#4B: AFTER EXERCISE RECOVERY:
As a follow up to yesterday's tip #3 (protein & sugars), the body does need both protein and some kinds of sugars at certain times, especially following exercise: The scientific definition of "recovery" after workouts is how quickly, efficiently and completely your muscles absorb a moderate amount of protein and carbohydrate within the first and second hours, immediately after activity.
(First serving immediately, second serving 2 hours later, in order to maximize what's known as the insulin response...insulin being the primary anabolic (muscle building) hormone, contrary to the misunderstanding of testosterone.)
You can imagine the muscles as rooms in a house and the doors to the rooms being controlled by the doorknobs, also known as the hormone insulin. When you consume protein and carbs
(during the first couple hours after exercise), insulin pushes them into the muscles and closes the doors.
In the minutes following exercise and competition, the muscles are thirsty for protein and sugars. Without them, the muscles don't recover fully prior to your next training sessions. SO, you're either in a state where you are recovering, getting stronger and gaining endurance or you're getting tired, run down and losing lean mass based on your post workout recovery habits.
The best study I have seen over the decades, and I mean real science performed on real people (double blind, placebo controlled, randomized study on human subjects and published in a peer reviewed medical journal) [as apposes to marketing hype and pseudo-science] showed that a protein to carb ratio of 2.7 optimized this insulin response following exercise.
A lot of times people ask what foods they can use to maximize this recovery response and take advantage of the science in the 2.7 ratio.
Honestly, after decades at this, I've never seen any whole-food combinations that work as efficiently as science rooted recovery drink mix...
Whole foods have to be the foundation of a solid fitness nutrition program, BUT in the post workout context, (at certain times) the importance of timing of recovery supercedes the theory of whole foods... Digesting food takes too long! In other words, at some points in your training regime, functional-foods work better!
When you think of the time, energy and monetary investment you have in your workouts the choice is simple, since you can't go back and make up for the time following training to regain the lost recovery time. If you're a person who just wants to be "busy" recovery might not be a priority for you...but optimal recovery also deceased the incidence of injuries.
If that's not convincing enough, simple check your body composition every 30 days after doing either whole food or recovery drink for a full month... Your body will tell you whether whole food or a solid recovery drink is better for gaining lean mass and losing fat. Some of the drink mixed on the market are not only unhealthy, they taste like s***!
Many recovery drink don't have the efficient ratio (2.7) of protein to carbs...they simply throw stuff together and then say THAT is the right ratio (marketing hype).
The one I have used since 1993 is GMO free, organic and cleaner and more simple than anything else I've seen. If it doesn't seem like you recover as quickly as you think you should and want to gain strength and endurance, examine your post workout recovery routine. The first and second hours after your workouts are critical times... Once that first hour passes the muscles don't absorb protein and carbohydrate as well and you can kiss goodbye the "recovery window" opportunity nature provides you.
When it comes to the differences and advantages / disadvantages of whey protein vs soy or other plant based proteins, there simply hasn't been much credible research on protein types...yes, there is a lot of pseudo-science, mis-information, emotional-based marketing hype and marketing labels based on what companies think consumers "want" to hear.
A simple example of this is when a company identifies the niche market they want to pursue
(say vegetarians), then they advertise their product as "better", refer to fake science or studies which either are unrelated to their product or studies that (once looked into) provide information that is the opposite of what the company claims is true.
Although one of the most credible (tightly controlled variables) studies shows whey protein showed that whey elicits the best insulin response post workout. Whether or not someone is opposed to quality of milk is is irrelevant since there are whey proteins which are clean, non-GMO, organic, etc. on the other hand, soy protein has the highest protein efficiency ratio of plant and animal protein.
So again, not all "soy" is created equal and much of the allergies and problems associated with soy relates to conventionally farmed, mishandled, improperly handled raw materials and so on.
Lumping one type of protein into a bad category says more about an individual's inability to find a quality product than their ability to rote memorize supposed facts and details about nutrition which in America is mostly based on the pseudo-science of marketing companies, almost resembling superstition, designed more to manipulate consumers' buying habits than empower better buying decisions (-just because we learned it doesn't make it real).
Lumping one type of protein into a bad category says more about an individual's inability to find a quality product than their ability to rote memorize supposed facts and details about nutrition which in America is mostly based on the pseudo-science of marketing companies, almost resembling superstition, designed more to manipulate consumers' buying habits than empower better buying decisions (-just because we learned it doesn't make it real).
BUT, some people don't get it and cling to what they believe, missing out on the benefits of good quality protein by throwing out the baby with the bath water, by associating poor quality as the only quality in a given category...(they miss out on the benefits because they value what they believe, more than looking at the whole picture, discerning the subtle and powerful differences...(it's humbling to set aside what you have held as real to learn something better))[being emotionally attached to an idea does validate not the idea].
Once a person insists on arguing about superstitious, pseudo-science factoids, they have long since evacuated the realm of learning to improve themselves and their health and made a home of "being right vs being healthy". In other realms we call this "being baffled by your own B.S...(Belief Systems).
The kind I have used for decades and refer my clients to is here:
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