Thursday 31 January 2013

Post workout shakes


Post workout shakes




What to (and whether to) take after a workout/training session is one of the most common brought up subjects when discussing training. There are 3 different people: People who don’t believe in/feel they need to take a post workout drink, those who do but don’t take the right stuff and those who do take the right stuff. So:


Should you take a post workout shake? 


If you train BJJ once or twice a week and do nothing else physically the rest of the time then you can stop reading now. This is not relevant to you. The majority of people who are training BJJ seriously will be looking at 4 plus sessions a week, training some consecutive days, for serious BJJ competitors this can be 6-7 days a week, twice a day some days and strength and conditioning thrown in on top of that. For both those categories of people (especially the latter) I believe it is imperative to take post workout nutrition into consideration. 



Why?

Post workout shakes take advantage of the state you put your body in by intense training. Just after a workout you body has used up its glycogen supplies and is thirsty to replenish them. Also you have created tiny micro-tears in your  muscles that need amino acids (the building blocks of protein) to fill in and heal (grow and strengthen). Failure to properly get these nutrients in your body will result in a lack of muscular growth, leave you with muscular aching and more importantly for a BJJ athlete; leave you feeling fatigued and tired for another session that day. 



Commonly asked question: Why does it need to be a shake?

Many people don’t wanna take a shake because it’s basically cheating, right?
They just wanna go home and have some chicken and rice. Thing is, it’s about timing. Immediately after a workout, for around 20-30 mins, your body is in what is called an “anabolic state”. This is where it’s begging to get the nutrients its lost (including water) back in it. Think Sauron and the ring. Now lets assume that you’ve got your full meal ready to go as soon as training is over (realistically your looking at 15-30 mins to get home, 15+ mins to cook a meal), but let’s assume you’re ready to eat straight away. You’re looking at 30 mins for the blood from your body to return to your digestive system (while working out your body knows it doesn’t need to digest and instead needs to be STRONG so redirects blood away from your digestive system and into your muscles.) So after your body is able to properly break down food you need to be getting that carbs and protein in you quickly, but solid food takes time to be broken down into nutrients and send through the body to the muscles, effectively missing your anabolic window. Now, protein shake: It’s there immediately with nearly no preparation time, you can engineer it to contain whatever you need depending on your current goals. And importantly because it’s in liquid form it requires very little breaking down in your stomach so can be digested and the nutrients utilised far quicker. 



What do I put in my shake?

One of the biggest mistakes people make is the idea that they have to take a “protein shake”, this is actually inaccurate of what a post workout shake should be comprised of. Carbohydrates are as important if not more important to take than protein. Many people fear the carb, carbs make you fat don't they? Yes, in excess carbs will help or make you put on weight, however as mentioned above when you train you use up your bodies glycogen supply. Without glycogen replenishment your body cannot properly utilise the protein for recovery and your lack of glycogen will leave you fatigued for another session, or the rest of the day. 





So, now you’re all super excited to start taking post workout supplements there is one final question. What exactly do I take? Coming in part 2.

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