Issue 155

June 2017

Make sure you’ve got the energy to get through all kinds of training.

Expert: Dr James Morton:

  • Lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University in the UK, who works with professional fighters as a nutritionistLifting weights

Lifting Weights:

  • Before: Chicken and quinoa salad and sweet potato
  • After: Protein recovery drink

You need plenty of energy to fuel your training and protein is needed to provide the building blocks

for muscle growth. Chicken is an obvious source of lean protein that is readily digested while quinoa provides a low glycemic carbohydrate that also contains protein. The requirement after weight training is to provide protein to help promote muscle growth, carbohydrate to provide the energy needed to build new muscle and fluid to maintain hydration. Recovery drinks are gold for this as they do it all simultaneously.

Cycling

  • Before: Large bowl porridge/oats, spinach and avocado omelet, side of Greek yogurt and mixed berries.
  • After: 1-2 cups rice, 300g grilled chicken and fruit-based smoothie.

Cycling is a great recovery activity and can involve long periods of moderate-intensity exercise where both carbs and fat are used as fuels. The pre-exercise meal should contain low-glycemic carbs like porridge and a mix of fat and protein to provide further fuel to help reduce muscle damage during the ride. The omelet and Greek yogurt can provide fats and protein simultaneously. At the end of a long ride, it’s likely both muscle and liver glycogen will be depleted. Fructose (i.e. sugars in fruit) can help to recover liver stores and rice can help to recover muscle stores.

Sparring

  • Before: Rice or 2 slices of toast with 2 poached eggs
  • After: Protein recovery drink

Muscles rely more on carbs as fuel for hard exercise, so higher glycemic carbs can be beneficial. They’re lower in fiber, meaning your gut is lighter, you don’t feel bloated and blood can deliver more oxygen to your muscles. A recovery drink will refuel them without increasing stored fat.

Running

  • Before: Large bowl porridge/oats with milk
  • After: Protein recovery drink, chicken and green salad rye bread sandwich

Depending on the intensity and duration of your session, it’s hard to beat a bowl of porridge with milk to provide sustained carbohydrate delivery. The milk can aid hydration and help provide protein to aid muscle recovery. Carbs ranked low on the glycemic index like porridge mean you can use more fat as a fuel during exercise, thus sparing your muscles’ limited glycogen stores. You can refuel afterwards with a protein fix.

 

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