Everyone who understands recovery knows that feeling of soreness, tired and strained muscles after a tough performance or sustained training. Perhaps you’ve been stepping up your routine on the weights, or increasing your distances in preparation for a big race. The extra effort that we put in has to come from somewhere, but it’s easy to forget that using nutrition is the most sensible way to help aid muscle rebuilding and overcome these recovery periods.
Protein is effective for rest periods because it provides your muscles with the means to rebuild after damage is caused during exercise. When your body is put under pressure and muscles are asked to push themselves past their comfort zone, micro-tears to the muscle tissues begin to form. After exercise, you can feel sore, tired and weak as your body begins the process of rebuilding the tissues.
While sports drinks will replace the carbohydrates you have burned during your activity, protein is the key to helping the muscles rebuild. It’s theorized that a window of opportunity exists around 30 minutes after exercise ends: this window is the optimum time to consume extra protein to help rebuild your muscles. Between 20-40g seems to be the sweet spot for many athletes.
This state of protein synthesis and muscle breakdown is accelerated for around 24 hours after exercise. As well as getting adequate protein in the minutes after training, you need to provide your body with balanced protein over the next day at least. As well as consuming adequate protein after training, to maximise the potential of protein synthesis, ensure that you maintain the required protein consumption for your body weight and goal.
Get the Balance Right
By providing the right ratio of protein to your body weight and stripping out unwanted carbs and fats, you can give your muscles exactly what they require to be effectively maintained.
Protein-rich foods like meat, fish, dairy, beans and nuts should naturally be incorporated into your healthy diet. Because they all contain other macronutrients – fat and carbohydrates – their speed of absorption can vary.
Maximuscle products contain complete protein sources that include all the essential amino acids. Maximuscle protein powders contain a blend of protein that starts to work in minutes and lasts for hours.
