Workout Supplements
Most fitness experts will tell you that what you put into your body after a workout has a huge effect on the results you will see from your efforts. You’ve just spent time breaking down your muscles and, in order for you to grow, you need for them to rebuild stronger and better. In order to do so, they need the proper nutrition to grow.
Carbohydrates are an important part of any post workout supplement as your body needs fuel since you have just depleted it. The sooner it gets the fuel, the sooner it can begin the rebuilding process. Carbohydrates also provide an insulin spike which means that the body will transport the nutrients to the muscle cells quicker. A supply of carbohydrates will also prevent the body from using protein as an energy source, which needs to be used by the muscles in order to grow.
Since protein is what your muscles need more than anything in order to grow, be sure that your post workout supplement has the proper amount of it. After a workout, your muscles are extremely receptive to nutrition. They are essentially starved. Since whey protein gets absorbed the fastest, it is the most common type of protein included in these types of supplements.
As with pre-workout supplements, amino acids are often a component. These building blocks of protein are needed for your muscles to grow back stronger. Most post workout supplements also contain glutamine. These specific amino acids play an important role in muscle recovery.
Creatine is often added to post workout supplements. Since you’ve just depleted your creatine stores, you now need to replenish them. It takes time for creatine to be absorbed into the muscle cells for use, so by consuming creatine at this time you can be sure your cells are loaded for the next time you work out.
Timing is critical when it comes to post workout supplements. You generally want to consume your post workout nutrition within the first thirty minutes after finishing your workout. You can wait up to ninety minutes after but the sooner you can consume it is the better. The timing of your post workout nutrition can drastically affect your muscle building results. Remember that you need to re-supply your body with the proper nutrition as soon as possible in order to see the biggest gains.
Lastly, as with all nutritional supplements, be sure to read the labels. Not all post workout supplements are created equal. They will all have different ingredients and different percentages of those ingredients. Depending on your goals, some products will work better than others.
