The Importance of Post Workout Nutrition

Why Post Workout Nutrition is Important

Post workout nutrition is important because most people do not do post workout nutrition properly. Most people do not understand how important the role of post workout glucose (carbs) when taken along with a rapid assimilation protein play in recovery and the muscle development process. A lot of the time people, including myself, assume using a protein post workout is sufficient. However, adding in a carbohydrate like Ignition, is equally important because it replenishes depleted glycogen stores after intense resistance training sessions to fast-track muscle repair and growth.

My Post Workout Nutrition Overview

Check out the video below where I go over some of the post workout nutrition tips that are also detailed further down in this article.

Post Workout Recommendations

Carbohydrates

After an intense resistance training workout, your body is depleted, your muscles are depleted. If you were pushing yourself throughout your workout, your glycogen levels are going to be low and you need to replenish them in order to aid in the recovery and muscle building process.

If you aren’t using a post workout glucose there would be no glucose in your system to spike your insulin levels and thus, replenish glycogen stores or get your body out of its catabolic state from training. If you only take a rapid assimilation protein after your workout, the protein will convert inefficiently into glucose, but process will take a lot longer and it will not replenish glycogen stores efficiently. In short…you aren’t getting the most out of your workout or your post workout nutrition by skipping the post workout carbs/glucose.

Even if you’re on a low carb diet, you should still use some source of post workout glucose to help replenish your glycogen stores and recover after intense resistance training.

How Many Grams of Carbs Post Workout?

The amount of carbs that you need in post workout setting will vary based on your lean body mass. You should aim to consume 20-25% of your lean body mass (lbs). For example, I currently weight 175 lb. with just under 7% body fat, leaving me with 163 lb. of lean body mass (170-(170*.068)). 20-25% of 163 would be a range of 33 – 41 grams of carbs post workout. This can also vary based on intensity of your workout for the day. I am usually a little above that amount in the neighborhood of 50 grams of carbs. Check out the handy calculator below to get your recommended post workout carb intake.

Protein

Whey protein is most commonly used here, though there are some protein blends that include casein and egg protein. However, a hydrolyzed whey protein is going to give you the most bang for your buck. When a protein is hydrolyzed, natural digestive enzymes are added to it during manufacturing that take the long protein chains and split them down into individual protein peptides. This essentially pre-digests the protein so that when you consume it, your body doesn’t have to do much work to it…

The protein is free to go straight to where it is needed: Your muscles!

Protein powders that contain hydrolyzed protein fractions will be beneficial after your training because it assimilates very rapidly into your system thereby jump-starting the recovery process after intense workouts.

Hydrolyzed whey protein is considered a rapid assimilating protein. You want to try and use a rapid assimilation protein for recovery following weight or cardio training. Rapid assimilation protein will quickly move through your digestive track and flood your body with essential amino acids after a cardio workout to facilitate a quicker recovery time. You don’t need to add glucose after a cardio only session though as that will stop your body from burning fat.

How Many Grams of Protein Post Workout?

The number of grams of protein post workout ideally should be a 1:2 ratio of what you calculated for your carbohydrates. Meaning if you calculated 50 grams of carbs above, then your protein intake should be at least 25 grams.

The Best Supplement Stack for Post Workout Nutrition

I have been using the following post workout stack for the past 2 months and have been really impressed with how much better I have felt in the hours following a grinding workout. In the past, I would mainly just slam a whey protein shake after my workouts and thought I was giving my body what it needs. However, I really felt a dramatic difference after a week or so of using the Phormula-1 and Ignition stack in a post workout setting.

In a post workout setting, a supplement that requires very little/no digestion period is going to be the most effective. This is the main reason that a supplement is recommended over a whole food option. Of course, you could opt for the whole food option but the amount of time it would take to digest as well as the amount of energy your body will use to to digest that food in your stomach, will only delay the recovery process.

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