Pushtoday
MuscleChemistry Registered Member
For a few hours after a heavy bout of training, the body undergoes noteworthy alterations in metabolic rate and protein synthesis. With a little well-thought-out supplementation/refueling, you can significantly boost and extend anabolism during this time, leading to faster recovery and greater muscular gains. In Part 1 of our postworkout supplement series, we look at four key supplements — and strategies — to help you refuel and recover quickly to get the most out of your training.
[h=2]SUSTAINED-RELEASE PROTEIN BLEND[/h]What is it?This is a supplement with a blend of high-
biological-value proteins isolated from different sources with differing absorption rates. The best products contain fast-digesting whey protein isolate and/or whey hydrolysate, medium-digesting egg and milk isolates, and the slowest-digesting micellar casein protein. The result is a product that can rapidly replenish the amino acids lost during training while also providing a sustained source of blood amino acids (for up to eight hours).
How does it help you refuel and recover?Intense training leads to muscle damage and breakdown, which leeches amino acids from hard-earned muscle. If adequate nutrition is provided immediately after training, the body goes into a hyper-anabolic state — the anabolic window. Refueling with a blended protein supplement immediately after training exploits and extends this window, leading to heightened protein synthesis, faster recovery and increased muscle growth.
Dose:Take25 to 50 grams of high-quality blended protein within 30 minutes postworkout.
[h=2]DEXTROSE[/h]What is it?A monosaccharide, or simple sugar, this form of glucose gets digested quickly high up in the gastrointestinal tract.
How does it help you refuel and recover?The fast absorption of dextrose makes it an ideal postworkout carbohydrate supplement that can rapidly elevate insulin levels and refuel fatigued muscles with glycogen. Glycogen (stored carbohydrates) is a major source of muscle energy that’s used during sustained high-intensity exercise. So keeping glycogen levels topped up immediately after exercise shortens recovery time and re-energizes your muscles for the next training session. Because insulin is highly anabolic, dextrose can promote muscle gain and recovery without fat accumulation when taken right after training.
Dose:Mix 25 to 40 grams of dextrose into your postworkout protein shake.
[h=2]BRANCHED-CHAIN AMINO ACIDS [/h]What are they? BCAAs are the essential amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine, which share a unique branched-chain structure (hence their name) and are stored in muscles. They’re considered “essential” because our bodies cannot produce them, so they must be taken in through the diet.
How do they help you refuel and recover?During heavy training, the body takes BCAAs from active muscles to be used as energy — a catabolic process. Refueling with BCAAs immediately after exercise boosts blood levels and shuts down catabolism. In addition, taking BCAAs provides the body with surplus leucine, which turns on anabolism and supports heightened protein synthesis. The anti-catabolic and anabolic support offered by BCAAs helps speed recovery and boost muscle growth.
Dose: Mix 5 to 10 grams of BCAAs into your postworkout protein shake. Use a formulation with a leucine:isoleucine:valine ratio of at least 2:1:1. (That is, there should be at least twice as much leucine compared to the others.) Most high-quality BCAA products offer this ratio.
[h=2]GLUTAMINE [/h]What is it? Glutamine is one of the most abundant amino acids in skeletal muscle and is the most prevalent amino acid found in the blood.
How does it help you refuel and recover?Glutamine is considered a conditionally essential amino acid. It’s “conditionally” essential because the body can produce it on its own but possibly not in quantities sufficient to meet its needs during periods of heavy exercise or dieting. Heavy training can deplete glutamine levels, so refueling immediately after each training session is important because glutamine is a primary regulator of protein synthesis. It also helps muscle cells load with glycogen, which is critical for muscle size (glycogen pulls water into muscle cells) and energy storage to fuel subsequent workouts.
Dose: Take 5 grams of glutamine with your postworkout protein shake.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Your post-exercise anabolic window opens immediately after a training session and lasts for several hours thereafter. During this time, it’s imperative to strategize your supplement dosing/timing to exploit and bolster protein synthesis and muscle recovery. In this second installment of our postworkout supplementation series, we examine five key supplements and provide dosing recommendations that will help you maximize muscular growth and minimize recovery time.
[h=2]1) CREATINE[/h]What is it? Synthesized in the liver from arginine, methionine and glycine and found in high concentrations in meat and fish, creatine is the ideal supplement for strength and power athletes. Creatine supplements have stood the test of time through a quarter-century of clinical testing in the lab and field testing in gyms around the world. Creatine plays a fundamental role in energy production during exercise by forming the ATP needed for muscle contractions. Post-exercise, it acts as an anabolic activator to promote protein synthesis and recovery.
How does it help you refuel and recover? From a refueling perspective, taking creatine after training helps to quickly restore muscle creatine to preworkout levels so you can be “locked and loaded” for the next exercise session. Beyond refueling, loading your muscles with creatine after training drives water into those cells, promoting cell volumization (aka the much-sought-after “pump”). The pump not only makes creatine-loaded muscles appear larger, but the “stretching” that muscle cells undergo turns on anabolism and protein synthesis — resulting in increased growth.
Additionally, a study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism showed that creatine supplementation increases levels of growth-promoting insulin-like growth factor-1 in resistance-trained muscle — setting up an environment that boosts protein synthesis, recovery and growth. In addition, a study published in Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology illustrated that subjects who weight-trained while using creatine had twice the reduction in postworkout myostatin as those training with a placebo. Myostatin is a protein that acts as a muscle-growth inhibitor; when there’s less of it around, more muscle growth is possible.
Dose: Although creatine monohydrate dosing is bodyweight and tolerance dependent, a good starting point is to first complete a loading phase of 5 grams four to six times per day for a week. After a week, take 5 grams 30 minutes before and immediately after training. On rest days, take 5 grams with breakfast and 5 grams later in the day.
[h=2]2) BETA-ALANINE [/h]What is it? Beta-alanine is a non-proteinogenic amino acid, meaning that it’s not involved in synthesizing proteins.In muscle, beta-alanine and histidine form the dipeptide carnosine, and how much beta-alanine is present determines how much carnosine is produced. As such, excess beta-alanine in the body (i.e., because you’re supplementing with it) can lead to elevated carnosine levels in muscle tissue. And that’s a good thing.
How does it help you refuel?As described in our preworkout supplement series several months back, beta-alanine’s major effects are noticed during workouts. It promotes increased muscle performance during high-intensity exercise. However, it’s also important to use beta-alanine postworkout to refuel your body and keep muscle carnosine elevated for subsequent training sessions. The postworkout period is ideal for refueling because the body experiences enhanced absorption of nutrients during this time.
Dose: Take 2 to 3 grams of beta-alanine immediately after intense training.
[h=2]3) BETAINE[/h]What is it? Also known as trimethylglycine or TMG, betaine was first discovered in the juice of sugar beets (Beta vulgaris) in the 19th century. It’s a derivative of the amino acid glycine and is also found in foods like wheat, spinach and shellfish. The principal physiologic role of betaine is as an osmolyte and methyl donor (transmethylation). More on this below.
How does it help you refuel and recover? Most of betaine’s benefits can be attributed to its function as a methyl donor. By donating a methyl molecule to the protein homocysteine, betaine converts it into methionine, an amino acid that is involved in creatine production and boosts protein synthesis for greater muscular gains. We recommend taking betaine before workouts for its strength-enhancing effects, but we also advise taking it after training to refuel the body and boost protein synthesis. As a bonus, supplementing betaine also keeps the body’s homocysteine levels down. This is significant because homocysteine levels can be elevated with high-protein diets and are linked to poor cardiovascular health.
Dose: Studies show that as little as 2.5 grams of betaine per day can be effective, but some people work up to a maximum of 6 grams daily. We recommend that you split the dose and take one 30 to 90 minutes before training (or first thing in the morning on rest days) and another postworkout (or right before bed on rest days).
[h=2]4) L-CARNITINE L-TARTRATE[/h]What is it? Carnitine is a compound synthesized by the liver and kidneys from the amino acids methionine and lysine. The blend of L-carnitine and L-tartrate produces a highly stable and bioavailable form of carnitine.
How does it help you refuel and recover?From a postworkout perspective, LCLT has been shown to improve recovery and regeneration in trained muscle. Research published in the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism showed that LCLT supplementation boosts recovery from high-repetition squat exercise. One possible mechanism is that carnitine boosts nitric-oxide levels, supporting increased blood flow, nutrient delivery and metabolic-waste removal in trained muscles. LCLT also has been shown to boost the anabolic hormonal response to exercise. A study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise reported that 21 days of LCLT supplementation increased the number of testosterone receptors in skeletal muscle and augmented secretion of luteinizing hormone (a hormone that triggers testosterone production) in resistance-trained men. This is great news because testosterone builds muscle by binding to testosterone receptors, which leads to increased protein synthesis.
Dose: Take 2 grams immediately after training.
[h=2]5) TAURINE [/h]What is it? The name taurine is derived from the Latin word Taurus (meaning ox) because it was first extracted from ox bile, but today it’s made synthetically. Taurine is a conditionally essential amino-acid derivative of the amino acid cysteine. It’s considered conditionally essential because it’s depleted under conditions of heavy physical stress (e.g., during training). Next to glutamine, taurine is the second most abundant amino acid found in skeletal muscle, especially in fast-twitch muscle fibers.
How does it help you refuel and recover?Intense exercise rapidly depletes taurine, so it makes sense to refuel it immediately after training. There are a number of reasons that you don’t want to keep your muscles in a taurine-depleted state. First, as explained in a 2009 article in Physiological Reviews, taurine optimizes water levels in cells and maximizes muscle function. Thus, like creatine, taurine has been implicated to be a potent cell volumizer. This not only makes the muscle belly appear fuller (the pump!), but it also provides an indirect stimulus for muscle growth.
Second, taurine helps prevent muscle breakdown, having been found in a study to decrease levels of a catabolic compound by 20 percent after intense treadmill running. In the same study, post-exercise urinary excretion of creatinine and creatine were significantly reduced with taurine supplementation, which is a sign that the amino blunts the breakdown of muscle.
Third, taurine is a powerful antioxidant and membrane-stabilizing agent. Exercise stress destabilizes and damages muscle cells through a number of different mechanisms, including oxidative stress, but the antioxidant properties of taurine can negate these effects. Based on taurine’s protective properties, research has shown that this supplement can defend against exercise-induced muscle damage and thereby speed recovery.
Dose: Take 1 to 5 grams immediately after training.
[h=2]SUSTAINED-RELEASE PROTEIN BLEND[/h]What is it?This is a supplement with a blend of high-
biological-value proteins isolated from different sources with differing absorption rates. The best products contain fast-digesting whey protein isolate and/or whey hydrolysate, medium-digesting egg and milk isolates, and the slowest-digesting micellar casein protein. The result is a product that can rapidly replenish the amino acids lost during training while also providing a sustained source of blood amino acids (for up to eight hours).
How does it help you refuel and recover?Intense training leads to muscle damage and breakdown, which leeches amino acids from hard-earned muscle. If adequate nutrition is provided immediately after training, the body goes into a hyper-anabolic state — the anabolic window. Refueling with a blended protein supplement immediately after training exploits and extends this window, leading to heightened protein synthesis, faster recovery and increased muscle growth.
Dose:Take25 to 50 grams of high-quality blended protein within 30 minutes postworkout.
[h=2]DEXTROSE[/h]What is it?A monosaccharide, or simple sugar, this form of glucose gets digested quickly high up in the gastrointestinal tract.
How does it help you refuel and recover?The fast absorption of dextrose makes it an ideal postworkout carbohydrate supplement that can rapidly elevate insulin levels and refuel fatigued muscles with glycogen. Glycogen (stored carbohydrates) is a major source of muscle energy that’s used during sustained high-intensity exercise. So keeping glycogen levels topped up immediately after exercise shortens recovery time and re-energizes your muscles for the next training session. Because insulin is highly anabolic, dextrose can promote muscle gain and recovery without fat accumulation when taken right after training.
Dose:Mix 25 to 40 grams of dextrose into your postworkout protein shake.
[h=2]BRANCHED-CHAIN AMINO ACIDS [/h]What are they? BCAAs are the essential amino acids leucine, isoleucine and valine, which share a unique branched-chain structure (hence their name) and are stored in muscles. They’re considered “essential” because our bodies cannot produce them, so they must be taken in through the diet.
How do they help you refuel and recover?During heavy training, the body takes BCAAs from active muscles to be used as energy — a catabolic process. Refueling with BCAAs immediately after exercise boosts blood levels and shuts down catabolism. In addition, taking BCAAs provides the body with surplus leucine, which turns on anabolism and supports heightened protein synthesis. The anti-catabolic and anabolic support offered by BCAAs helps speed recovery and boost muscle growth.
Dose: Mix 5 to 10 grams of BCAAs into your postworkout protein shake. Use a formulation with a leucine:isoleucine:valine ratio of at least 2:1:1. (That is, there should be at least twice as much leucine compared to the others.) Most high-quality BCAA products offer this ratio.
[h=2]GLUTAMINE [/h]What is it? Glutamine is one of the most abundant amino acids in skeletal muscle and is the most prevalent amino acid found in the blood.
How does it help you refuel and recover?Glutamine is considered a conditionally essential amino acid. It’s “conditionally” essential because the body can produce it on its own but possibly not in quantities sufficient to meet its needs during periods of heavy exercise or dieting. Heavy training can deplete glutamine levels, so refueling immediately after each training session is important because glutamine is a primary regulator of protein synthesis. It also helps muscle cells load with glycogen, which is critical for muscle size (glycogen pulls water into muscle cells) and energy storage to fuel subsequent workouts.
Dose: Take 5 grams of glutamine with your postworkout protein shake.
______________________________________________________________________________________
Your post-exercise anabolic window opens immediately after a training session and lasts for several hours thereafter. During this time, it’s imperative to strategize your supplement dosing/timing to exploit and bolster protein synthesis and muscle recovery. In this second installment of our postworkout supplementation series, we examine five key supplements and provide dosing recommendations that will help you maximize muscular growth and minimize recovery time.
[h=2]1) CREATINE[/h]What is it? Synthesized in the liver from arginine, methionine and glycine and found in high concentrations in meat and fish, creatine is the ideal supplement for strength and power athletes. Creatine supplements have stood the test of time through a quarter-century of clinical testing in the lab and field testing in gyms around the world. Creatine plays a fundamental role in energy production during exercise by forming the ATP needed for muscle contractions. Post-exercise, it acts as an anabolic activator to promote protein synthesis and recovery.
How does it help you refuel and recover? From a refueling perspective, taking creatine after training helps to quickly restore muscle creatine to preworkout levels so you can be “locked and loaded” for the next exercise session. Beyond refueling, loading your muscles with creatine after training drives water into those cells, promoting cell volumization (aka the much-sought-after “pump”). The pump not only makes creatine-loaded muscles appear larger, but the “stretching” that muscle cells undergo turns on anabolism and protein synthesis — resulting in increased growth.
Additionally, a study published in the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism showed that creatine supplementation increases levels of growth-promoting insulin-like growth factor-1 in resistance-trained muscle — setting up an environment that boosts protein synthesis, recovery and growth. In addition, a study published in Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology illustrated that subjects who weight-trained while using creatine had twice the reduction in postworkout myostatin as those training with a placebo. Myostatin is a protein that acts as a muscle-growth inhibitor; when there’s less of it around, more muscle growth is possible.
Dose: Although creatine monohydrate dosing is bodyweight and tolerance dependent, a good starting point is to first complete a loading phase of 5 grams four to six times per day for a week. After a week, take 5 grams 30 minutes before and immediately after training. On rest days, take 5 grams with breakfast and 5 grams later in the day.
[h=2]2) BETA-ALANINE [/h]What is it? Beta-alanine is a non-proteinogenic amino acid, meaning that it’s not involved in synthesizing proteins.In muscle, beta-alanine and histidine form the dipeptide carnosine, and how much beta-alanine is present determines how much carnosine is produced. As such, excess beta-alanine in the body (i.e., because you’re supplementing with it) can lead to elevated carnosine levels in muscle tissue. And that’s a good thing.
How does it help you refuel?As described in our preworkout supplement series several months back, beta-alanine’s major effects are noticed during workouts. It promotes increased muscle performance during high-intensity exercise. However, it’s also important to use beta-alanine postworkout to refuel your body and keep muscle carnosine elevated for subsequent training sessions. The postworkout period is ideal for refueling because the body experiences enhanced absorption of nutrients during this time.
Dose: Take 2 to 3 grams of beta-alanine immediately after intense training.
[h=2]3) BETAINE[/h]What is it? Also known as trimethylglycine or TMG, betaine was first discovered in the juice of sugar beets (Beta vulgaris) in the 19th century. It’s a derivative of the amino acid glycine and is also found in foods like wheat, spinach and shellfish. The principal physiologic role of betaine is as an osmolyte and methyl donor (transmethylation). More on this below.
How does it help you refuel and recover? Most of betaine’s benefits can be attributed to its function as a methyl donor. By donating a methyl molecule to the protein homocysteine, betaine converts it into methionine, an amino acid that is involved in creatine production and boosts protein synthesis for greater muscular gains. We recommend taking betaine before workouts for its strength-enhancing effects, but we also advise taking it after training to refuel the body and boost protein synthesis. As a bonus, supplementing betaine also keeps the body’s homocysteine levels down. This is significant because homocysteine levels can be elevated with high-protein diets and are linked to poor cardiovascular health.
Dose: Studies show that as little as 2.5 grams of betaine per day can be effective, but some people work up to a maximum of 6 grams daily. We recommend that you split the dose and take one 30 to 90 minutes before training (or first thing in the morning on rest days) and another postworkout (or right before bed on rest days).
[h=2]4) L-CARNITINE L-TARTRATE[/h]What is it? Carnitine is a compound synthesized by the liver and kidneys from the amino acids methionine and lysine. The blend of L-carnitine and L-tartrate produces a highly stable and bioavailable form of carnitine.
How does it help you refuel and recover?From a postworkout perspective, LCLT has been shown to improve recovery and regeneration in trained muscle. Research published in the American Journal of Physiology - Endocrinology and Metabolism showed that LCLT supplementation boosts recovery from high-repetition squat exercise. One possible mechanism is that carnitine boosts nitric-oxide levels, supporting increased blood flow, nutrient delivery and metabolic-waste removal in trained muscles. LCLT also has been shown to boost the anabolic hormonal response to exercise. A study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise reported that 21 days of LCLT supplementation increased the number of testosterone receptors in skeletal muscle and augmented secretion of luteinizing hormone (a hormone that triggers testosterone production) in resistance-trained men. This is great news because testosterone builds muscle by binding to testosterone receptors, which leads to increased protein synthesis.
Dose: Take 2 grams immediately after training.
[h=2]5) TAURINE [/h]What is it? The name taurine is derived from the Latin word Taurus (meaning ox) because it was first extracted from ox bile, but today it’s made synthetically. Taurine is a conditionally essential amino-acid derivative of the amino acid cysteine. It’s considered conditionally essential because it’s depleted under conditions of heavy physical stress (e.g., during training). Next to glutamine, taurine is the second most abundant amino acid found in skeletal muscle, especially in fast-twitch muscle fibers.
How does it help you refuel and recover?Intense exercise rapidly depletes taurine, so it makes sense to refuel it immediately after training. There are a number of reasons that you don’t want to keep your muscles in a taurine-depleted state. First, as explained in a 2009 article in Physiological Reviews, taurine optimizes water levels in cells and maximizes muscle function. Thus, like creatine, taurine has been implicated to be a potent cell volumizer. This not only makes the muscle belly appear fuller (the pump!), but it also provides an indirect stimulus for muscle growth.
Second, taurine helps prevent muscle breakdown, having been found in a study to decrease levels of a catabolic compound by 20 percent after intense treadmill running. In the same study, post-exercise urinary excretion of creatinine and creatine were significantly reduced with taurine supplementation, which is a sign that the amino blunts the breakdown of muscle.
Third, taurine is a powerful antioxidant and membrane-stabilizing agent. Exercise stress destabilizes and damages muscle cells through a number of different mechanisms, including oxidative stress, but the antioxidant properties of taurine can negate these effects. Based on taurine’s protective properties, research has shown that this supplement can defend against exercise-induced muscle damage and thereby speed recovery.
Dose: Take 1 to 5 grams immediately after training.
