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Recovery after Exercise By Dr. Jeff Schutt Recovery after exercise is
just as important as the exercise itself. When you lift weights you break the
muscle down. It is during recovery that the muscle will heal itself stronger.
This holds true for any intense workout. You do not immediately feel stronger
during the workout or right after the workout. It is after the rest interval
between the workouts that you feel ready to go again, stronger than ever. As
an athletic community, we still do not know or pay nearly enough attention to
the things that will help the body recover faster. There are so many factors
that come into play, such as the intensity of the workout, heat and cold
conditions, and the age of the athlete. The quicker an athlete can recover,
the more work he or she can accomplish and perform better; or in other words,
your ability to continue exercising at a high level day after day is limited
by how quickly your muscles recover after the workout. There are several key
things to remember once your workout is over. I will cover these components
in the next few newsletters to help give you some ideas of how to recover
from a tough workout. There are three phases to
muscle recovery that every athlete should know about. The first phase of
recovery is known as the rapid phase, which occurs in the first thirty
minutes after exercise. This is followed by the intermediate phase, which
lasts up to two hours. The third phase is longer and lasts up to twenty hours
before the next workout session. As we stated, the rapid
phase of recovery begins right after the training session and lasts for
approximately thirty minutes. During this time, your body’s metabolic rate
slows and begins to return to pre-exercise levels. Your heart rate,
respiratory rate, and body temperature start to return to resting levels.
Your body starts to replenish the muscles stores of creatine phosphate and
ATP, which were depleted during activity. The body also tries to get rid of
the waste products such as lactic acid that have accumulated in the muscles.
Most of the lactic acid enters the blood stream and is carried back to the
liver for conversion back into glucose. The draining of waste products and
conversion back into glucose can be helped along during the initial 30
minutes after exercise if the athlete keeps moving at a gentle rate to keep
the blood flowing. Just like in nature, running water is cleaner than
standing water, so it is with the body. The more the athlete can move around
and keep the blood flowing after a workout the less waste products will pool
in the muscles making them sore. It is recommended to do a sub maximal cool
down lasting about 10 minutes followed by appropriate flexibility stretches
during this time. We tell our athletes at the House of Speed to do a light
cool down for ten minutes, stretch for ten minutes and then ice or take a
cold water bath while drinking water or a high carbohydrate drink during the
next ten minutes. Ice will aid in getting the waste products out of the
muscle by causing the blood vessels to constrict and squeeze out the waste
products returning it to the blood stream and liver faster. If this is not
available within the first 30 minutes following exercise it is still valuable
during the 2 hours following exercise. The rapid phase (30 minutes
after exercise) and the intermediate phase (0 to 2hours after exercise)
overlap. During the intermediate phase it is very important time to replenish
the fluid supply to the body and restore the glucose levels in the muscles.
During this time insulin plays a vital role in muscle replenishment by
speeding up the transportation of glucose from your blood to your muscle
cells. Insulin also stimulates glycogen synthase, which is an enzyme that
converts glucose to glycogen for storage. It is during the first two hours
after exercise that eating foods that have a higher glycemic index can
actually speed up your recovery process. Remember from past newsletter issues
I stated that if you were trying to keep your body fat levels down, then you
should stay away from foods that have a high glycemic index because it will
trigger insulin to store more of the food as fat. If you are comfortable with
where your body fat level is, then you can eat foods that have a higher
glycemic index during the first two hours after exercise and then after the
two hours are up then go back to lower glycemic index foods. Now please use
common sense when eating high glycemic foods! Junk food is still empty
calories. Try to eat foods, which at least give you some nutritional
advantage such as vitamins and minerals instead of high sugar foods. The
speed of glycogen synthesis in the two hours following exercise is almost two
to three times faster than at any other time, so if you miss this two-hour
window, you will delay your muscle’s ability to recover dramatically. An easy
way to do this is drink a carbohydrate-containing beverage such as Gatorade,
PowerAde, etc. I recommend Endurox for a post workout drink. The longer phase of
recovery span is from two hours to twenty hours post workout. The body
continues to replenish the glycogen supply but at a lesser rate than the
immediate two hours after workout. Experts say you should consume 3 to 5
grams of carbohydrates per pound of body weight during this time. Most people
consume foods such as pasta, breads, and vegetables during this time. Again
be careful, if you are looking to lower body fat, choose the carbohydrates
that have a lower glycemic index during this time. Drink one ounce of water
for every two pounds of bodyweight during this time to fully hydrate the
muscles for the next workout. Also it is during this time that foods with a
high vitamin and mineral and antioxidant content should be eaten which will
help to repair muscle damage and stimulate the muscles to grow stronger. An excellent source of
information on muscle recovery is a book by Edmund R. Burke, PhD called Optimal Muscle Recovery. |
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