| The Doctor Bodybuilding Newsletter | |
The most important meal of the day - the post workout meal If there is one meal that no bodybuilder should ever go without, its the post workout meal. Its name is a slight misnomer because it shouldn't actually be a meal, it should be a drink. The post work drink is critical to acheiving results from your hard workouts. You can bust your ass as hard as you want day in and day out but if you don't give your body the nutrients it needs, when it needs them, you aren't gonna improve one bit. All successfull bodybuilders know one very important rule - the workout is only a little part of the battle, a proper diet is what sets the average bodybuilder apart from the elite. As important as an overal good diet is, without a doubt the most important meal of the day is the one that immediately proceeds your workout. This article will provide you with some information that will help you formulate a solid post workout drink that will allow you to optimize your training and recovery. So what does a post workout drink consist of? Too many bodybuilders either don't eat nearly enough after their workout or eat way too much thinking that their body is primed for growth and thus deserves a big meal. The truth is after a workout your body is primed for growth but it is also badly depleted which means your post workout drink must contain the right nutrients, in the right balance, to refuel it. Whats the most important component of a post workout drink? Protein you say? I mean, all bodybuilders know that protein is the most important nutrient when it comes to packing on muscle. However, in a post workout drink, the most important nutrient is carbs but not just any carbs. We want fast buring, high glycemic carbs (for more information on the glycemic index click here). The kind your not supposed to eat most of the time. Why are these kinds of carbs so important? When you workout hard, you burn lots of muscle glycogen (stored energy) and you cause a spike in the catabolic hormone called cortisol. High glycemic carbs, ingested right after your workout ends (and I mean right after, no more chatting with that fitness bunny while your body cries out for help) can help you in both of these areas. First the carbs get into your blood fast which means they cause a nice big insulin spike. Insulin you say! Isn't that bad for me? Won't that make me fat? Yes, it will just not this time because the workout has left your body in a depleted state which means it will use the carbs to restore muscle glycogen levels instead of storing them as fat. The faster you can get those glycogen levels back up to par, the faster your muscles will start to recover and rebuild and that means faster growth. Muscles that are left in a depleted state for too long will enter a catabolic state that will force them to break down in order to refuel. Just to be clear, you don't want that. The insulin spike that your post workout drink will cause also serves another function. Insulin helps drive cortisol out of the blood. This is a very good thing. Cortisol is our enemy. It makes our bodies breakdown our hard earned muscle for energy. So, the carbs in our drink have served two purposes; refueling glycogen and chasing away cortisol. The next question is, what kinds of carbs serve this purpose best? We already know that we need a very high glycemic carb but now the question is which one? I beleive that maltodextrin best serves this purpose. It has the highest rating on the glycemic index (150) and it is a complex carb which means it is less likely to be stored in the liver. Just how much maltodextrin you need to take is dependent on the person. The bigger you are, the number of reps you did in total during your workout, and the body parts worked that day are factors that need to be considered. For example, a leg workout featuring sqauts would require more carbs then an arm workout. The squats put considerably more strain on the body and thus use up more glycogen. However, as a general guideline, I beleive that between 1 gram of carbs to 2 grams of carbs per pound of body weight is a good number. An arm day for example would require 1 gram of carbs per pound of body weight and a leg workout would require 2 grams of carbs per pound of body weight. For those of you who might be slightly weak in the math department, a 200 pound bodybuilder who just completed a heavy leg workout might need as much as 400 grams of carbs. Another good thing about maltodextrim is its cheap. You can buy it at most bulk food stores for a couple bucks a pound. If your lazy and don't want to get up, go to www.proteinfactory.com and order some there. Next on our list of ingredients is protein. Just like the carbs, the kind of protein and the amount you take counts. After a heavy workout your body will pretty much suck up protein because it is desperate to start the rebuilding process. Also, the insulin spike caused by the carbs will help form even more protein into the waiting muscle cells. The amount of protein you take depends again, on your weight and on the reps and type of workout you did that day. To make things simple for you, I would suggest take your protein on a 3:1 ratio with your carbs. That is 3 grams of carbs for every 1 gram of protein. So, if your taking 15 grams of carbs that day, you should take 50 grams of protein with it. The kind of protein you take is important here also. Just like the carbs, you want a type of protein that will get through your stomach fast and into the blood stream. Although most proteins are very similar, I would still suggest using whey isolate for your post workout drink purposes. Whey isolate gets absorbed into the blood stream very quickly and helps promote an anabolic enviroment which is very important right after a workout. Another item I would suggest you add to the mix, is glutamine. However, not just any glutamine will do. I like glutamine for bodybuilding purposes a lot. I think it can do wonders. However, most people take l-glutamine (usually because its cheaper and tastes better) and this form of glutamine is often badly absorbed in the stomach. The reason for this is that glutamine competes (and often loses) with other proteins in your stomach for absorbtion. To avoid this problem, I suggest you only take glutamine peptides. They are more expensive and have a bitter taste but they are vastly superior to their l-glutamine brother. I would suggest taking 10 grams of glutamine peptides with your post workout drink. The glutamine should be counted as part of your total protein intake (if you need 50 grams of protein in your post workout drink, take 40 grams of regular whey isolate and 10 grams of glutamine peptides). Again, if you are looking for a good place to buy glutamine peptides, check out the Protein Factory. Why glutamine? Muscles are made up of 60% glutamine and research shows that glutamine levels in the blood drop signifigantly after a strenuous workout. The body responds to this drop in glutamine levels by breaking down the glutamine in your muscle cells to increase the level of glutamine in your blood. You see, glutamine does more then just build muscle. It also keeps your immune system functioning and your organs healthy. Basically your body will sacrifice your hard earned muscle in favor of your immune system after a workout unless you give it some external glutamine to bring your blood levels back up. One thing your post workout drink should not contain is fat. Dietary fat is essential for bodybuilders, just not right after a workout. Adding fat to your drink will lower the speed of absorbtion of both the protein and the carbs and that's not what we want. Wait till later to throw some good fats into your diet. When it comes to timing, right away is best when talking about a post workout drink. Bring your drink with you, ready made, in a bottle to the gym. Keep it in a fridge if possible and go get it right after that last rep has hit the floor. The quicker you get those much needed nutritents into your blood the better you are. For best results take one post workout drink immediately after your workout and another 2 hours later. After that you can go back to eating normally (well, bodybuilder normal). Do this right and you should notice signifigantly better recovery time and less fatigue the day after a big workout. |