Event Recovery: Rebuilding Muscle & Restoring Protein
Have you ever experienced sore muscles after a tough ride or workout? How about during a normal training ride or workout? Do consecutive days of workouts start to wear you down?
Most recreational athletes don't seem to consider proper recovery nutrition as an important part of the workout. Believe it or not, having a hotdog or hamburger after a workout is not going to give your body what it needs for proper recovery.
If you want to avoid the sore muscles after a tough event, or if you want to have the same power at the end of a week of workouts as you did at the beginning, then you will need to supply your muscles with the exact things they need to recover properly. You can find that it is possible to still feel good and keep your performance up over a long period of training.
In my own experience, at 35 years old, I have been able to put on over 100 miles on my road bike in the morning/afternoon, have my recovery drink, and then host an outdoor dinner party where I'm entertaining guests and cooking on the grill. I feel great after my workout and the next day I'm able to go out and do it again. This is only partly to do with natural ability. I give credit to knowing that my muscles need the proper nutrients in the right amounts to recovery properly so that I can continue to make my demands on them.
So what do our bodies need for proper recovery?
Protein
During our workouts our muscles go through a breakdown process. This is the catabolic phase. After a workout they begin recovery, which is called the anabolic phase (most people have heard of this in conjuction with steroid use). During the anabolic phase our muscles use the protein available in our body to rebuild and repair. One of the reasons we can get so sore is that we have not put enough of the right kind of protein in our body to allow the recovery process to happen the way nature intended.
Even though our muscles are made primarily of protein, our bodies need some help getting the muscles to accept the amino acids and move the recovery process along.
Insulin & Chromium
Most people are probably aware of the role insulin plays in regulating blood sugar, but the athlete also needs to be aware of the role insulin plays in muscle recovery. Insulin is the body's number one anabolic stimulator. It is the key that allows the muscle cells to accept amino acids (protein) and glucose. Without a good supply of insulin, the recovery and rebuilding of the cell cannot take place. Therefore, insulin stimulation is the number one job of a good protein/carbohydrate muscle recovery drink.
Chromium is the cell's receptor for insulin. The nutritional side of your recovery plan needs to include the right amount of chromium so that the insulin can open the muscle cells and allow the BCCAs and carbs to do their work. The product you use should contain 25 to 50 micrograms of chromium nicotinate. This form of chromium is used by the body most efficiently, but is more difficult (and therefore expensive) to produce, so you will not find it in most off-the-shelf products.
Carbohydrate
Since carbohydrate is the one of the main stimulators of insulin (another stimulator being protein) it makes sense that you would want to make sure this is in your recovery plan. But then the questions get a little more involved:
- How much carbohydrate?
- How much protein?
- What kind of protein?
It turns out that most companies don't worry about these details. Most of the stuff you will find on the shelf are more concerned with putting buzzwords on the labels so that the people who don't know better will purchase the stuff. There is one company that I know of that has done the research and the trials and can prove that they have the answer.
Putting It All Together
Most companies are more interested in turning a profit than turnout the best products. They'll just put a bunch of stuff in a can so they can label it with "exotic" ingredients and make rediculous claims that have no basis in science.
The company that I work with has taken the time not only to investigate the research that already existed, but tested it's own product under clinical trials to prove that worked as described. They found that the best form of protein for insulin stimulation are the Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCCAs). The best balance of amino acids in the protein for insulin stimulation is about 40 percent of BCCAs. The best ratio of carbohydrate to protein comes out to be 2.2 to 2.7.
This company developed a release mechanism based on their research and include in their muscle recovery product. The research on this project was so good that it was accepted for publication in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1987;46:474-80. A later study by Dr. John Ivy providing even more proof of the power of this drink appeard in the May 1992 issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology. These are peer reviewed, refereed journals. It is a great honor to have research accepted by such publications.
The research may be terrific, but the bottom line question is, does it work? I can speak from personal experience that this company and their products make a difference. If you try it you'll know what I mean.
There are also a number of Olympic medals won by athletes using a sports nutrition program from this company. They've also sponsored a number of other events, including the first climb to the top of Mt. Everest by a North American without the aid of supplemental oxygen.
If it's good enough for these elite athletes, it's definitely good for me!
Sports Nutrition Tips (will open new window)
Product Label - Muscle Recovery (PDF)
Purchase Info - Muscle Recovery
All products have a 100% guarantee on purity, potency, and effectiveness. It's an "empty bottle" guarantee, which means that you can use all of the contents of anything you try and still get your money back if you are not happy with the results.