Recovery Nutrition for Athletes
The definition of recovery is "returning to a normal state of health, mind, or strength."
In the context of sport and athletic training, that means after completing a training session, the aim is to get back to the point where you'd be able to repeat that same session with equal or greater intensity in the days that follow.
Provided that training is appropriate, this repeated cycle of stimulus followed by recovery allows the body to adapt accordingly, thereby improving strength, endurance, muscle size, speed, or whatever other training goal you're trying to achieve.
This can be seen in the graph below, where the line moves downwards with each training session (signalling fatigue), and then moves upwards between sessions towards the previous baseline (signalling recovery) and beyond it (signalling adaptation).
Issues occur when we don't allow for adequate recovery and adaptation, where we then go into subsequent sessions already in an under-recovered state.
If this is repeated on an ongoing basis, it's likely to lead to fatigue, diminished performance, and often, injury.
The "Recovery Window"
If you've ever done a hard training session, you'll already know that the recovery isn't done only in the hours after training - your sore legs the morning after will let you know that.
That is to say that the so-called "recovery window" extends well beyond the hour after a training session, and often into the day or days following it.
However, that period of time immediately after a training session offers you the first opportunity to maximise your recovery for upcoming sessions, and therefore shouldn't be taken lightly.
There are many aspects of recovery worth touching on, and these will be covered in other articles, but for this one, the focus is on the nutritional aspect of the post-training or post-performance period.
You can break the nutritional approach during this period into 3 "R"s: Rebuild, Refuel, and Rehydrate.
1. Rebuild
During intense physical training, muscle damage occurs.
This muscle damage usually isn't enough to cause an injury, but after hard training sessions, it can often result in soreness, as well as temporarily reduced strength, endurance, and mobility.
This isn't necessarily a negative thing, and actually may be a factor that signals adaptations in the muscle.
However, if it persists into the next training session, it's usually a sign that you're not fully recovered.
In previous articles, I illustrated the role of protein in providing amino acids to the body, and the idea of amino acids being seen as the building blocks of muscle tissue.
In the post-training period, there's an increased demand for these amino acids, given their role in the repair of muscle tissue.
For this reason, consuming protein is a important element of post-training nutrition.
20-40g of protein from a high-quality source is generally enough to stimulate muscle protein synthesis (i.e. the creation of new muscle tissue), and therefore support the recovery process.
To put that in context, a few common examples of protein-rich foods include:
Medium Chicken Breast: 30-40g of protein
4 eggs: 24g of protein
1 Scoop whey protein: 20-25g of protein
Medium steak: 60-80g of protein
Salmon Fillet: 30-40g of protein
Pot of Greek yoghurt: 20g of protein
2. Refuel
If you recall the definition of recovery being related to being able to repeat a prior session with the same or greater quality, repairing muscle damage is only one element of that.
Another aspect involves being properly fuelled or “re-fuelled” for that session.
That fuelling process can start immediately after the previous session.
In previous articles, I discussed that the main energy source used in high-intensity athletic training and sport is glycogen, which is the stored form of carbohydrates in the body.
Because of this, the more energy used in these tough training sessions, the more the body's level of glycogen stores will become depleted.
Starting the refuelling process in the post-training period by consuming carbohydrates is important for this reason.
In addition, the body's ability to store glycogen is increased following exercise, making it an even more important time to start consuming carbohydrates.
This becomes less important if you have a long period of time (2-3 days, for example) between sessions, where you'll have a lot more opportunity to consume carbohydrates as part of your daily diet in between sessions.
But for someone who trains most days or even twice a day, consuming carbohydrates post-training becomes more important when it comes to being refuelled by the next session.
In the post-training period, general recommendations are to consume 1-1.5g per kg of bodyweight within the hour following the training session (e.g. 80-120g of carbohydrates for an 80kg athlete).
However, this will vary greatly based on the intensity and duration of the session, as well as your overall calorie intake.
For example, someone who's in a fat-loss phase may not want to allot as many calories to the post-training period, and may prefer to spread them out throughout the day, allowing for more enjoyable meals, and therefore better dietary adherence.
And someone who just finished a low-intensity sports skill session obviously won't need as much as someone who just ran 20 miles.
So there will certainly be a high level of individuality here.
The best advice I can give in this general context is to have your overall daily carbohydrate at an appropriate level, and bias some of that towards the pre- and post-training period - more if you are training often, and more if your training is of high duration and/or intensity.
To put the amounts into context, a few common examples of carbohydrate-rich foods include:
100g rice (raw weight): 75g of carbohydrates
400g potatoes: 68g of carbohydrates
100g pasta (raw weight): 75g of carbohydrates
2 slices of bread: 25g of carbohydrates
1 sports drink: 32g of carbohydrates
3 rice cakes: 20g of carbohydrates
1 large sweet potato: 30-40g of carbohydrates
3. Rehydrate
Similarly to carbohydrates being depleted as a result of intense training, water and electrolytes can also become depleted, primarily through sweat and breathing out water vapour.
In previous articles, I outlined the importance of maintaining adequate levels of fluids and electrolytes during training and competitive events.
Again, once these have been depleted, in order to ensure you're ready for the next session, it's important to replenish them by the time the next session comes around.
As with carbohydrates, this can be done throughout the period between sessions, and the importance of the immediate post-training period increases as the time between sessions decreases.
However, even in cases where there's plenty of time between sessions, getting back to a baseline level of hydration as soon as possible after the session is still important.
This is because of the knock-on effects that dehydration can have, including decreased blood flow, negative impact on sleep, and poorer digestion, all of which can have an indirect effect on recovery.
In terms of practical application, you can keep it simple by subtracting your post-training bodyweight from your pre-training bodyweight (you don't have to do this before and after every session—just enough times to give you an average), aiming to consume that weight in water in the hours following training.
It can be worth adding in some electrolytes here, either in the form of a supplement within your water or by adding salt to your post-training meals.
This will help replace some of those lost through sweat during training, but will also allow you the body to hold onto more of the water you’re consuming in the post-training period, helping you get back to baseline levels of hydration more quickly.
Article Written By Conor O’Neill
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