DAILY WORKOUTS
Workout of the day
•120 SECONDS SHADOW BOXING
•10 L&R CLOCK LUNGES
•20 SHELF SIT-UPS(x2 SETS)
•10 'T' PUSH UP WITH
REACH UNDER
•20 HIP RAISE WITH ALT.
LEG EXTENSIONS
•60 SECOND SPOT
RUN HIGH KNEES
•15 LEG SCISSORS
•15 SINGLE LEG BURPEE
WITH OVERHEAD CLAP
•30 RUSSIAN TWIST
CRUNCHES
Todays knowledge talking point is "The window of opportunity"
Most people who have a little knowledge about exercise and nutrition have at one time or another heard about or researched that magical post-exercise time where seemingly all food restrictions are lifted and everyone is free to pig out and feel no guilt.
Firstly for those of you who don't know here is a brief overview.The human body is designed to be an elite super efficient, energy saving machine. In order to exercise our body requires energy and the primary source of energy is the most easy to convert. The glycogen in our muscles first, once this is depleted our body turns to the glucose within our blood stream.
This is a very simplistic version, in fact there are three energy systems that power exercise and movement and dependent on the exercise and intensity each and system will be recruited accordingly. These systems are:
• The Aerobic (or Glycotic)
• The Phosphagen System
• The Anerobic
We will come back and have an in-depth look at each of these other energy systems at a later date.
Swinging back to today's topic. Post exercise, in light of the deficit exercise has caused, the body will pick the most quick and efficient source of replacing glycogen in the muscles. Unfortunately for anybody who is trying to gain muscle mass this can be detrimental. With efficiency being a priority the body starts to break down the fastest available energy source, protein... and the source of the protein is our muscles. The body becomes catabolic. Protein synthesis (the manufacturing process of protein) is marginally increased but protein breakdown is greatly elevated compared to the norm. When protein balance is more weighted towards the negative protein breakdown this can lead to:
- Loss of performance in subsequent exercise routines or sports activities.
- Prolonged muscle soreness and fatigue.
- Minimal gain or even a loss of muscle tissue despite a well-designed exercise program or secondary lowering of metabolic rate.
Now that can be a problem. Exercise is meant to be beneficial to all of the above not detrimental to the health of an exercise participant.
A few hours later a switch occurs and protein synthesis increases protein breakdown decreases although still remaining slightly elevated and 24-hours later protein synthesis and protein breakdown achieve balance. This is the fabled 'window of opportunity' comes into play, where postworkout nutrition becomes an essential part of aiding recovery and promoting muscle gains.
Here I refer to John Beradi's work exercise recovery key points:
• "Rapidly replenish the low glycogen stores in our muscles
• Rapidly decrease the muscle protein breakdown that occurs with exercise
• Rapidly force further increases in muscle protein synthesis in weight trainers and/or restore muscle-protein synthesis in endurance athletes."
So after a long explanation the answer is quite simple. Immediately post exercise you will need to consume a fast acting source of carbohydrates and protein. I am a great believer in natural rather than synthetic sources of nutrition so a home made isotonic sports drink and some pistachio nuts but plenty of other natural protein sources are available such as casein (the isolated protein from milk) for those who prefer a powder. Let's face it, technology and research have moved on since weight trainings hay day but Arnie didn't look bad using casein as a protein source did he?
Endurance athletes are encouraged to consume 0.8 g of carbs per kg of bodyweight in combination with 0.4 g of protein / kg of bodyweight every two hours due to a larger imbalance of protein breakdown Vs. protein synthesis.
For strength athletes we can conclude that they one meal including the same balance as endurance athletes will be sufficient to rapidly decrease muscle protein breakdown due to a lower breakdown:synthesis imbalance.
To force further synthesis in muscle protein the intake of branch chain amino-acids or BCAA's should remain a priority within the 24hrs post exercise.
Let's hope today's topic isn't too much to digest. Here are some basic reference materials that you may find interesting.
Natural protein sources: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/best-sources-protein
Branch chain amino-acids: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Branched-chain_amino_acid
