Post Workout Nutrients

Your workout doesn’t end when you hit the showers, recovery time and nutrients are important factors to help you grow. Your workout is putting stress on your body, and fatiguing your muscles. Post workout, you want to replenish all the energy you used. You will also need nutrients to help your body repair any damage that was done to it during your workout. The two main nutrients you want to consume after a workout are carbohydrates and protein.

Carbohydrates are what you use to fuel your body, so during a workout you deplete your carbohydrate storage. The amount of carbohydrates you need to refuel depend on the intensity of your workout. The general recommendation is to consume 30g of carbohydrates per hour of exercise immediately following your workout. If you are doing an intense or long endurance session, you can get more specific with the amount, 0.6-1.0g of carbohydrates for each kilogram of your body mass. After an intense weight lifting workout, with muscle growth in mind, 1g of carbohydrates for each kilogram of your body mass is a good guideline.

Protein stimulates muscle growth and repair, which is important after an intense workout that damages your muscles. Again, the amount of protein will vary depending on the intensity of your workout. In general, 15g of protein per hour of exercise will be all you need. For a more intense or long endurance workout, aim for 1g of protein per 3g of carbohydrates. If muscle building is your goal, aim for 20-30g of protein.

The easiest way to replenish these nutrients immediately after a workout is using a shake. After drinking the shake, plan to eat a regular meal within two hours. If your primary goal is weight loss, then you can skip the shake, to maintain your planned caloric deficit, and just eat a regular meal within two hours after your workout.

One more important thing to consume post workout is water! You want to drink enough to replenish the water you lost from sweating. If you are looking for exact numbers, weigh yourself before and after your workout; the weight lost is the amount of water you want to drink. If you don’t want to go through the steps of constantly weighing yourself, just keep drinking water. Water is good for you, so don’t worry too much about figuring out an exact amount.

References

http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/endurance-exercise-fatigue-recovery

http://easacademy.org/trainer-resources/article/resistance-exercise-fatigue-and-recovery

http://www.precisionnutrition.com/about-post-workout-nutrition

Recovery Time

Your body needs time to heal! The entire premise of working out is to exhaust and tear your muscles so they can recover stronger and better. In this post I’m specifically going to write about recovery time, assuming you don’t do any special recovery treatments. Recovery and rest time are unfortunately not so cut and dry. There are a few factors you need to take into consideration when resting, the big one is how hard and long your workout was. I’m going to simplify the types of workouts into two categories; low impact (easy) and high impact (hard).

Low impact workouts are going to be steady state cardio, light weight lifting, etc. With low impact workouts, you aren’t pushing your body to a breaking point, so the recovery should be faster. A general recommendation is to give yourself at least 24 hours before working that part of the body again. This doesn’t mean you need to rest every other day, it just means you should change up your routine so you aren’t working the same body part over and over.
High impact workouts are going to be high intensity cardio, heavy weights lifting, etc. High impact workouts are pushing your body harder, so you will need more recovery time. The recommended recovery time is 48 to 72 hours before working out that part of the body again. Similarly to the low impact rest time, you can use these days to workout other areas of your body.

Whether you are doing low impact or high impact weight lifting, you will need a rest day from weight lifting. When you need the rest day is going to depend on how hard you are working, and how quickly your body can recover, among a few other factors. Some rest day options are:

• 3 days of weights, 1 day of rest
• 4 days of weights, 1 day of rest
• 6 days of weights, 1 day of rest

You should play around with your schedule until you find the one that works best for you.

The final step to recovery is the rest week. Unlike all the recovery days, the rest week is a full week away from the gym. This week is to give your body a full reset on your system. You don’t need to become a couch potato during this week, but keep any activity you do light and easy, remember you are taking a week off so your muscles and body can fully repair. Like the full rest day, the rest week schedule will vary depending on the person and the training. Some examples are:

• 4 weeks training, 1 week rest
• 9 weeks training, 1 week rest
• 12 weeks training, 1 week rest

Pick and choose the training schedule that works best for you. You can try to schedule them around events, like vacations. It is important to note that the training program should not go more than 12 weeks, it becomes physically and mentally exhausting at that point.

Remember, every person is different, so listen to your body and find the right recovery schedule for you!

References

http://breakingmuscle.com/olympic-weightlifting/how-much-recovery-do-you-need-7-factors-to-add-up

http://www.timinvermont.com/fitness/fund.htm

https://www.acefitness.org/blog/3565/recovery-redefined-how-much-rest-you-actually-need

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/randy3.htm