Adam’s training journal
As I’ve left my 30s behind, I’ve found that recovering from my workouts takes longer and longer.
The days when I could hammer out hard sessions on back-to-back days are long past.
Not long ago, I saw a series of commercials for a new line of sports drinks. In addition to images of famous athletes dripping colorized sweat, these commercials offered a drink specially concocted for speeding post-workout recovery.
Is such a thing possible? Or is this just more Madison Avenue hype?
Dr. Prescott prescribes
Generally, if something sounds too good to be true, it is.
But in this case, you can believe the hype. Well, so long as you have a Y chromosome.
Drinking or eating carbohydrates immediately after a strenuous workout is key to restoring the glycogen that your body burned during exercise. But in the past few years, sports drink manufacturers have rolled out a series of recovery brews that consist of proteins and carbohydrates.
These protein-carbohydrate concoctions are based on research that compared two groups of athletes: one that ingested bars and drinks containing mostly carbohydrates following their workouts, the other that ingested a mix of carbs and proteins.
Researchers found no significant differences in the athletes’ performances on the day following the workout. But after a rest day, the athletes — experienced cyclists — who had consumed the protein-carb mix performed 4 percent better than their carb-only counterparts. Four percent might not sound like a lot, but, for example, if it typically took a rider four hours to complete a race, a 4 percent improvement would mean shaving 10 minutes off that time.
On the heels of this study, which involved only men, researchers received requests from women to be included in further research. When the scientists performed the same experiment with female cyclists, the results, published this spring in the journal Medicine and Science in Sport and Exercise, were quite surprising.
The women showed no gain from protein during recovery. The female riders in the protein group actually reported that their legs felt more tired and sore in follow-up workouts than did the carb-only group. These results are likely attributable to the female hormone estrogen, which has been found to have effects on metabolism and muscle health.
So for men, drinking a mix of proteins and carbs (whether in the form of a recovery drink or chocolate milk) immediately after a workout will help you get ready for that next hard session. For women, there’s still more research to be done.
[ask-drp]
