Muscle Growth with Post-Workout Nutrition

If you design your nutrition plans to maximize muscle growth, you must think about planning and taking properly the most important meal of the day. Do you know which?

It is easy if you have read the title! Yes. Post-Workout meal or meals are the most important.

After an intense weight lifting workout your body system is characterized by three main factors:

1. Glycogen Stores are low.

2. Protein Breakdown is increased.

3. Muscle Protein Balance is negative.

Therefore, for a rapid recovery from exercise, immediately after a workout (strength or endurance), you must:

1. Rapidly replenish the low glycogen stores in your muscles.

2. Rapidly decrease the muscle protein breakdown that occurs with exercise, especially high intensity bodybuilding training.

3. Rapidly force further increases in muscle protein synthesis in weight trainers and/or restore muscle-protein synthesis in endurance athletes.

Failure to accomplish any one of these objectives will lead to a lowered rate of recovery from your workout. And the slower the recovery process is, the less muscle growth you can stimulate!

Studies have found that delaying nutrients (protein and carbohydrate) consumption after a workout can greatly reduce the rate of glycogen restoration and protein synthesis. In fact, the rate of glycogen synthesis is reduced by 50% if nutrients are not consumed immediately after a workout. Besides, delaying post-workout nutrients absorption will negatively affect protein synthesis.

A few hours after a workout, the insulin sensitisation stimulated by intense training will be much lower: there is a two to threefold increase in insulin sensitivity immediately post-workout. After two or three hours, it is down to only 44% above baseline (Levenhagen et al. 2001). So basically, if you wait too long after your workout to consume a mix of fast absorbing proteins and high glycemic carbohydrates, the amount of muscle you will build in response to your session will be significantly decreased.

There are two key factors to rapidly increasing post-workout glycogen synthesis:

1. Adequate carbohydrate availability (to convert to muscle glycogen).

2. High insulin levels (to stimulate glycogen storage and shuttle carbohydrates into the muscle).

An ideal post-workout muscle growth stimulating formula would include fast absorbing proteins, high glycemic carbohydrates, and some additional BCAAs (which have been shown to drastically increase protein synthesis and decrease protein breakdown on their own). Certain amino acids can increase the insulin response to meals. By adding certain amino acids to the carbohydrate/protein beverage in the above study, the insulin responses were considerably higher than the carbohydrate/protein beverage alone.

In order to maximize these two key factors you need to increase the gastric emptiness rate as much as possible. The different proposed ingredients must be fast absorbing. To achieve this goal you must dilute these nutrients into a lot water quantity. Liquid nutrition is more rapidly digested and absorbed, nutrients are more rapidly delivered to the muscle.

The final piece of the post-workout puzzle is the management of protein synthesis. And although this area is a little more complex than managing protein breakdown, there are three key ingredients to increasing protein synthesis immediately after workouts:

1. A proper ratio of BCAAs.

2. High blood levels of essential amino acids.

3. High blood levels of insulin.

You must prioritize 3 main factors as soon as possible.

=====================================================================

By John Voight

http://www.1st-muscle-guide.com

The unbiased look about bodybuilding and muscle building techniques.

Subscribe yourself to the most relevant free e-zine about bodybuilding and muscle growth.

=====================================================================

---

Building Better Biceps

Two of the nine pivot points - those stunning body... Read More

Muscle Soreness After Exercise

Many individuals judge the quality of their exercise session from... Read More

3 Amazing Ways to Shape Up Your Muscles in Less Than 7 days!

Imagine you need to look great to get all the... Read More

How Long Should You Rest Between Muscle Building Sessions?

In an earlier article we concluded that muscles must be... Read More

Personal Trainers with Real People, Real Situations

TO DO OR NOT TO DO? ? ABSTWO WEEKS PRIOR... Read More

Personal Lactate Threshold Training

These are not the reasons we do Lactate Threshold Training.What... Read More

Is Your Muscle Building Potential Limited By Your Genes?

It is clear that certain traits are handed down to... Read More

Follow the Path of MOST Resistance! Why Weight Training Is The Fast Track To Sculpting Your Body

Resistance is NOT futile! When it comes to changing your... Read More

Exercise The Right Way - The Deadlift

Other articles in this series looked at a number of... Read More

Exercise The Right Way - The Lying Triceps Extension

Other articles in this series looked at a number of... Read More

Barbell Exercises That Suit Beginners

The aim for beginners to weight training must be to... Read More

Tendonitis and the Effects on Your Routine

What turns out to be a small, yet annoying pain... Read More

Deep Muscle Soreness And Body-Shock Fatigue

In my experience there are two distinct types of muscular... Read More

The Importance of Maintaining A Weight Training Log

Do you find gyms intimidating? Feel lost while doing your... Read More

Successful Body Building Routine

There are some major key parts to a successful body... Read More

Know Your Muscles - The Mid-Section

Becoming familiar with the muscles that make up your body... Read More

Exercise The Right Way - The Leg Extension

Other articles in this series looked at a number of... Read More

The Skinny on Muscle Imbalances - Restoring Order As A Means Of Eliminating Back Pain

There are many causes of back pain. Injury, illness, herniated... Read More

Bodybuilding Sins That Cause Back Pain and Missed Workouts: Part 3

Welcome to article number 2 in our series "Bodybuilding Sins... Read More

Questioning Proper Abdominal Training

Q: I've heard you mention that you don't need tons... Read More

A Recovered Treasure: The Pilates Method

Uncovered After 80 Years of Dormancy, Pilates is Far From... Read More

Know Your Muscle Building Exercises - The Chest

Every bodybuilder and weight trainer will have his or her... Read More

Exercise The Right Way - The Barbell Bent-Over Row

Other articles in this series looked at a number of... Read More

How To Gain Weight

Until I started following a routine to eat, my gains... Read More

Maximize The Windows of Opportunity For Explosive Muscle Growth

You have two main windows of opportunity when your training.... Read More

Exercise The Right Way - The Stiff-Leg Deadlift

Other articles in this series looked at a number of... Read More

Know All about Power Push Ups

Push ups are the most convenient way to build up... Read More

Protein or Carbohydrates?

This has got to be the biggest controversy in modern... Read More

Four Powerful Tricks for Successful Lucid Dreaming

By definition, Lucid Dreaming means "conscious awareness during the dream... Read More

One Simple Movement Can Double the Effectiveness of Pulldowns

The Pulldown is an excellent exercise for working the Latissimus... Read More

Ab Sculpting Exercise - One Of The Most Productive Exercises For Your Abs That Is Hardly Ever Used

Before I talk about one of the most productive and... Read More

Body Building for beginners

Body building or even just showing up at a gym... Read More

Muscle-Building Exercises and Growth-Boosters

I have 'emerged' some subtle bodybuilding techniques that infuse rapid... Read More