Importance of post workout nutrition depends on what, when and how much to eat after you have given your absolute best in the gym. Your muscles are pumped, your nerves are popping out and you can barely stand up. Your muscles have been put through hell.
Now the question is – Is it important to eat after a workout? If yes, then what after a workout?
We will break post workout meals for you:
1. Protein: Protein, as we all know, is the building block for muscles. Post workout nutritionis essential for muscular and nervous recovery. As we need quick absorption of amino acids, we need a fast acting protein. Whey protein powder has the instinct advantage of being absorbed rapidly by the body and flushing muscles with aminos.
Adding slow protein such as casein also prolongs the muscle building period. If you do not have a lot of best casein protein, have a bit of cottage cheese or milk as well.
2. Creatine: This is one of the times to consume best creatine available. Creatine powder has been shown to not only help with strength and mass gains, but also with fat loss and recovery between and during workouts. It is stored in your body to have a better workout next time as well.
3. Carbs: This is the only time of the day we actually want to consume sugar. Ingesting carbs in the form of simple sugars raise insulin levels in the body which in return will provide nutrion for muscle gain. This is also the best time for your glycogen stores, which were severely depleted during training, to be replenished. Post workout supplement starts with simple carbs and complex carb meal followed bypost workout shakes later on.
To summarize it better for you, post workout food will include:
20-35 grams of fast acting protein + 10-15 grams of slow protein + 40-80 grams of carbs + 3-8 grams of creatine = Most effective recovery.
Hope this article provided some much needed insight to your post workout meal query.
Until next time, train hard, eat right and get strong!
