RECOVERY FROM HARD EXERCISE, Part I

If you are an athlete who needs to quickly recover from one bout of exercise before you perform again within the next 6 hours, you'll be able to perform better if you plan your recovery diet. The overall goal of this recovery diet is to reverse the process that caused fatigue. This means 1) knowing what to eat and drink to best replace depleted muscle glycogen stores and sweat losses, and 2) knowing how to organize your food supply so the proper foods and fluids are readily available.Obviously, to compete at your best, you need to train at your best. To train at your best, you need to thoroughly refuel on a daily basis. Less obviously, refueling is easier said than done! If you are doing double workouts or are involved in a weekend tournament, you are likely busy cramming this sports commitment into an already full school or work schedule. You may fail to even think about food or plan time for food shopping. However, "no time" is no excuse. You can make time to train and compete; you can also make time to fuel yourself optimally--even if this means keeping a supply of non-perishable food in your car, desk drawer, and gym bag. You simply need to prioritize proper refueling. Otherwise, your own laziness can keep you from reaching the winner's circle.Casual exercisers who work out less than an hour a day need not obsess about prompt recovery. They have not depleted their bodies' fuel supplies, plus they have plenty of time to replace what was used. Not the case for athletes who repeatedly stress their bodies with more than an hour of hard exercise, more than once a day. If that describes you, this article can help you get the most from your workouts. This article, Part I, focuses on glycogen replacement. Part II covers fluid replacement.Optimizing Glycogen ReplacementGlycogen is a form a carbohydrate stored in your muscles and used for fuel during exercise. When you deplete your glycogen stores, you experience extreme fatigue. Australian sports nutritionist Louise Burke, a speaker at the annual meeting of The American College of Sports Medicine (June, 2000), explained that muscles have an initial rapid recovery phase within the first hour post-exercise during which they quickly replace depleted glycogen stores, and then a slower phase thereafter. If you are competing in, let's say, a soccer tournament when you have to play a second game within 3 hours of the first, you want to take advantage of the rapid recovery phase by quickly consuming carbs post-exercise. The shorter the recovery period, the quicker you need to refuel. But if time is on your side, and you won't be exercising within the next 8 hours, you can be a bit more relaxed with your refueling schedule and wait until you feel like eating. Within 24 hours, the muscles given a delayed feeding will catch-up to muscles that were rapidly refed.How much carbohydrate is enough to replenish depleted glycogen stores? Your muscles get well fueled when you eat about 0.5 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight per hour for 5 hours after an exhaustive workout. For a 150 pound athlete, this means 75 grams of carbohydrates--equal to 300 calories and the amount in 16 ounces of grape juice, 2 cans of soda pop, or a big bagel every hour, preferably divided into half-hour feedings. When you are exercising twice a day, you easily have the appetite to eat this much. Casual exercisers, needless to say, have smaller needs and smaller appetites.Athletes who are too busy to plan their sports diet commonly fall short on carbs--particularly if they grab donuts for breakfast, burgers for lunch, chips for snacks, pepperoni pizza with double cheese for dinner, and ice cream for dessert. They are fat-loading, not carbo-loading, and fat does not replace depleted glycogen stores. If these same athletes had given thought to their recovery diet, they could just as easily have grabbed bagels, submarine sandwiches (thick with bread, not meat), pretzels, thick-crust pizza topped with extra veggies, and frozen yogurt. Carbs are available, even when you are eating on the run and at fast-food restaurants.Whether you consume carbs throughout the day by nibbling on cereal, bagels, bananas, yogurt, raisins, pretzels, dried fruits, juices, breads, crackers, and granola bars or whether you sit down and have one huge pasta meal, you'll eventually end up with similar amounts of glycogen. The main concern is getting enough carbs within each 24 hour time period; worry less about small meals vs large meals, and focus more on adequate quantity.If you have seen the new protein-enhanced recovery bars and gels that are invading the marketplace, you may be wondering about the role of protein in the recovery process. The verdict is unclear if post-exercise protein enhances glycogen replacement. Some research suggests protein may stimulate insulin, which in turn stimulates greater glycogen storage. Other research suggests adequate carbohydrates facilitates an adequate recovery; you just have to eat enough post-exercise carbohydrate-calories.If protein is needed to build muscles post-exercise, physiologist Robert Wolfe, a speaker at ACSM's annual meeting, questions if a good time to eat protein to enhance muscular development is pre-exercise. That way, the protein (actually, the amino acids that are the building blocks of protein) will be readily available to be taken up by the muscles during and after exercise. Stay tuned!Given your body needs adequate protein on a daily basis, consuming some pre- or post-exercise protein along with the carbs is a wise idea and a helps to balance the overall diet. Just be sure carbs are always the foundation of your diet, and protein is the accompaniment, such as milk on cereal, some turkey in a submarine roll, or yogurt with fruit. Protein should not displace carbs; that is, don't take Dr. Atkins High Protein diet advice to eat lots of chicken but avoid the pasta, rice and potatoes! You'll crash very fast...and recover very slowly.

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