Are you recovering properly after your workout?
You just finished a great workout! You got a sweat going, felt like you utilized some strength and achieved everything you set out to do for this gym session. Now what? If you’re like most people, you go for a protein shake. Isn’t this what everyone does? For most people, yes. But it isn’t sufficient for optimal recovery. Let’s look at why.
The analogy I often give is imagine you took a little shovel and you dug a hole in the ground. Then, when you finish, you take everything you just dug out and put it back in the hole. You’ve done the work but you are right back where you started. Protein helps your body maintain muscle. While this is certainly better the skipping post-workout nutrition altogether, your body needs more than just protein to build new muscle and therefore make you stronger.
Recovery consists of three different dimensions. First, rehydrating your muscles. This is attributed in large part to carbohydrates. Carbohydrates cause your body to release insulin. Once insulin is released, nutrients get synthesized faster and more efficiently. During your workouts, you tear down muscle tissue. You create a need. Understand that if you feel soreness from a workout even days after you did that workout, the need wasn’t met fast enough, hence the residue of soreness. Many people say they like being sore. While understanding that what they mean is they like it because it indicates to them that they had a good workout, you can absolutely take steps to accelerate that recovery process so you can take your strength levels to even greater heights. Remember: after a workout, your muscles are thirsty, so hydrate them through ingredients such as vitamins and electrolytes as well as high quality whey protein.
The second dimension is to energize your muscle cells. Remember that not only the energy you spend during your exercise but also energy you use throughout every day means your need for energy is constantly be recreated. Your body simply cannot build muscle unless your energy levels are first sufficient. It needs to get out of “debt” first and that is done with ingredients like bcaas, creatine, glutamine and others.
The third dimension is to replace glucose within the muscle. Glucose is the energy your muscle will use today, tomorrow and the next day. The best way to understand this is considering that protein, without carbohydrates, does what carbohydrates are intended do to anyway, which is to provide your body with glucose (energy). So if in your post workout nutrition you have a carbohydrate and a protein source the carbohydrates can address your need for energy and that is what will give permission to the protein to repair muscle tissue!
We invite you to stop by Max Muscle Davis County TODAY to get a FREE sample of ARM. ARM is our post-workout recovery drink that we consider to be the best supplement in the store for optimal recovery! Take a look at the video embedded below and be sure to give ARM a try after your next workout so you can feel the difference that true recovery makes for you!