proteins, carbohydrates, fats and other ingredients known to help the body during workouts.

There are also many questions regarding these ingredients. Should one eat protein, or carbohydrates or fats before training? What types and the amount of food are most ideal? Does eating before training beneficial or not?

Let us begin with pre-workout protein.

Pre-workout protein

The amount of protein eaten everyday affects the body’s ability to build muscles. Eating too little and it slows down the gains at the gym. There is evidence that pre-workout protein does enhance post-workout muscle growth.

As you probably know, how much protein you eat every day dramatically affects your body’s ability to build muscle. The question is when was the last time you had eaten.

There is evidence that the faster a protein is digested, plus the more leucine (one of the BCAA amino acids that stimulate protein synthesis) it has, the more short-term muscle growth it stimulates. This is usually from a fast-digesting food like whey, which is very high in leucine.

Pre-workout carbohydrates

Eating carbohydrates 15 to 30 minutes before exercise will provide your muscles with additional fuel for your workouts. However, it will not directly stimulate additional muscle growth. It can help you push more weight and reps in your workouts. (This builds muscles over time.)

Low-glycemic carbs are best for prolonged endurance workouts. High-glycemic carbs are best for shorter, more intense workouts. Get them from food sources like rice, dates, potatoes (white and sweet), and raisins.

25 to 30 grams of carbs half an hour before training is good.

Pre-workout fats

There might be theories that by increasing pre-workout fat intake can reduce carbohydrate utilization during exercise and thereby improve performance. One study showed that increased dietary fat intake actually reduced time-trial performance (cycling) compared to high carb intake.

A review conducted at Deakin University showed that fat intake reduced carbohydrate utilization; it does not have beneficial effects on the exercise performance.

Food absorption

After eating food, the body takes several hours to fully absorb the nutrients in the food. The larger the meal, the longer it does (around 2 to 6 hours).

If you have eaten a big amount of protein one hour or two before you do your workout, the amount of protein does not make much difference in helping build more muscle because the body is already in anabolic state.

Conversely, if it had been several hours since you eat protein, and the amount is small (less than 20 grams), the plasma amino acid levels is low during workout time. pre-workout nutrition helps in building more muscles due to the spiking of the plasma levels (protein synthesis) before training.

A sensible workout program and a flexible diet plan for your pre-workout nutrition needs can help you build muscle and get strong. You can also experience the type of energy rush and performance boost that goes with them.

BCAA Supplement – Health Benefits

Basically, BCAAs (branched chain amino acids) is composed of leucine, isoleucine and valine. These are essential amino acids not produced by the body and have to be sourced from outside. They have been in the market since 1996 for treating liver diseases like cirrhosis. Today, BCAA supplement is used by body builders for exercise purposes.

They are the largest collection of amino acids in the body, making up to 35% of the muscle protein.

Since used by body fitness aficionados and by athletes, there had been many other health benefits attributed to them.

Exercise performance

Today, exercise buffs know that exercise leads to amino acid usage. BCAAs are rapidly depleted during exercise which shows the beneficial effects of BCAAs. In a controlled trial on marathon runners, BCAA supplementation showed improved mental performance. Running times of slower athletes improved.

In another study, BCAA supplementation increased the muscle strength of the athletes compared to other supplements (whey protein and carbohydrate supplements). It also increased power output in another study, although decreased fatigue and exertion may be the cause of the power rise.

Fatigue reduction / endurance increase

In another study, marathoners with BCAA supplementation experienced fatigue reduction after a race and in another the fatigue decreased by an average of 17.2%.

In the same manner, BCAA supplementation can increase endurance. The runners given BCAA supplements ran better times for two consecutive days in a row in both 5,000 and 10,000 m races.

There is also an increase in lactate threshold in a study. Lactate threshold measures endurance capacity as any exercise below the threshold does not build up the muscles.

The study also showed that oxygen consumption increased by 13%.

Liver health

In another study, BCAA supplementation not only increase nutritional status but also improved sleep and decreased fatigue in liver cirrhosis patients. In another one, 20 chronic hepatitis patients and 100 cirrhosis patients had greatly increased albumin in their blood after BCAA supplementation after which both liver diseases had declined.

The liver survival rate without any detriment was around 63.6% with BCAA help.

Kidneys

BCAA supplementation had reduced the chances of kidney failure by up to 40%. It increases amino acids levels but not protein intake, which decreases kidney damage.

The supplements also improved appetite and nutrition in dialysis patients.

Energy increase

When there is a state of increased amino acid levels, the amino acids will compete with glucose to provide energy. It becomes as secondary source of energy. In one study, people with high levels of amino acids require 35% less glucose.

Isoleucine decreased glucose usage by 20% in the blood and 71% in the muscles. Both isoleucine and valine can also be converted into glucose.

Insulin resistance / sleep improvement

Insulin resistance increase blood sugar levels. Patients suffering from either insulin resistance or hepatitis C were provided with BCAA supplementation. The muscle insulin resistance improved in around half of the patients.

Some patients with kidney problems developed sleep disorders and reduced sleep quality and time. Taking BCAA supplement at night increased their REM (rapid eye movement) and decreased end-tidal CO2 levels which is important for dreaming.

Branched Chain Amino Acids – A Short Run-Through

Branched chain amino acids are called such because of their structures that include a ‘side chain’ of one carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms. They are composed of three amino acids --- leucine, isoleucine and valine. Leucine is the most heavily researched because it appears to offer most benefits.

These amino acids provide the basis for protein synthesis. It had been found that these acids comprise up to about one-third of muscle protein. On the strength of their presence and involvement in protein synthesis and the production of energy, they are important to many metabolic processes.

Intake

These acids need to be available to the body and we need to ingest them (at the right time) to enable the many metabolic processes of the body to function. For one, BCCAs are the only amino acids that are not degraded in the liver.

 All the others are regulated by the guts and the liver before being circulated in the body. BCCAs go directly into the bloodstream. During exercise, BCCAs are burned for energy (they are oxidized). When being consumed before the workout, they can increase the uptake of muscle tissue.

Benefits

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Used as a supplement, Branch Chain Amino Acid can lower lactate levels after resistance training and improves muscular oxidation. They also may increase the circulation of growth hormone (GH). This might be related to anabolic mechanism causing muscle growth.

The amino acids group may be able to decrease serum concentration of the intramuscular enzymes creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase after a prolonged exercise. This can decrease muscle damage and improve recovery.

Muscle concentration

In BCCA activity, muscle is an important site. In muscle tissue, there is an increased cell concentration and breakdown of BCCAs. They are continually release from the liver and other internal organs to skeletal muscle.

This is in order that the BCCA can help in maintaining blood sugar levels. The acids might be responsible for up to 40% of blood sugar production during workouts.

Getting enough

For body builders and fitness enthusiasts, it is important to get enough of the nutrients to support your workouts. The nutrients are so important o muscle tissue, and also it helps maintain blood sugar levels.

During the consumption of carbohydrates, protein and amino acids beverage during and after workouts can induce an insulin response. Availability of leucine is more important than insulin.

In short, protein synthesis (and the resulting muscle rebuilding) depends on how much leucine is available. It is right to supplement with them because BCAA levels decline with exercise. Consuming adequate BCCA (especially leucine) can enhance protein synthesis.

Roles

BCCAs play an important role in the synthesis of proteins, in general. It also helps in glucose homeostasis (keeping blood sugar levels constant). It also has a direct regulation of muscle protein synthesis.   

All these depend on the availability and dietary intake. The adequate consumption of BCCAs can help manage body fat, spare muscle mass and regulated glucose/insulin balance. You can add into your workout drink 5 g of the Branch Chain Amino Acid per hour of training.

Pre-Workout Supplements Online – Filling up your Fitness Goals

In this day and age, sourcing your pre-workout supplements online is one sensible way of maximizing your budget for your body’s food supplement needs. Aside from the convenience, getting to know these is much more extensive online than in live stores.

On another note, pre-work out supplements has now been widely accepted by those who are on strict fitness routines. It can look like a fad but the supplements offer many benefits and are popular among fitness people with a variety of specific fitness goals.

From the many online stores, you can have your choice of the many types of pre-workout supplements to pick out. An added benefit is that whatever is not available in one establishment, you can have in many others.

Benefits

Online has more types of pre=work out supplements available to choose from. The major difference comes in the primary ingredients used in them. The results might also have some variety having been obtained from each of the types of pre-work out supplements.

As had been proven by the fitness buffs, and backed by science, these supplements taken before regular workouts can provide the extra boost in energy to workout longer. Caffeine, found in most of the pre-work out supplements can help in enhancing the energy.

Metabolic regulation

The pre-workout supplements are also known to help regulate one’s metabolism. Those with slower metabolisms can benefit from these supplements that can help make the weight loss journey simpler. It helps curb the hunger pangs. One could not feel tired or hungry after a long session.

For rigorous training sessions, these supplements can be very useful. They can improve the effectiveness of the workouts and the user to perform better altogether.

Fitness goal

One way to get the best out of your pre-workout supplements is choosing the right ingredients. There are several forms that these supplements come in and they are available for various purposes. There are supplements in every category whether you want to improve your endurance or build your muscle mass.

Your choice of ingredients determines the exact results you can expect from the pre-workout supplements. To those looking to add strength, creatine-based pre-workout are very popular. They are known to deliver a marked improvement in your performance. (There are also creatine-free options available.)

Correct system

Whatever type of supplement you chose to consume, the right dosage and the right way would ensure the effectiveness of the product. This can also prevent any associated side effects. You have your right to choose in picking the supplements that are single ingredients, based on the more focused result. The multiple-ingredient supplements are for the overall improvement of the workout’s quality.  

Aside from creatine, the most common ingredients in pre-workout supplements are beta-alanine, caffeine, and BCCAs. Choosing the natural blends is considered always safe. Proprietary blends may give faster results, but there might be complications.

Overall, for those who are new in tense weight training routines, these pre-workout supplements online could be a boon to help the newbies train better and recover faster by easing the muscle soreness after workouts.