There is always talk of the importance of recovery and how fundamental it is for sports performance.
If there were a mathematical formula that told us how to recover best after particularly intense training or after a race, everything would be decidedly simpler!
Unfortunately, it is not so, but some small precautions are necessary, so now let’s see together what the 3 fundamental concepts to know on the subject are.
1) Anabolic window: when to take supplements for post-training or race recovery?
The anabolic window refers to the period immediately following a workout, during which the muscle is maximally predisposed to absorb and utilise all the necessary nutrients to restore the stores lost during training.
Normally this window has a duration varying between 20 and 120 minutes from the end of the workout, depending on the type of work done and the intensity.
Everything that will be introduced in this time frame will be used by our body to restore glycogen stores, a reserve carbohydrate stored within the muscles and used when we no longer have readily available sugar; introducing branched-chain amino acids, which are responsible for rebuilding the muscle that we have “eaten” during activity, and finally the minerals lost through sweating.
The better the quality of the ingredient, the better the efficiency of our body in restoring the stores.
Now let’s analyse what to supplement with.
2) Sugars, yes! But which ones?
In the liver and muscles of each of us, there are, in the form of glycogen, between 250 and 450 grams of glucose (depending on nutritional status, training, and body size). These deposits guarantee a reserve of 1000-1800 calories.
To be restored, it is necessary to provide our body with readily available carbohydrates.
The carbohydrates most used for recovery are maltodextrins, which are polymers derived from the hydrolysis process of starches (usually corn starch is used). Through industrial processes, it is indeed possible to modify the chemical bonds that link polysaccharides, obtaining more or less complex carbohydrates.
The maltodextrins thus obtained are soluble in water, have a pleasant taste, and are easy to digest.
Maltodextrins differ from each other based on the dextrose-equivalence (D.E), a parameter that expresses the degree of hydrolysis of starches and the carbohydrates derived from them.
It is expressed with a numerical value ranging from 0 (complex starch) to 100 (glucose); this number depends on the length of the monomers present in starch and its hydrolysis products.
In general, the DE gives the consumer an estimate of the complexity of the various maltodextrins. As a general rule the higher the value of dextrose equivalence, the shorter the chains of polysaccharides, therefore the faster the absorption and utilisation methods will be.
In conclusion, the use of carbohydrates with a variable glycaemic index (from moderate to high) immediately after physical activity, ensures that the muscle has the substrate immediately available to replenish muscle glycogen stores, which is why mixes of maltodextrins are often used together with other carbohydrates, such as fructose and dextrose.
3) Amino acids: the building blocks that make up our muscles
We can imagine the amino acids as the bricks for the construction of our muscles. During physical activity, these are used for energy purposes, as it is “cheaper” for our body in terms of energy to detach an amino acid rather than to use a fat molecule.
The amino acids involved in protein synthesis are twenty and among these eight are essential: leucine, isoleucine and valine (BCAA, Branched Chain Amino Acids), lysine, methionine, threonine, phenylalanine and tryptophan). The term essential indicates the body's inability to synthesize them independently from other amino acids. This means that they must necessarily be introduced through the diet.
As for their usefulness in post-exercise muscle recovery, proteins and amino acids, BCAAs in particular, are effective for the functional and structural recovery of the muscle, optimizing the recovery phase.
The peculiarity that distinguishes branched-chain amino acids from others is represented by a different metabolic pathway of energy production.
Compared to others, BCAAs are molecules directly usable by the muscles, and this peculiarity makes them much more effective in direct energy production, but especially in the conversion for the reconstitution of glycogen stores and for the repair of muscles damaged by physical activity.
4) Glutamine: essential for our immune system
Another very important amino acid for recovery is glutamine. It is involved in the exchange of nitrogen between tissues and in the production and/or storage of glucose, in hydration mechanisms and is used both during physical exercise and in all those activities that involve physiological stress.
It is indeed the most important nitrogen transporter, resulting from the breakdown of proteins, and stimulates the production of the hormone GLP-1.
In this way, the glutamine helps to maintain a constant level of glucose in the blood and promotes the synthesis of glycogen. It also maintains the normal acid-base balance of the body, transporting to the kidneys the ammonia resulting from the breakdown of amino acids.
In response to strenuous physical exercise, it is released by the muscles in significant amounts. For this reason, if it is not replenished, the recovery and immune functions, may suffer a sharp decline: it is the most important energy supplier for immune and intestinal cells.
If this amino acid is deficient, the engine of these cells misfires and they can no longer function properly.
5) Vitamins and minerals: essential micronutrients for proper recovery
Vitamins and minerals are lost in significant amounts during sports activity. They are involved in numerous metabolic processes and their deficiency could compromise the proper functioning of some of these.
In particular, vitamin C is involved in immune function, while the replenishment of potassium and magnesium is essential for normal acid-base balance.
In conclusion: the key to proper recovery is to supplement with the right mix of carbohydrates, amino acids, vitamins and minerals in the period immediately following training, in order to replenish all the stores used during the activity!
*Article from the Keforma Blog
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