Every athlete should understand that without the right nutritional program, his training will not be as effective. Learn how to organize your post-workout meals. Often, beginner athletes do not understand the importance of proper nutrition. During training, your muscles are destroyed, and their recovery and growth is possible only after the completion of the training. If at this moment the body does not receive all the substances it needs, then the restoration of muscle tissue will not occur. Today we are going to talk about how to better organize your post-workout nutrition in bodybuilding.
Restoring muscle glycogen stores after training
There is a "carbohydrate window" theory in bodybuilding. During this period, which is short enough, the body needs to get a large amount of nutrients that it can assimilate. To a greater extent, this applies to protein compounds and carbohydrates. Quite a lot of articles are devoted to this topic, and it is quite important to understand this issue.
Most often, during this period, it is recommended to use carbohydrate-protein mixtures so that the body receives a large amount of carbohydrates and can restore glycogen stores in muscle tissues. Glycogen is essentially the same carbohydrates that are stored in the muscles for energy during exercise. Wasted glycogen stores must be restored.
All the experiments that have been conducted that suggest the need to consume carbohydrates immediately after training were conducted with the participation of athletes who underwent aerobic exercise or used training to develop endurance. However, this is not at all what bodybuilders need.
There is a rather big difference in the mechanism of providing the body with energy for different types of load. If during endurance training energy is obtained as a result of oxidative reactions, then during strength training the body uses anaerobic glycolysis, in which it is the glycogen in the muscles that is its source. It is quite obvious that after an intense workout in the gym, glycogen stores are very small and should be restored with the help of a portion of carbohydrates.
However, practice shows that if you take carbohydrates immediately after training, then in comparison with ordinary water, the glycogen reserve will be increased by only 16% more. At the same time, water is deprived of essential nutrients and it turns out that even without eating for one or two hours after training, glycogen is still restored.
It has also been found that the body restores glycogen stores within 24 hours. This suggests that it is during this period that you should eat foods rich in carbohydrates, and not immediately after completing classes in the gym. A practically similar situation is developing with the intake of protein compounds. One of the rules of nutrition after training in bodybuilding is the need to consume carbohydrates and protein compounds at the same time, for their better absorption. At the same time, scientific studies have shown that when eating food immediately after training, proteins are absorbed by the body much worse.
All this suggests that the body does not receive much benefit from taking various carbohydrate-protein mixtures after training. The best option is to eat at least an hour after the end of the training session. Moreover, it should not be a gainer, but normal food. It is important to maintain your daily carbohydrate intake.
Proteins after training
Every athlete knows about the need to use protein mixtures. Some are willing to consume them in large quantities, while believing that it will help them quickly gain mass. However, consuming protein immediately after training will not do the trick. According to the results of many studies, a significant increase in protein synthesis occurs within 24 hours after a training session. All of this refutes the theory of a "carbohydrate-protein" window that is available for a maximum of two hours after training.
In this regard, it is very interesting to find out where the information about the "carbohydrate window" opened immediately after classes in the gym came from. And this is due to the results of studies conducted with the participation of older people. In this case, the use of carbohydrate-protein mixtures after exercise actually turned out to be effective. However, it has been established that the mechanism of protein synthesis changes with age, and the "window" theory is not applicable in bodybuilding.
Thus, it was found that all meals throughout the day are equally effective. The total amount of nutrients received by the body per day is much more important than a single loading dose of carbohydrates or proteins.
We can also say that fast proteins do not significantly accelerate the growth of muscle mass and strength indicators. More important in this matter is the amino acid profile of protein compounds, but not the rate of their assimilation by the body. This suggests that you need to consume complete proteins from various sources. This is the only way to ensure the required amino acid profile.
Also worth mentioning is another study that has shown that a protein shake will be more effective with the second meal after a workout. It is still quite difficult to explain this, but adhering to a similar diet after training in bodybuilding is quite simple. You need to take regular food a couple of hours after completing the training, for example, potatoes and fish, and after another couple of hours drink protein.
It has been established that during sleep, the body wastes a certain part of its resources that cannot be restored. Thus, before going to bed, you need to consume long proteins, such as cottage cheese. Of course, to maintain a high level of anabolism, the ideal option would be to eat protein foods at night, but from a practical point of view, long protein joins before bedtime are better.
Now we can summarize all of the above. To maintain a healthy post-workout diet for bodybuilding, you should eat your regular meals within a couple of hours after exercising, and then drink a protein shake after a similar period of time. Also, do not forget about long protein compounds before going to bed (casein protein or cottage cheese).
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