Many Bodybuilders Don’t Start the Muscle Recovery Process When It’s Most Needed With A Post-Workout Nutrition Plan
This problem occurs when bodybuilders don’t eat immediately after their workouts.
Here’s the challenge:
“I usually don’t get a chance to eat until after I get home from the gym. By the time I get myself settled, a couple hours have passed.”
Take Action and Do This NOW!
For the same reasons that you must prioritize eating properly before you train, you must also execute an effective post-workout nutritional plan. You should consume a small meal comprised of a high quality protein source and high-glycemic carbohydrates after your weight training and cardiovascular training workouts. Doing so will protect the muscle you’ve already earned and immediately kick the massively-important muscle recovery process into gear.
If you tear it up in the gym the way you like to do during your workouts, your muscles are likely to be depleted of their valuable protein stores—even if you eat before the workout. Your blood sugar levels have been lowered while training as well. When your blood sugar levels have been lowered, the muscles will have difficulty getting the protein they need to maintain their size.
I’ve had certified personal trainers ask me why I would eat my MM25 Whey Protein and a banana right after beating myself up on the recumbent bike. “Aren’t you hindering the fat-burning process that you started by doing cardio when you eat so soon afterwards?” they’ve asked.
I, too, used to believe that you shouldn’t eat anything for a period of time after doing cardiovascular training. I must have read somewhere that doing so would cause your body to stop using your stored body fat as fuel as you intended. Instead, you would start using the food you just made available as fuel.
You don’t really burn enough fat at the time you train or immediately afterward to miss the opportunity to protect your starving muscles from damage caused by training.
Effectively burning body fat has far more to do with the number of calories you consume versus the number of calories you burn throughout the entire day. You will do a better job of shedding body fat when you focus on creating the proper deficit between the two during the day with intelligent nutritional habits.
Copyright 2009 Skip La Cour Consulting. All Rights Reserved.
