This week I am going to have a good friend and fellow fitness professional Steve Long describe his thoughts and opinions on post workout nutrition. Steve has impressed me with his knowledge and I fully trust his decision making and education when it comes to fitness. Here is an article that will help briefly show you the importance of getting your post workout nutrition in. If you know me, you should know how much I preach post workout nutrition, so take it away Steve, teach my followers the way brother.
Written by Steve Long, owner of Complete Fitness Results:
One of the most major things that people do not know about or look past when it comes to fitness is post workout nutrition. Most of us are not bodybuilders or athletes, but there are some things that bodybuilders and athletes do that will help us in our training. If you ask any bodybuilder in the world if they have a post workout shake I would bet that 99.9% would say yes. If you ask any professional athlete is they have a post workout shake after their workouts and I’m sure the numbers would be just as high. Regardless if you are a pro athlete, a gym rat, a weekend warrior, or just someone that works hard in the gym for the best results, post workout nutrition is a must.
After an intense workout your body is in a different state then when at rest. It is starving for nutrients and is depleted of energy. Muscle glycogen stores are depleted and your protein balance is at a negative. Cortisol is released which is catabolic, meaning muscle will be broken down. You have basically just injured your body and set yourself up to lower metabolism.
Now that you have injured your body, how do you fix it? That’s were post workout nutrition comes into play. Sure you could leave the gym and go home and eat a sandwich and that would be decent. You could grab a bar from the gym and that would be better than nothing. If you are like me however, you want to best possible results from your efforts. I don’t go to the gym to get so so results. I go to get the best results possible for the effort I put in. I put in a lot of effort so I want a lot of results. I don’t want to waste that effort with a so so post workout nutrition choice. So how do you get the best post workout nutrition and the best possible results?
They are many theories and studies that debate the perfect post workout nutrition and I think that falls out of the scope of this article. There are many different combinations of supplements that can be used and different macronutrient ratios and things of that nature, but my goal is to make fitness simple. So simply, you want to have a certain ratio of carbohydrates to protein, you want it to digest fast, you want it to be immediately after your workout.
* I recommend a that you have your post workout nutrition in the form of liquid. Liquid absorbs faster and will get the nutrients into the muscles before your window of opportunity closes.
* You have roughly a 30-45 minute window of time to reverse the negative effects and replace them with good effects so make sure that you have your shake immediately after your workout.
* Its best to have a 2:1 ratio of carbs to protein for your average person. For an extreme bout of exercise like distance running or bodybuilding you may increase the carbs to 3:1 carbs to protein.
There is much more that can be taken into account when deciding what kind of post workout shake to have. There are products on the market which have the perfect ratios and types of carbs and protein in them to choose from. In a pinch, skim milk is a good option, but it takes a lot of milk to get the amount of protein that would be ideal after your workout. It is up to you to find what kind of post workout nutrtion you want to use, but to get best possible results and make it easy, I recommend “Workout” by Prograde Nutrition. It’s what I use and I love it. It mixes easy, tastes great, has a 2:1 ratio, and has the best quality protein on the market. I know and trust the guys who own and operate the company and I know that when they say something is in a product that it is true. I can’t say that about any other company on the market. Click below to see all of the great products that Prograde has to offer.
Steve Long of Complete Fitness Results Highly recommends Prograde Nutrition.
Go here to find out more: http://completefitnesssupplements.getprograde.com
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