Recovery Meals – The Key for Maximizing Muscle Gain
By Ori Hofmekler
The importance of recovery meals is often overlooked or unfortunately misunderstood. The purpose of this article is to show the principles and the science of applying proper recovery meals for maximizing muscle mass and strength gain.
How to take advantage of the post exercise peak potential to grow.
Recovery is a term that describes recuperation from a physical trauma, caused by disease, injury or exercise. During recovery, the body spends a substantial amount of energy to clean inflammatory compounds, including dead cells and toxins, while mobilizing nutrients for the build up of new cells and tissues.
Resistance training when done intensely is a form of physical trauma. In order to recover and compensate for the traumatic effect of exercise on muscle fibers, the body induces an immediate anabolic stimulation which may or may not translate into real muscle hypertrophy (muscle gain). As to the question, whether muscle mass gain actually occurs or not, that clearly depends on the completion of the recovery process which then depends on two critical variants: the timing and the quality of post exercise recovery meals.
Window of opportunity
The fate of recovery lies in the beginning of the recuperation process, right after the workout. This post exercise period that reaches a peak in the first 30 minutes after exercise and gradually declines up to 4 hours following that, is known as an open window of opportunity. That's when the body's anabolic hormones reach peak levels, that's when insulin reaches peak sensitivity, and that's precisely when recovery meals should be ingested. As some of you may already know, “timing is everything”. The capacity of any meal to promote growth, relates to the following formula:
Right nutrition at the right time equals maximum recuperation and muscle gain. In other words: ‘it's when you eat, that makes what you eat, matter”.
To fully take advantage of a recovery meal, one should first understand what muscle hypertrophy is.
Muscle Hypertrophy
Muscle Hypertrophy is a process whereby the muscle gets larger and stronger. This anabolic process is the result of increased protein synthesis and the incorporation of newly divided satellite cells (myoblasts) into the muscle tissue.
This is how Muscle Hypertrophy occurs:
Resistance training stimulates anabolic hormone secretion, while increasing IGF1 (insulin like growth factor1) levels in the muscle tissues. IGF1 has the fastest and most profound immediate effect on muscle growth. The post exercise increased IGF1 levels in the muscle tissue promotes hypertrophy through increased protein synthesis and fusion of satellite cells into the muscle fibers. As noted, resistance training increases levels of other growth promoting agents, including steroid hormones. Nevertheless, as anabolic as androgens (male steroid hormones) are, they generally have a delayed action that clearly depends on variables such as the overall nutritional state and hormonal balance.
It then becomes evidently clear that the key influencers in immediate muscle hypertrophy after resistance training is the actual IGF1 level in the muscle tissue.
How to increase post exercise IGF1 levels?
Recent studies on rats in the department of Kinesiology, University of Texas , Austin , Texas , showed that administration of IGF1 together with resistance training increased muscle mass by 30%. Researchers found that administering IGF1 alone (no resistance training) decreased muscle catabolism during sedentary states by about 50 %.
The question remains- how can one naturally increase post exercise IGF1 levels? (Note that intravenous injection of IGF1 could be lethal).
The answer to that is a bit tricky. IGF1 levels increase in muscle tissues during resistance exercise partly by virtue of increased muscle cellular synthesis of IGF1 and partly due to increased serum levels of growth hormones (GH), which promotes synthesis of IGF1.
Recent studies at the University of Guelph , Guelph , Ontario , Canada demonstrated that GH responds to a high volume of intense resistance exercise, rather than to endurance. In other words, sprint intervals, or incorporation of many sets of intense resistance exercise will promote GH more than low intensity resistance or moderate aerobics.
One way to further increase GH levels is to exercise on empty, in particular with minimum carbs ingested before exercise. Notice that insulin suppresses GH secretion during the daily hours.
Now here is the trick, even though insulin initially suppresses GH secretion, it ironically plays a critical role in actually finalizing the actions of both GH and IGF1. Therefore, post exercise insulin spike is necessary for effectively inducing the actual actions of the already elevated GH and IGF1. In other words, post exercise carb ingestion (with an initial insulin spike) is necessary for effectively promoting IGF1 actions. Note that IGF1's relationship with insulin is more than just synergy.
IGF1 and insulin
IGF1 (insulin like growth factors) is almost a twin brother of insulin. Both are peptides with highly structural homology and similar anabolic properties. Both bind to tyrosine kinase receptors on the cell membrane, and most important, they profoundly enhance each other's actions. So close is the similarity between insulin and IGF1, that both generate their anabolic actions through the same growth signaling compound P 1 3K (Phosphatidylinositol –3-kinase). IGF1, however, has a more profound anabolic effect, whereas insulin is believed to facilitate mostly an anti-catabolic effect.
Insulin and muscle hypertrophy
Recent studies on the effect of 100g of carb ingestion on muscle protein synthesis at the University of Texas , Galveston , Texas , reveal that ingestion of 100g of carbs post resistance exercise substantially improves muscle net protein synthesis. However, researchers noted that the improvement was due to insulin's inhibiting effect on muscle protein breakdown. The researchers noted that post exercise muscle protein synthesis is also profoundly affected by post exercise amino acid protein ingestion. The researchers concluded that while amino acids increase protein synthesis, carbs actually help inhibit muscle protein breakdown. Note that the anti-catabolic effect of carbs lasts for three hours after the initial ingestion.
Before addressing the practical application of all the above info, let's examine further the actual effect of resistance training on insulin and whether it's possible to take advantage of this effect.
Resistance Exercise Effect on Insulin
It has been established that post exercise is characterized by improved insulin sensitivity. Many studies showed that both endurance and resistance training increase insulin sensitivity. Nonetheless, resistance training helps improve glucose transport in skeletal muscles more that endurance training.
Studies at East Carolina University , Greenville , East Carolina and Duke University medical Center, Durham , NC , reveal that vigorous intense activity, and resistance training improves insulin sensitivity more substantially than moderate activity. This is critically important in particular due to the prospect that that taking advantage of post exercise increased insulin sensitivity may be one of the key elements in designing recovery meals after strenuous resistance training.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Practical applications - How to design recovery meals with maximum capacity to promote muscle gain
Recovery meals should be specially designed to promote an immediate post exercise anabolic effects. The meals that follow that recovery should be designed to promote a long lasting anabolic effect.
Immediate anabolic effects.
To actually help promote an immediate anabolic effect, a recovery meal should take full advantage of the relative short time of the post exercise peak potential to grow. Therefore it should be ingested during the first 30 minutes, right after resistance exercise. Any delay in the timing may well attenuate the full anabolic effect of a post exercise meal.
A post exercise recovery meal should provide fast releasing nutrients required for instantly supporting the short term post exercise anabolic state.
Consequently, a good post exercise recovery meal should provide the following nutrients.
• Protein with maximum biological value containing fast releasing proteins such as whey protein isolate. Amount per serving should be between 13-25g (depending on training intensity and volume). The fast releasing proteins will help boost an immediate post exercise protein synthesis.
• Carbohydrates consisting of fast releasing carbs , for inducing an instant insulin spike required for, swiftly suppressing muscle break down and effectively supporting IGH1 actions. As noted, insulin sensitivity increases after resistance training and therefore post exercise recovery meal should be the best tine to take advantage of carbs-insulin anabolic and anti-catabolic effects.
As noted, post exercise increased levels of muscle IGF1 is believed to be the most immediate influential element in muscle hypertrophy. Ingesting of fast releasing protein and carbs will help take advantage of that element.
Long-term anabolic effect - For maximum mass gain
To support and help continue the anabolic effect of resistance training, it is highly recommended to incorporate small recovery meals every 2-3 hours following the initial post exercise recovery meal. These small recovery meals are critically important, in particular for those who workout early in the morning. Nevertheless, in order to avoid undesirable fat gain, reduce the carb component of the meals, starting with the second recovery meal.
For instance, those who workout in the morning should have a recovery meal (with carbs) right after the workout to induce an immediate anti-catabolic effect (via insulin activity). Following that initial post exercise recovery meal (shake or bar), it is advisable to incorporate small protein meals (8-15g of protein with minimum carbs), such as plain yogurt, cheese, eggs or low carb protein shake, every few hours to keep maintaining protein synthesis in the muscle tissues without fat gain.
That way, one will be able to maintain high insulin sensitivity towards the end of the day and enjoy eating big nightly meals while taking advantage of insulin's anabolic effect with a minimum risk of fat gain.
Nightly meals could be the most growth promoting meals; they should provide the extra calories and protein required for a long-term anabolic effect. It has been established that high calorie intake increases protein net utilization as well as effectively enhances steroid hormones actions. These meals should consist of all food groups (with no chronic restrictions of carbs or fat). Nevertheless, certain food combinations work better than others. To minimize the risk of fat gain, simple carbs should not be combined with grains or fat, but only with protein foods.
Finally, a recovery meal is a functional meal. For a Warrior, every meal is a recovery meal providing the body with nutrients that are required for enhancing an already stimulated anabolic state triggered by exercise. Knowing how and in particular when to incorporate meals can make the difference between a plateau and progress.
If you do everything “by the book” and still fail to gain muscle mass and strength, a proper recovery meal could be your missing link
Ori Hofmekler is the author of the books The Warrior Diet and Maximum Muscle Minimum Fat , by Dragon Door Publications. For more information, Ori can be reached at ori@warriordiet.com , by phone at 1-866-WAR-DIET or on the Internet at http://www.warriordiet.com .
For personal consultations with Ori Hofmekler , E-Mail Ori at: ori@warriordiet.com or call us toll free at: 1-866-WARDIET (927-3438 ) |
