Your Workout’s Not Over Yet: THE POST-WORKOUT SHAKE!!
Aug 29th, 2007 by Kaiser
From what I’ve been told, my training sessions are difficult – my clients have told me they have to mentally prepare for their sessions like a sporting event. I take that as a compliment, because it’s that type of effort that’s necessary to achieve an exceptional body.
And just like any sport, proper sports nutrition is also vital – I know, the workout was hard enough, now I have to strategize my eating? Well once you start to understand the general concepts they become easy, and through practice they become internalized and a way of life. Knowing what to eat and when will be that edge that will make your results seem “effortless” to others.
What I want to focus on today is the post-workout shake (PWS). The proper supplementation after your workout is absolutely vital to recovery. This information is applicable to both my male and female trainees. Get it right and you’ll see improvements nearly every time you hit the gym.
Despite the progress we’re looking for in the gym, it’s important to realize that high-intensity exercise is largely catabolic (break-down of body tissue). Even though your muscles get pumped and you feel a lot of energy, you’re breaking down muscle tissue and putting a lot of stress on your nervous system. Without the proper nutrition after the workout, this period of breakdown will just continue and may lead to halted progress or even backtracking!
But the bright side is that if done right, this is the one time that your muscles are the most receptive to proper nutrition. Immediately after a tough workout, the muscle cells undergo a change at the cellular level, and essentially become like sponges waiting to absorb any nutrient they can find; the research shows the change is so great that it’s really amazing. It’s during this period that almost everything that is consumed will be shuttled directly into the muscles, not stored as fat, and the groundwork will be set for the progress from your workout to take effect.
Since this high-absorption phase lasts not much longer than an hour, we want to take advantage of it and consume our post workout shake as soon as possible. This will immediately shut-off the catabolic phase of the workout and begin the anabolic (tissue growth) phase of recovery. The post-workout shake is valuable for both female and male trainees equally, even those that are not seeking muscle gain as a goal, and even for those looking for fat-loss! For every one of these cases, muscle preservation is key to fat-loss and strength gain efforts, and therefore the goals in recovery will also be the same. The only thing that will change is the composition of the shake based on body weight.
A shake is preferred to whole food immediately after your workout because of the speed of digestion. Whole food takes much longer to digest than simple liquid sources of nutrition, and for recovery speed is key. Furthermore, the type of liquid we drink is also important – for the protein part of the recovery drink, whey protein isolate is recommended, and for the carbohydrate portion, plain table sugar or dextrose is the way to go. If these ingredients aren’t available to you, you can just mix your usual whey protein with some fruit juice for a similar effect. There is also a great product on the market, Isopure Mass which is designed specifically as a fast-digesting PWS, and has a 53g carbs, 35 g protein breakdown, which is suitable for most athletes.
Now the last question is how much sugar and protein to have? I have a simple formula for you that will work well. The ratio should be 60:40 carbs to protein, and the number of grams depends on your lean body mass. The total grams of the shake should be about 75% of your lean body weight in pounds. So for example, a female athlete weighing 125 pounds with a body-fat of 20% will have a lean body-weight of 100 pounds. Her post-workout drink should be 75 grams, and at the 60:40 breakdown, the carb content will be 45 grams and the protein will be 30 grams.
The only time I would recommend a smaller amount of carbohydrates and a different ratio is for the obese trainee on a serious weight-loss regimen. In nearly all other cases, even in clients on a fat-loss regimen, this ratio will hold true.
And remember, all the calories from the shake will be shuttled into your muscles, so one hour after consuming the shake you can return to your normal eating regimen.
That’s everything you need to know – and not only will having a post-workout shake make you feel stronger, but you’ll also feel like quite the star athlete with all of these sports-nutrition principles, so have fun with it!
