Post Workout – The Body’s Recovery Period

Among body builders and body fitness devotees, post workout is that particular phase that follows right after the intensive exercise routines to build muscles for the body. This is the time duration until the next scheduled workout. This is also the time when the body would need to replenish its energy store.

During the period of intense workout sessions, the body suffers damages to the tissues at the micro level. The damage happens because the body fuels the whole workout activity. In the end, the workout does make for a stronger, fitter and muscular build. It also screams the need for repair.

This is natural since the just-finished exercise had depleted the body of its natural stores of essential nutrients. The muscles, the proteins, and the glycogen have been broken and there is need for an after workout repair and restoration.  

Reversing changes 

There is need to arrest these and reverse the changes in the body. The pre-workout supplements do help greatly but the breakage of muscles can be more than what you have prepared for.

The need is to take the post workout supplements immediately after the workout (at least within the next 45 minutes). This is the time when it is most effective to put back into the body what had been taken out (or broken down).

Re-hydration

The first order would be re-hydrating the body with water or preferably water with added electrolytes for fast absorption into the system. The following post workout supplements can bring back right away the lost essential nutrients.

Without them, the body cannot start rebuilding (the most important work) and to add the bulk that was lost. Each of these nutrients has their own work cut out for them in replenishing the body’s needs.

Beta-alanine

This essential nutrient is often included in your pre-workout list of nutrients vital in restoring the pH levels within the muscle to reasonable levels. When you work out, you build up lactic acid in the muscles.

Beta-alanine helps raise the carnosine levels to restore the correct levels ion the body and helps in muscle gains.

Creatine monohydrate / glutamine

This is the form of creatine that’s easily and quickly absorbed by the body.  It is perfect for the body’s recovery. It helps increase the ATP production in muscle cells, and gets the energy right back into them and limits their further breakdown.

Glutamine is another important key in adding fuel back to your muscles. This helps in the repair much faster. It is also anti-catabolic which is good if you are shredding.

BCAAs / carbohydrates

BCAAs (branched chain amino acids consisting of L-leucine, L-isoleucine, and L-valine) are essential in giving better anabolic effects on the body, even better than taking them during the workout. The work is building muscle protein.

Carbohydrates get depleted during workouts and you need to get them back into your system right away. The amounts depend on your body type, age and metabolic capacity. |Different brands have different types of mixes. You need to find out what is best for your type. A post workout is actually the body’s recovery period.

Pre-Workout Supplements Online – To Fit Your Exercise Goals

Getting your pre-workout supplements online is one of today’s advantages compared to some scant years ago when fitness buffs used to scour the metropolis looking for the right body building supplements he needs. Added is the fact that those were the days of hits and misses when research was at its infancy then.

These days, you know the right supplements, the right doses, and your choices online are at your fingertips, literally, with just a click or two. Manufacturers of the supplements are also trying to outdo one another by giving the customers the best choices, the reviews, the lowest prices and other perks.

When thinking of getting your pre-workout supplements, you need to think first about your goal in fitness. You would think, too, of the type of exercises you will need in order to achieve such goals.

As is typical now, individual ingredients in these supplements do improve certain aspects of your performance. You will then need to exactly know the ingredients of what you need, the dosages, and some other vital information, before during and after your workout.

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Types

Some of the supplements can increase your strength (power) while others will boost your endurance and stamina (how long can you do them). Each of these listed ingredients targets a particular exercise type.

Finding the right supplements will be faster if you know the exact exercise routines you are going to do to work on whatever part of your body you want. The following some of the most important ingredients to look for in supplements.

BCAAs

These branched chain amino acids are found in high quantities in many protein-containing foods. Taking BCAA (leucine, isoleucine and valine) has many benefits.

Research says they improve endurance. Others have been found to reduce mental and physical fatigue. Lastly, other researches say these supplements reduce the muscle soreness after running or some heavy weight-lifting.

Other foods also have high quality proteins in them with amino acids that the body needs. BCAA, however, are essential to take because the body does not manufacture them but have to be sourced from outside (food).

Beta-alanine

Beta-alanine is the amino acid that fights muscle fatigue. It helps fight off the acid (lactic) that causes fatigue. This acid builds up while we do our exercise. As a supplement, it increases the concentration in the body and may improve exercise performance.

It was discovered it is effective on long-term endurance exercises. It is also most effective at improving your performance during short bursts of intense exercise (one to four minutes).

Creatine

Creatine has been considered by many sports scientists as the number one supplement to help increase the strength and power of muscles. Research shows that it can safely increase muscle mass, strength and exercise performance.

Studies have also reported that strength gains from weight training programs are about 5 to 10% higher than average when creatine is taken as a supplement. If your muscle cells have more energy and power, you may perform better and experience greater improvement over time.

These ingredients can be had on your pre-workout supplements online, either in singles (you mix them) or as pre-mixed multiples.

Branch Chain Amino Acid Supplements – Keeping Proper Amounts

From the outset, it had already been an established and accepted fact that amino acids are the building blocks of protein. The branch chain amino acids (fondly called by everyone as BCAAs) are called as such because their structure includes a “side chain” of one carbon atom and three hydrogen atoms. Today, it is a body-building staple available as branch chain amino acids supplements.

These three acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) combine and are hydrophobic (water-fearing). Since they are involved in protein synthesis and energy production, BCAAs plays an important role in many of the body’s metabolic processes.

Muscle metabolism

One of their unique characteristics is that they can be metabolized in skeletal muscles which helps exercise performance and reduce muscle breakdown. The other essential amino acids are metabolized through the liver.

The intake of BCAA directly influences the plasma levels and concentration in the muscle tissue. They are oxidized for energy during exercise proper, acting as the exercise fuel. With its consumption before training, the muscle tissues can increase their routine uptakes.

More benefits

With BCAA as supplement, the lactate levels during resistance training are lowered, hence improving the oxidation in the muscles. It may also induce the increase of growth hormones in circulation, directly related to the anabolic mechanisms that cause muscle growth.

The mechanism suggests that BCAAs are known to increase protein synthesis to reduce muscle protein breakdown. Also, they are known to reduce muscle soreness after the workouts. In effect, they may also interfere with the transport of tryptophan to the brain and reducing the synthesis of serotonin to reduce the feeling of fatigue.

In the muscles, there is increase cell concentrations and breakdown of BCAA in the muscle tissues. These are continuously released from the liver to the skeletal muscles. With it, the BCAAs are enabled to assist in maintaining blood sugar levels.

Additional info

BCAAs are important to muscle tissues and in the maintenance of blood sugar. Consuming carbohydrates, protein, and amino acids beverages during and after exercises can induce insulin response.

This helps transport BCAAs into the body’s cells, in the muscle cells, the pathways for protein synthesis is dependent on leucine (a component of BCAA). This means that protein synthesis (and the building of muscles) is dependent on the amount of available leucine. Since BCAA levels decline in exercise, there is need to supplement them.

Synthesis

If you are doing strenuous exercise after a fast, or if you don’t eat after a routine, you will lose more protein than you can rebuild them. If you consume the sufficient amount of BCAA during this time, especially leucine, you will help the body’s protein synthesis.

Like all the other BCAA nutrients needed for supplementation, the body would need the appropriate amount of leucine to make proteins. The minimum intake has to be met to be able to impact the insulin signaling pathway.

With regards to the reduction in muscles soreness after a workout, Branch Chain Amino Acid supplements is a big help. Taken before and following damaging resistance exercise routines, branch chain amino acids supplements the amino acids was shown to reduce markers of soreness.

BCAA Supplements – Getting More Intense Workouts

By way of science, BCAAs (branched chain amino acids of leucine, isoleucine and valine) promoted protein metabolism in the body, which includes the synthesis of albumen and glycogen. They also reduce oxidative stress by way of activation of gene involved in anti-oxidative defenses, all available in BCAA supplements.

By practice, BCAAs are popular among body-building buffs for decades now, and is becoming popular among the wider athletic population. These amino acids, however, cannot be synthesized by the body and have to be sourced out.  

In addition, BCAAs are unique because they can be metabolized in skeletal muscles while the other essential amino acids are metabolized in the liver. They are the largest collection of amino acids in the body, making up to 35% of the muscle protein.

Performance

During exercise, the amino acids are depleted – a show on how they benefit the body. In a controlled trial on marathon runners, the supplementation of BCAA showed improved mental performance. The running times of those slower athletes were improved.

In another trial, the BCAA supplementation increases the athlete’s muscle strength in comparison with other supplements. It also increased the power output in still another study. However, the decrease in fatigue and exertion could be the result of the power rise.

Fatigue and endurance

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

Likewise, BCAA supplementation had shown it can increase endurance. The runners given BCAA ran better times for two consecutive days in a row in 5,000 and 10,000 meter races. The study also showed it increase oxygen consumption by 13%.

Serum

With BCAA, the serum decline during the exercise proper is prevented. The decline of serum normally caused tryptophan to flow into the brain. This causes the production of serotonin, the primary substance that in turn causes fatigue.

These benefits athletes would want to have their muscle protein synthesis and minimize muscle protein breakdown without a substantial calorie loading.

Benefits

BCCA helps an athlete to get a more intense workout by way it competes with the amino acid tryptophan in entering the brain. Tryptophan converts into serotonin. During exercise, the level of serotonin is raised. This action makes one feel more fatigued, thus suppressing the urge to continues and try harder.   

With the amount of tryptophan effectively reduced in the blood-brain barrier, the BCAA thus reduces the amount of serotonin produced. As an effect, this make you try harder and longer in your exercise.

Glucose

In the same manner, BCCA also regulates glucose in the body. This helps maintain blood sugar levels. Amino acids in the body improve glucose and insulin sensitivity in healthy people.

As it is continuously released from the liver to the skeletal muscles, glucose helps maintain the blood sugar levels. With the presence of amino acids in the body, the glucose uptake and the insulin sensitivity in healthy people is improved.

During workouts, BCAA supplements can immediately supply the amino acids needed in the blood sugar production, an important factor to those on calorie-restricted diets.

Post Workout – Rest and Recovery

post workout is generally by body builders as the phase that follows immediately after an intense workout.  The workout is intended to build muscles tissues for the body. This is the period until the next schedule of workout. This is also the period where the body would need to replace its energy stores.

When doing the intensive workout, the body’s tissues are damaged at the micro level. These are the tissues that fuel the whole workout activity. The workout actually makes the body stronger, fitter, and more muscular. In the e3nd, it would need repair.

The process

During workout, the repair and the rebuilding occur. This is the breaking down of the old damaged proteins (protein breakdown and the creation of new ones in protein synthesis. The muscle protein synthesis is slightly raised during the workout, but some are unchanged.

The breakdown of protein increases, altogether doing more breaking down than building up. Between these two (muscle protein synthesis and muscle protein breakdown) shows the metabolic processes in muscle growth. 

Ideally, optimal muscle growth should happen during the recovery period. The aim is to replenish the energy stores and increase the size of the muscles. There is also repair of the damaged ones caused by the workout.

Nutrients

To replenish the consumed nutrients, there would be a need of fresh new nutrients. This will help the composition of the body, its performance and recovery. In the workout, the glycogen (carbohydrates stored in the muscles) and the proteins are all broken down.

Right after workout, the body is depleted out of its natural stores of nutrients. The muscles are also torn because of the stress. Nutrition is needed coming in from workout supplements (Nutrients from natural food takes a bit longer) in replenishing what is needed by the body. 

With the consumption of particular nutrients, the body gets its replenishments. There are ongoing studies to check on the most effective post-workout nutrition strategies for athletes and exercisers of all kinds.

Benefits

With the nutrition from supplements, the body quickly recovers. There is less muscle soreness. There is increase in muscle building in the body.

Also, there is improved bone mass of the body and the immune system is also raised. Finally, it gives the body the ability to utilize fat in other activities. There are also some effective post-work nutrition strategies for athlete and recreational body builders.

Rebuilding

The body is able to use the nutrients for rebuilding and recovery, if they are available. With its availability, the body will then use them in the rebuilding process.

The availability is improved when there is increased blood flow to the skeletal muscles during and after the workout. This would mean there are more nutrients now. Providing amino acids and glucose to the blood will increase the rate of protein synthesis.

In a sentence, post workout is a real necessity in the recovery phase of the body after a heavy workout. This is one needed phase in the workout cycle to be able to achieve the body’s goals.