Post Workout Nutrition For Weight Lifting Routines

When you put the hard work in at the gym – hitting the weights with maximum intensity, day after day, week in week out — you need your nutrition to be spot on to be able to keep it up long term. Poor nutrition in general will mean that not only will you fail to build muscle, but you could actually lose it as you work ouy. Plus, you’ll feel constantly sore and run down and could be more susceptible to injury.

There are several factors which you need to consider for your PWO nutrition, but two of these – protein and carbohydrate — are by far the biggest and it’s these two that you need to concentrate on to make the most of your workouts and stay supremely healthy in the process.

The Importance of Protein

During a workout, your muscle tissue breaks down. As crazy as it sounds, seeing that the objective of lifting weights is to build your muscles up, this process is entirely normal and is actually essential for muscle growth. The heavy weight training causes tiny micro tears in the muscle fibers. In the 24 to 72 hours following your grueling workout session, your body works hard to rebuild this damaged muscle. Scar tissue forms over the tears and interlinks with the rest of your muscle tissue. As this scar tissue builds up it gradually starts to increase the size of your muscles, making you look bigger.

While in theory this should always happen, you could get the opposite result if you don’t take care of your nutrition. In order for this process to occur the right way, you need to be consuming enough calories for your body to have the energy and resources to form the scar tissue. If you’re eating too few calories, your muscles will remain damaged and won’t build at all, hence why you can’t lose fat and gain muscle at the same time.

The other main player here is protein.

Muscles are made from protein and the collagen used to form scar tissue is protein-based too. Just on that basis alone, you can see why protein is so important for building muscle.

While the overall protein content of your diet is the main aspect you need to get right, post workout protein is vitally important too.

You don’t need to slam a protein shake as soon as you complete your last rep, but try to get this serving in a 30 minute window after your session.

The best source here is a fast digesting protein, such as whey protein. Whey protein comes in powder form and can be mixed with water or milk. It’s actually a by-product of the cheese making process. Curds from milk go to make cheese while the whey part can be used for protein powder. As whey is already partially digested and in powder form your body processes it faster and it gets to the muscles sooner, meaning that the post workout muscle building process starts straight away.

If you don’t have access to whey, any other type of protein powder such as pea, rice or egg protein will do. Alternatively a branched chain amino acid (BCAA) supplement will do the job. BCAAs are the building blocks of protein and are also extremely fast-digesting. If you’d rather forego the supplement route altogether though, then a glass or two of low fat milk will do the job too.

One to two hours after your workout eat a whole food meal with another 20 to 30 grams of protein from meat, fish, cottage cheese, Greek yoghurt or eggs.

The Importance Of Carbohydrates In A Post Workout Meal

The other key component to weight lifting post workout nutrition is carbohydrates.

During a hard weights session your body uses up its stores of glycogen. Glycogen is derived from the carbs that you eat and helps fuel your muscles and aerobic system so replenishing your stores of it is essential.

The other way in which carbs help to promote muscle growth is by speeding up the delivery of protein and nutrients to the muscles. Protein on its own isn’t very good at getting round the body quickly – it needs a carrier, and this is where carbs come in. A hefty dose of carbohydrates shuttles protein and amino acids to the muscle cells and kick starts the recovery process.

Carbs also stimulate secretion of the hormone insulin. Insulin is often viewed as bad, as chronically high levels of insulin lead to raised blood sugar which in turn can lead to diabetes and obesity. However, high insulin levels post training not only aid in the delivery of protein around the body but also tops up glycogen stores faster.

The structure of your post workout carbohydrate intake is pretty similar to the guidelines for protein. Just after training you need a source of fast digesting carbs. Sports drinks or carbohydrate powders mixed in water are ideal for this as they’re rapidly absorbed. For sake of convenience you could even purchase a protein/carb all in one recovery powder for right after your workout sessions. Most of these powders have a ratio of between 2:1 and 3:1 carbs to protein, which appears to be optimal for post workout recovery. Just like protein though, there are other options if you’d rather not use supplements. Fruit is nature’s solution for the perfect post workout carbs. A portion of high sugar fruit such as bananas, raisins, mango or pineapple is a fantastic choice for all natural athletes.

The amount of carbs you take in post training will vary depending on a number of factors – how long you’ve trained for, what type of weight training you were doing, and most importantly – how many carbs you’re aiming to eat over the whole day.

When you eat your protein meal a couple of hours later, you should include carbs with this too. As with the above recommendations, the amount of carbs you need will vary from person to person, but another quarter of your daily allowance is a good guide to stick to.

In this meal you don’t necessarily need faster digesting carbs either, as your body is already in recovery mode, so some slower-digesting, more nutrient-dense carbs is a better route to take. Go for white or sweet potatoes, squash, brown rice, oats, pasta or bread. If possible aim to use higher fiber sources, as an increased fiber intake can be beneficial in the prevention of illness and disease. Don’t forget to add some extra carbs in the form of veggies as well – those vitamins and minerals can further bolster your recovery and muscle building gains.

Start on this new post workout regimen that nurtures your body right after your training by feeding it the carbs and protein it craves during this stage, and you won't notice the different right away. You may even feel unusually sluggish if you aren't used to eating after training. WIthin a few weeks, though, your gains will noticeably improve — along with your energy levels.