Proper Postexercise Recovery --Are you doing it right?
7:46 PM
After intense workouts, athletes are physically depleted, dehydrated, and mentally exhausted. Therefore, recovery nutrition must have three primary goals: refuel, rehydrate, and repair and build. Replenishing vital nutrients, rehydrating and restoring electrolyte balance, repairing damaged muscle tissue, and attenuating excessive inflammation accomplish these goals.1,2 Adequate recovery is critical to enable athletes to better respond to increases in training volume and intensity and perform at their best.3
Refueling
Following vigorous exercise, athletes must consider when, what, and how much to eat and drink—important components of a recovery nutrition plan.1 The what and how much to eat and drink depend on the sport, the training program, environmental factors, the athlete’s health history, body composition and size, performance goals, and physical conditioning. All three components are referred to as “nutrient timing,” or the timing of nutrient delivery to the body.
Because exercise sensitizes muscle tissue to certain hormones and nutrients, muscle is most responsive to nutrient intake during the first 30 minutes postexercise. And although this metabolic window of opportunity diminishes as time passes, certain types of exercise, such as resistance training to the point of muscular fatigue, keep the window open for up to 48 hours. Therefore, athletes must be cognizant of what they consume each day and when. Physical training takes place in succinct bouts, but the nutrition segment of a training program extends to all waking hours and must include the replenishment of several nutrients to promote postexercise recovery.
Read full article with complete postexercise tips at: "Postexercise Recovery — Proper Nutrition Is Key to Refuel, Rehydrate, and Rebuild After Strenuous Workouts" by Marie Spano, MS, RD, CSCS, CSSD
Best Teen Diets recommends healthy well balanced eating that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, protein and low-fat or fat-free dairy. We offer nutrition information for teens, parents and educators that emphasizes the importance of healthy eating for teens. For more information visit www.bestteendiets.org
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