Most weight training and health authorities will agree that a post-workout meal will after breakfast definitely be the most important meal of the day to encourage muscle growth and fat loss after a strenuous workout.
After you’ve just finished an intensive workout your body system is entering a catabolic state. After such a workout your muscular glycogen is at a low level while at the same time cortisol levels are increased and beginning to break down muscle tissue – the last thing you want!
Under these conditions, to actively promote muscle growth, you need to reverse this trend and promote a healthier anabolic state. What’s needed is a quickly assimilated post workout meal as soon as practical after the training session.
The most rapidly digested solution to this need is a rapidly assimilated smoothie or shake.
Choosing an quickly digested meal which includes quick carbs will quickly replenish muscle glycogen and provide easily digestible protein to supply the essential amino acids required to jump start muscle repair. This easily digested meal will provide a instant source of carbs and aminos which will in turn cause an insulin spike from the pancreas, resulting in an increased supply of essential nutrients to the muscles.
As a general rule of thumb, this post workout meal needs to generally provide in the region of 300 to 500 calories for best results, depending on who is drinking it. A lightly built female would possibly only need 300 calories, while the more heavily built male might well utilize the full 500 calories.
The Carbs/ Protein Ratio is Crucial!
You also need to pay attention to the carbs/ protein ratio. The fat content of your post workout meal should be kept to an absolute minimum in contrast to your other normal daily meals. This is because fats reduce absorption of the meal, which is the last thing you want after a workout. Depending on your personal needs a ratio of anything from 2:1 to 4:1 of carbs/ protein will be required.
As per usual when it comes to making up your post workout meals, there are hyped up supplementary products with fancy expensive ads that you don’t really need, and then there are natural ingredients which do the job just as well if not better . Needless to say, I prefer the natural ingredients!
However, there are some commercial products that I’ve found useful and like. One of these, from a brand that I have complete trust in, has just the right ratio of carbs/ protein using quality ingredients. You can find it here http://natural.getprograde.com/workout
If you decide to make your own shakes here’s some thoughts to keep in mind…
In order to promote muscular glycogen replenishment and an anabolic muscle building environment it’s necessary to provide an insulin spike that will promote an increase in nutrients to the muscles. Easily digestible natural carbs such as frozen bananas, pineapples, organic maple sugar or honey are ideal for this. Encouraging the muscle repair process increases your metabolic rate and as a bonus by product can improve fat loss also.
Shake Recipes I Recommend
Fat free or low-fat yoghurts combined with a quality whey protein isolate unarguably offer the ideal source of rapidly digested protein. Here are a couple of ideas for tasty post-workout smoothies that will give your recovery process a quick kick up the backside :
Chocolate Banana – blend together 1 cup water, ½ cup skim milk, one and a half frozen bananas, 2 tbsp organic maple syrup, and 30 grams chocolate whey protein powder – 38 g prot, 72 g carb, 0.5 g fat, 440 calories.
Pineapple Vanilla - blend together 1 cup water, ½ cup vanilla yogurt, one cup frozen pineapples, 2 tbsp honey (preferably raw), and 30 grams vanilla whey protein powder – 35 g prot, 71 g carb, 0.5 g fat, 425 calories.
An important point to keep in mind is that the make up of your post workout meal are totally opposite to those of all your other meals during the day. Post workout meals have to contain fast easily digested high glycemic index carbohydrates and easily assimilated proteins. The rest of your daily meals should all be made up of low glycemic ingredients such as slowly digested carbs and slow release proteins.
Using post workout shakes are powerful strategies that will aid you in developing a lean muscular body coupled with a low body fat.
There’s a hidden benefit to these shakes. This is the one time of the day when you can innocently indulge your sweet tooth without a twinge of remorse – it all goes straight to the muscles! Provided…
Provided your workout was a very high intensity workout and included resistance training for the larger part of the body. Low intensity Cardio workouts just don’t cut it – you won’t need this type of shake for them.
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