Post-Workout Recovery

So, you started P90X, INSANITY, or one of the other crazy Beachbody fitness programs.  You push hard!  Give it your all!  You sweat!  You moan and groan!  You collapse in near exhaustion (that’s my favorite part, Lol!)!  Then it’s over!  Now what?  You need to recover from it…and you need a plan!

Recovery is one of the most important aspects of an exercise program.  It doesn’t matter how hard you push yourself during a workout, you won’t see great results if you don’t give your body what it needs to recover properly when the hard work is over. After all, you only workout for about 1 hour per day, so what you do with your body for the remaining 23 hours is crucial to getting great results.  Your body’s ability to recover quickly, so you can get the most out of your workout can be greatly enhanced by following a few simple steps.

First, let’s review some very basic fundamentals of nutrition and what your body needs.  I know it is much more complicated that this, but for simplicity just bear with me.

1. Proteins and Fats are used to make up body tissue
2. Carbohydrates are broken down by the body into sugars and are used to fuel your body.

Carb aren’t stored in your body.  We need to burn them off in the form of energy, and the amount that we consume should be directly proportional to the amount of exercise we are doing to burn them off.

Your body stores enough blood sugar and carbohydrates (glycogen) to fuel your body adequately though about 1 hr of intense exercise.  Unless you are continually replenishing your body with glycogen DURING the workout, you will most likely start to crash (bonk) at the end of about 1 hr of hard exercise.  Sooner if your body isn’t properly nourished with carbs.  At the end of the workout your glycogen stores are depleted and need to be restored.  The quicker they are restored, the quicker you will recover.

Everyone probably knows that when you workout strenuously we are essentially breaking down muscle tissue, and we need to repair that tissue to become stronger and grow our muscles.  The main building block of muscle is protein.  So you would think that giving your body a lot of protein immediately after your workout is the way to go…but it’s not quite that simple.

Protein is absorbed slowly into your body, while carbohydrates are absorbed and utilized much more quickly.  We want our body to recovery quickly, so we need to give it nutrients that it can use quickly.  A small amount of sugar immediately after a workout is just what the body is begging for.  Typically, we don’t need any sugar in our diet.  It is best to get energy from complex carbohydrates and fiber and force our bodies to break them down into sugar naturally.  But a small amount of sugar post-workout will replenish your blood sugar and jump-start an efficient recovery process.

Studies have shown that sugar with a small amount of protein in a 4:1 ratio is the optimal formula.  This combination has been shown to improve recovery by 25% over sugar alone, and 400% better than protein alone.  The window of opportunity is within 1 hour after your workout.  I practically sprint to the kitchen to mix my recovery formula after my workout!  Our goal is to aid rapid digestion of these nutrients, so avoid fat and fiber until your body has had a chance to digest the recovery formula.  I usually wait about 45 minutes to an hour and then follow up with Shakeology and 1 scoop of additional protein powder.

There are many post workout formulas out on the market, and I’ve tried a handful of them.  I have been using the P90X Results and Recovery Formula consistently since I started P90X and I got great results!  I take it after every workout, if I deserve it.  By that I mean, it has to be an intense workout session that depletes my glycogen stores.  I don’t use it after Yoga or X-Stretch for example, although it’s tempting because it tastes amazing!  I am a firm believer in the Result and Recovery formula after seeing and feeling the results for the last 7 months.  My post-workout fatigue is gone almost instantly and the muscle soreness is greatly reduced.  My muscles are given the best chance for a quick recovery so they’ll be ready for the next time I BRING IT!