Started by Joey Frad, December 10, 2012 · 15 Replies · 3,880 Views
Hey guys, are there any foods that you are aware of that help speed the recovery process. For example papayas have papain and pineapples have bromelain and they help breakdown protein..
I don't know, any food that will get you to your next workout a tad faster?
Ive found that you can eat these types of food all you want but sleep and correct macronutrients/calories are 100x more effective. I personally have been making sure I get enough Carbs post workout and this has helped my recovery immensely. After that vitamins and minerals are the next thing. If you have some nutrient deficiency you wont recover. Antioxidant rich foods will also be beneficial. Then you can start talking about things like creatine and other supplemental foods like the ones you mentioned. Poliquin has a ton of blogs on foods that help you along with a very large supplement line.
In my opinion so few people use the natural recovery elements correctly that these things are likely not to make much of a difference.
Daniel. If my immediate Post WO shake has bcaa,creatine,protein, should i put some sort of carb in there? or just include them with my meal 1 hour PWO?
This is a topic of hot debate and I expect that Josh will probably come in and write an essay on the subject or at least forward us to an already existing one.
I believe that you should include carbs immediately post workout. In fact I always include Maltodextrin or some other fast carb before I drink my protein. The amount like everything depends on your weight. I weigh ~150 pounds and try to get 30 immediately after exercise and nearly 60 later on. The 60 is either contained in one large meal or spread out over the hour after the workout.
I wont comment on the justification because I could not do it justice at this time, however I do feel immensely better after I get the carbs. I train for about 2.5-3 hours. I also consume a pre-workout meal and depending on the workout eat grapes/ highly concentrated gatorade during.
So yes I would include carbs PWO.
Short version:
Protein pre-workout helps prevent muscle protein breakdown during the workout. There is no evidence to suggest that this can elevate protein synthesis AFTER the workout, but that may be an issue with nutrient timing in the studies currently performed and published. They tend to give the protein 1 hour pre-workout, and are quick to point out in the discussion section that this may be why there is a prevention of protein breakdown but not any enhancement of protein synthesis.
Protein post-workout: This gives protein to your body at a time when raw materials are required to elevate protein synthesis. Protein alone, in fact the specific mixture you mention, has been show to give the exact same result as a carbohydrate-only PWO drink.
Protein + carbs PWO: This is the ticket.
Functionality: The carbs spike insulin, which has been shown to prevent around 50% of post-exercise protein breakdown. This does not further elevate protein synthesis, but it does cause a much larger positive nitrogen balance because you are LOSING less protein.
You need to get your insulin levels up to around 5x fasting levels, and PWO you are much more sensitive to insulin because the sodium-dependent receptors (which are insulin independent) are much more active and appear to play a role in sensitizing the cell to the effects of insulin.
Because you are more sensitive, it takes less insulin to get the same carbs into your system. For this reason, it is recommended to get a very large, very fast-digesting serving of carbs. You NEED that insulin, at this time, to pretty much spike as high as you can make it spike. This tends to take care of the energy deficit as well.
After this, you can eat normally. However, make sure to get 20-30g of protein every 2-3 hours along with some carbs and some fat.. If you're trying to get bigger, make sure you're staying in a slightly positive energy balance.
There is also some evidence to suggest that the sodium-dependent receptors also have some sort of direct glucose uptake function, but that is not anywhere near as well understood as the sensitization function.
for the very large fast digesting carbs would 2 bananas and some grapes work. Lots of sugar and each banana has about 20-30g carbs
Maybe. My experience with fruits is that they aren't fast enough, and you'd have to eat quite a lot of grapes... and there's a whole lot of fructose in those two fruits. Probably not a problem health-wise PWO, but it does present issues with speed and magnitude of insulin response, which is the main goal.
A major factor will be how much water you have with them. More water = faster absorption due to faster gastric emptying.
Nothing in nature, that I know of, is faster than well-cooked mashed potatoes.
Nothing in the supplement world is faster than brand-name Vitargo. Other waxy maize is not actually high molecular weight. You can tell simply by comparing what they do when you pour them into water in a side-by-side comparison.
For our purposes here, for the non-competitive athletes, there's no reason to shell out money on Vitargo. For seriously competitive athletes, it may give an edge in terms of recovery.
oh i see. im gunna tell my pet chimp not to be a frugivore because of fructose. im just joshin ya. (no pun intended) 
id also rather not spend that money on vitargo. i guess i can just cook a shitload of mashed potatoes and keep them in my frig. (they're delicious)
until then ill just eat my fruit during my workout to save on time so to speak (would that even work?)
if you're ever in NY let me know !
I have used poptarts they worked ok. I still like maltodextrin the best. I found that the cytosport brand cytocarb has been very cheap recently and it mixes pretty well.
When I worked out at home I used milk too.
Malto is good, I just hate the texture.
I generally get 40-60gr cho and 20-30 grbof prot pwo.. my favourite is glucose (dextrose diluted in water)
I generally get 40-60gr cho and 20-30 grbof prot pwo.. my favourite is glucose (dextrose diluted in water)
Pork fried rice.
Carnitas Super Burrito.
Proven. Two servings if one isn't enough.
I would say getting 30 grams of whey protein + something like poptarts, which Joshua mentioned in another thread for having a lot of carbs for a little price and size,or you could add something like honey, bananas, and and white bread (which all have high gi) along with the protein.
Yes. That's more of a finishing touch, in the grand scheme of things, but once everything else is down it is the final touch.
We'll be covering that in the ultra-up-to-date nutrition thread that I'm going to post next week. Will start writing tomorrow.