Part 3: Recovery

Exercise training stresses your body causing a certain amount of physical breakdown. Ultimately, this breakdown provides the stimulus for adaptations to occur helping your body respond by becoming stronger or faster. The time between exercise sessions is when these adaptations take place. Nutritional strategies to enhance recovery from exercise has become a hot topic in recent years. In fact, the New York Times published an article earlier this month on this very issue. This article will outline the science and the practical implications of nutritional strategies to enhance muscle recovery.

Muscle Recovery:
Following intense or prolonged exercise, your body needs two types of fuel:  carbohydrate to restore glycogen (the storage form of carbohydrate in the body), and protein to repair and rebuild muscle.  As discussed in the previous article, your body relies on carbohydrate for energy during moderate to high-intensity exercise.  Prolonged exercise or repeated high-intensity efforts can significantly lower the muscles’ glycogen stores.  For people who exercise at a moderate intensity every day this is not an issue.  The body will restore muscle glycogen over the course of 24 hours provided the diet contains enough carbohydrate.  However, for people who exercise more than once per day, proper recovery is essential or the muscle will quickly run out of fuel leaving you feeling run down and fatigued.

Timing:
Research has also shown that a “window of opportunity” exits for optimal recovery.  During exercise, the muscle is very sensitive to the effects of insulin allowing it to pull glucose from the blood and use it for fuel.  For a period of time following exercise (30-45 minutes), the muscle remains sensitive to insulin and the glucose that is in the blood is quickly stored for use during the next exercise session. Likewise, providing some protein allows the muscle to start the repair process.  After about 45 minutes, however, the “recovery window” closes and the muscle is less sensitive storing carbohydrate at a much slower rate.  Eating a high carbohydrate snack with protein within 30 minutes of exercise and eating a meal 2 hours later will help jump start recovery.

How much?
Early studies showed that the addition of protein to carbohydrate taken in immediately following exercise increased the amount of carbohydrate that was stored in the muscle.  Scientists found that insulin secretion was higher with a combination of carbohydrate and protein which allowed more carbohydrate to be taken up and stored in the muscle.

Further research in the area found that when sufficient carbohydrate was given, protein didn’t improve muscle glycogen synthesis. However, protein does improve muscle protein synthesis and protein balance following exercise. Current recommendations for carbohydrate and protein following exercise are 1.2 – 1.5 grams of carbohydrate and 0.1-0.2 grams of protein per kilogram body weight.

Example for 150 pounds weight:
150 pounds ÷ 2.2 pounds per kilogram = 68.2 kilogram
68.2 kg * 1.2 or 1.5 =  82 to 102 grams of carbohydrate
68.2 kg * 0.1 or 0.2 = 7 to 14  grams of protein

Practical Implications:
The dairy council has promoted chocolate milk as a recovery drink based on research out of the University of Indiana and rightly so.  One cup of chocolate milk provides about 8 grams of protein and 25 grams of carbohydrate.  It is also readily accessible and because fluids are usually better tolerated following exercise, it remains a good option.  For people who are lactose intolerant, chocolate soymilk is also a good option providing about 5 grams of protein and 23 grams of carbohydrate in 8 oz.  Other good choices are bananas, bagels with peanut butter, cereal and milk, a fruit smoothie, or a turkey sandwich and lemonade.

Rehydration:
Rehydration is also an important aspect of recovery if you are exercising more than once per day.  Sports drinks contain electrolytes which help the body replace what is lost in the sweat and restore plasma volume.  If you sweat heavily or lose a large amount of sodium during exercise, make sure that you’re replacing sodium through foods or sports drinks.  Check your urine prior to you next training session.  It should look more like light lemonade than apple juice.  Dark urine indicates that you are inadequately hydrated.

If you exercise moderately every day and eat a healthy diet, you probably don’t have to worry about recovering between exercise sessions.  However, if you are a serious athlete or training multiple times in one day you will benefit from taking in some fuel in the form of carbohydrate and protein while the “recovery window” is open.  Taking snacks with you to the gym or having them readily accessible following a run or bike ride will go a long way toward improving the quality of each workout and will leave you feeling less fatigued over time.