POST-WORKOUT NUTRITION

Dear friends. Here’s a mind-blowing article. I recommend you to read it all because you’ll learn a lot of useful stuff.  Proper post-workout nutrition has traditionally been crucial in bodybuilding.  After all, we all remember that workouts only destroy our muscles, which may grow or may not grow, but only AFTER the workout and only when there is enough building material.

It has been 9 months since I released a very detailed post-workout nutrition pattern, focused on muscle gains, which was called the “Men’s Pattern”.  During this time, a great number of people left their feedback, comments and additions in this respect.  Many of the following insights turned out to be very useful and proved to be effective after testing.  Now I decided to share our findings with you and present even more reasonable ways to develop your anabolic post-workout diet.

ANABOLIC WINDOW

In bodybuilding there is a popular idea of a very “narrow window” that “opens” for a shot time immediately after workout when our body needs and is able to absorb particularly many nutrients predominates.  First of all, they include carbohydrates and proteins. The idea looks very reasonable, especially in view of a zillion different articles on that in glossy magazines, that recommend to drink protein or weight gainers (liquid carbohydrates in high concentration with a small amount of protein) immediately after the workout.   But our insights give an unorthodox idea that the “anabolic meaning” of this window is very exaggerated.

Those guys who regularly drank gainer right after the workout, and then switched to carbohydrates from regular foods an hour after, and sometimes even two hours after the workout, DID NOT SEE ANY ADVERSE CHANGES!  Moreover, often their gains in muscle strength and fullness were much better than before.  That’s mystical, isn’t it?

I was so interested in this observation that I decided to try to stop taking carbohydrate-protein supplements after the workout.  For several months I just drank water after a workout and drove home, where I ate rice with meat and vegetables in 1-2 hours.

I didn’t see any downside whatsoever in terms of glycogen recovery and accumulation.  Apart from that, I noticed that even digestion is much better in an hour than immediately after a workout.  It might be due to the fact that blood calmly returns from the strained muscles to the stomach during that time.    I gave it some thought and recalled a number of successful bodybuilders who intuitively arrived at the same post-workout diet.

When I was young and fanatical, I had a friend in the team (Mr. X) who almost never used food after the workout.  He just got dressed and drove home, where he ate quietly an hour later.  It was odd since Mr. X was a very massive guy and felt no lack of muscle glycogen or the size of these muscles.

RESTORATION OF MUSCLE GLYCOGEN

It is mostly recommended to use large doses of carbohydrates as soon as possible after a workout, justifying this by the need to restore spent glycogen.  GLYCOGEN is a carbohydrate stored in muscles (it is used during a workout as fuel).  Therefore, it is logical enough that having spent something, our body tends to get this something back... I thought hard and searched for some experiments and studies on the matter.  There were very few of them, and the worst part about them was that these experiments were very contradictory.

Most of these experiments did show that glycogen restored faster if you drank carbohydrates after a workout. BUT this applies only to workouts aimed at developing aerobic endurance or strength endurance, at best, with a small load. That is, this is not about bodybuilding, but long-distance running or crossfit, at best.  All of this has confused me even more. Again, endurance training involves oxidative energy supply, while weight training in the gym imply anaerobic glycolysis (with muscle glycogen as the main source)...In other words, we are very actively spending carbohydrates (muscle glycogen) in the gym, so it would be logical that it should recover faster after such a workout.

Nevertheless, one of the experiments showed that CARBOHYDRATES TAKEN IMMEDIATELY AFTER WORKOUT INCREASE GLYCOGEN BY 16% MORE EFFECTIVE THAN REGULAR WATER!

Someone may say: you see, the process is as much as 16% better than not drinking carbohydrates after a workout. But guys, do the math, better than what?  Water? I mean it has no nutrients.   I’ll simplify: even if you don’t eat anything at all for 1-2 hours after workout.... YOUR MUSCLE GLYCOGEN RESTORES! And moreover, it recovers very actively.   Imagine a lamp switch that has two positions ON (carbohydrates) and OFF (no carbohydrates).  So at night, this lamp lightens in any position. The only difference is that lighting is slightly dimmer (by 16% only) in OFF position.  Would you waste electricity in this case? That's so funny....

I came to the conclusion that GLYCOGEN ACCUMULATES CUMULATIVELY, i.e. gradually, during the day.  And to have the maximum accumulation of glycogen in muscles, you don’t have to quickly eat carbs immediately after workout, but regularly and frequently eat carbohydrates during the day. Glycogen accumulation will reach its maximum at least 24 hours after workout.  It is IMPORTANT TO EAT RIGHT during that period!

Does this mean that eating carbs right after your workout will hurt?  We’ll talk about it a bit later. In any case, the benefit of such meal will be so minimal that it can be safely neglected.

CONCLUSION: IT’S IMPORTANT TO EAT CARBOHYDRATES WITHIN 24 HOURS, NOT IMMEDIATELY AFTER WORKOUT.

These findings back experiments on measuring post-exercise insulin sensitivity. Let me remind you that weight training improves INSULIN SENSITIVITY, i.e. carbohydrates are utilized more effectively.  This has long been known, which is why diabetics and obese people are advised to reduce insulin resistance with weight training. That’s true. For how long do you think insulin sensitivity increases after a workout? For 1, 2, 3 hours?... Now, experiments (Koopman et al., 2005) show that INSULIN HYPERSENSITIVITY PERSISTS FOR MORE THAN 24 HOURS AFTER EXERCISE!

CONCLUSION: There is no need to shove a portion of carbs (especially hard ones, as many do) after workout. You can safely go home and eat natural food (not a weight gainer, but a portion of potatoes or rice). It won’t hurt since the TOTAL DAILY INTAKE OF CARBOHYDRATES IS IMPORTANT, and not how much you eat them right after the workout.  Routine and plan are more important than one-time sacrifices.

WHAT IF TAKE CARBOHYDRATES + PROTEIN IMMEDIATELY AFTER WORKOUT?

One of the well-known post-workout nutrition rules says that carbohydrates and proteins are better absorbed when combined rather than separated.  At first glimpse, it makes a lot of sense, as carbs contribute to insulin spike, a transport hormone utilizing both carbs and proteins. However, experiments (Tipton et al., 2001) on weight gainer uptake (lots of carbohydrates + moderate proteins) gave surprising results:   PROTEIN SYNTHESIS IS 30% LESS IF YOU EAT IMMEDIATELY AFTER WORKOUT!   So much for the carbohydrate-protein supplements after workout...

POST-WORKOUT PROTEIN

Protein is sacred in bodybuilding. Each newcomer, when starting his thorny way to the big muscles, is ready to drink protein by the bucket, strongly believing in its miraculous power.  Faith is always good, but if you drink protein after workout hoping that it will significantly accelerate your muscle growth by accelerating protein synthesis, you get it all wrong.

The experiments that I could find regarding protein synthesis rate and protein intake during the day show that PROTEIN SYNTHESIS RATE IS SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER WITHIN 24 HOURS AFTER WORKOUT!   Moreover, even 48 HOURS AFTER, PROTEIN SYNTHESIS WILL BE 33% FASTER!!!

What does that mean?  It means that protein synthesis rate will not be ultimately affected whether you drink a protein shake after a workout or the next morning.  In other words, workout increases protein synthesis rate by at least a day, and taking huge amount of protein after workout does not accelerate the process.   That is, by and large there is no such thing as 1-2-hour post-workout “protein-carbohydrate window”.  There are huge shed gates that are wide open within 1-2 days, both for protein and carbs.

Where did the information about the “narrow window for a couple of hours” come from?  The thing is that there are several experiments on protein synthesis rate in the elderly, which did show the effective absorption of single servings of protein after exercising.  However, as scientists have now established, this is due to the fact that the elderly have a different protein metabolism (whey protein is absorbed in the same way as casein, i.e. very slowly, therefore single doses of protein are better absorbed than fractional ones).  Ordinary people have a higher protein absorption rate, so they burn out faster and require more frequent intake.

Now, since we realized that there’s no window, what’s the conclusion?  It’s quite simple:  Once the “window” is open for 24 hours after workout, MEALS WILL BE EQUALLY EFFECTIVE THROUGHOUT THE DAY.  The sum of meals per day matters, and not a single large dose of carbs or proteins.

This suggests that fast proteins are not crucial for muscle growth and strength.  What’s the point of spending a ton of money on a taxi to the museum if the tour does not start until the rest of the class is there?   This is huge because truly fast proteins (whey protein hydrolysates and free amino acids) are much more expensive than regular proteins and food from your table.  The protein’s qualitative amino acid profile, and not its absorption rate, is much more important in this regard.  In other words, if you decide to buy a jar of long-awaited protein, it is better to buy two jars of whey protein than one jar of hydrolyzate or a jar of amino acids.

It is also quite possible that the intake of a complete protein (with the amino acids necessary for the muscles) is of great importance.  That is 100 g soybean protein is much worse than 100 g chicken breast protein. And if you eat several sources of animal protein (chicken, beef, eggs) during the day, it will be better than one source of protein, as the amino acid profile will be more balanced.    It is also quite possible that taking amino acids in very small doses while taking less complete proteins increases their quality and is more useful for protein synthesis (that’s an assumption).  However in Men’s Pattern 2.0 I give such a plan as an advanced alternative.

SECOND MEAL AFTER WORKOUT

Finally, there is another amazing experiment (Borsheim et al. 2002), which demonstrated that liquid protein (shake) is optimal for a SECOND meal after workout.  I do not see any logical explanation for this (after all, food effectiveness is cumulative, as we found out) and I’m not sure it is the case.

However, it is very easy and natural to keep this pattern of protein intake, so you can use it in your diet.   Eat solid carbohydrate-protein foods (rice or potatoes + fish or meat) 1-2 hours after workout, and drink a protein shake in another 1-2 hours.  Little has changed in this regard.  If you used the Men’s Pattern, you already know that carbs are more important than proteins after workout.   You can continue pursuing this strategy.

The only thing worth changing (as an experiment) is to remove carbs from the second post-workout meal.  It won’t hurt, and it might do good.   Anyway, that’s what experiments say.

BEDTIME MEAL

We already know that our body’s resources are spent when we sleep. Moreover, they are spent while not renewed, as we do not eat when we sleep.  Overall, this is not good for anabolism as it requires excess nutrients.

In this regard, it is very important to eat a big portion of LONG PROTEIN before bed.  It can be either COTTAGE CHEESE or CASEIN PROTEIN (same thing). Basically, we leave this recommendation unchanged (this was recommended in the Men’s pattern).

But here’s something new that I advise you to do...  EAT PROTEIN FOOD AT NIGHT!  This is very inconvenient and suitable for crazy fans only (I personally don’t do that), BUT IT WORKS!  It works because EATING PROTEIN AT NIGHT INCREASES ANABOLIC ACTIVITY IN MUSCLES! Back in the day, I carried experiments on my diet: I set an alarm clock and put a shaker with casein next to the bed to wake up in 4 hours and have a dose of protein.  I think it worked well.  I liked the feeling.  You get used to it in a couple of weeks and you don’t need an alarm clock: the body wakes up on its own.    In any case, even if you’re not a fan, you might wake up at night to go to the bathroom or think about universal paradoxes .... then don’t stall and drink protein or eat half a pack of cottage cheese.  It will be useful.

PRE-WORKOUT MEAL

Let’s start with the beginning. The very morning... BREAKFAST is a much more important meal than the one after workout.  Why? Because you did not eat for 8 hours before breakfast, and you did not eat for 2-3 hours before a post-workout meal.  In the first case, your body experiences a greater shortage than in the second case. But you should be careful here, because the body and our digestive system need time to wake up.  Therefore, I usually recommend drinking half a glass of water or liquid carbohydrates and giving your stomach time to wake up ....  And then eat a good portion of solid carbohydrates and proteins.

And here’s the revelation about eating right before the workout.  Traditionally, it is not recommended to eat before exercising, since this draws blood away from the muscles to the stomach during the exercise.  Is this true? Yes and no.  If you eat SOLID long-digesting protein food 30-60 minutes before a workout, this will make the workout more difficult as your stomach will be full of solid food that will be digested for many hours.

On the other hand, ANY MEAL RESULTS IN INSULIN RELEASE. Insulin is a transport hormone with a very interesting property few people know about: INSULIN INCREASES BLOOD FLOW TO THE MUSCLES, and therefore enhances the supply of oxygen, amino acids and other nutrients (proved by Kogginosm et al., 2001). In other words, pre-workout meal enhances muscle protein synthesis.It raises the question: how much? And we have an answer to this question.   There was an experiment (Tipton et al., 2001) studying protein synthesis during a workout after a liquid meal (gainer). Scientists have found that protein synthesis was enhanced.  Big time.  A LIQUID MEAL BEFORE WORKOUT AT LEAST DOUBLES PROTEIN SYNTHESIS RATE! The same group of scientists carried out the same experiment with liquid food eaten after workout and came to the conclusion that protein synthesis was less enhanced in this case than when eating liquid food before a workout.   These amazing experiments allow for useful conclusions.

CONCLUSION: LIQUID FOOD BEFORE WORKOUT MUCH MORE EFFECTIVELY ENHANCES PROTEIN SYNTHESIS THAN AFTER WORKOUT thanks to the insulin action.   GIVE PREFERENCE TO LIQUID RATHER THAN SOLID FOOD

GENERAL CONCLUSIONS

• IT IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT TO OPTIMIZE MEALS DURING THE DAY THAN HAVE A SINGLE POST-WORKOUT MEAL! The latter has minimum effect compared to the first.   The “WINDOW” is always open!
• LIQUID MEAL BEFORE WORKOUT IS TWICE MORE EFFECTIVE FOR PROTEIN SYNTHESIS THAN AFTER WORKOUT (you need liquid food with a focus on carbs)
• YOU SHOULD NOT EAT IMMEDIATELY AFTER WORKOUT (but after 30-90 minutes)
• IT IS ADVISABLE TO EAT PROTEIN (shake) AT YOUR SECOND MEAL AFTER WORKOUT
• BREAKFAST IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN POST-WORKOUT MEALS
• IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO EAT A LONG PROTEIN BEFORE BED.
• EATING PROTEIN AT NIGHT INCREASES ANABOLIC ACTIVITY IN MUSCLES!
• ANABOLISM REQUIRES EXCESS KCAL (first of all, CARBOHYDRATES, then PROTEINS)