Choosing Your Recovery Drink
Endurance training is designed to put your body under serious stress. A hard ride will not only deplete your glycogen stores, it will elevate your cortisol and drain essential vitamins and minerals from your system. As you ride, the glycogen from your muscles and liver is burned to fuel your leg muscles. If you intend to keep your body healthy and increase your strength, it’s crucial that you focus on recovery after you train.
It’s well-accepted that endurance athletes have a 30-minute glycogen window that is the “window of opportunity” for refueling after training. In those 30 minutes, your insulin sensitivity is at its peak. Your exhausted muscles are desperate to restore the nutrients and glycogen stores they’ve lost, so the effect of anything you ingest will be magnified.
Some coaches recommend consuming 100 grams of carbs in this window. And that will certainly make you feel better. The trouble is, you can’t just eat anything, if you want to make the most of this opportunity. Studies have shown, for instance, that beverage with 3 grams of carb for every 1 gram of protein replenished muscle glycogen levels 38% faster than drinks with carbs alone.
You also need to fuel with nutrients that can be absorbed quickly. To maximum the restoration of your energy, you need the proper balance of ingredients as well. That’s why the scientists have worked so hard to develop post-recovery drinks with the optimal balance.
In that first 30 minutes, you can convert carbs to muscle glycogen 3 times faster than usual. Within 2 hours, the conversion rate will have fallen by 50%. In 4 hours, you’ll be completely back to your usual repletion rate.
Not all recovery drinks are created equal. Check out the labels and then compare their effects for yourself. When you’re making your choice, here are a few things to keep in mind:
- Choose a flavor you like. If you don’t like it, you won’t drink it.
- Aim for 3 to 4 grams of carbohydrate for every gram of protein.
- Make sure quickly absorbed sugars, like glucose, sucrose, or maltodextrin are among the first ingredients.
- Look for branched chain amino acids (BCAA). They are the building blocks of your muscles and your body can’t make them, so you’ll have to add them. They’ll repair your cells and muscle tissues, as well as making antibodies to fight off bacteria and viruses.
- Include essential vitamins, minerals and electrolytes to help bring back your energy, combat free-radicals and support your immune system.
Keep in mind, too, that, even though you see pitches for separate “performance” drinks and “recovery” drinks, that’s a marketing thing. You can drink either one during and/or after your ride. But no matter what you drink on the road, focus on refueling in the 30-minute window afterward. You’ll feel the difference – not just on the day, but on the next day, when you head out to punish your body again.