Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Nutrition: Boost your recovery

Recovery is the often-forgotten part of training. It’s in the periods between training sessions that the body repairs itself and, more importantly, adapts from the training you’ve just done. Nutrition plays a vital role in how the body recovers and adapts from training.


There are two nutrients essential to recovery – carbohydrate and protein. During exercise, carbohydrate acts as the main energy source and the body’s small carbohydrate stores often become depleted.


When this happens, the body is put under a lot of stress and those carb stores need to be quickly restored. The first hour or so after exercise is the optimal time to restore these.


Protein plays a major role in allowing the muscles to regenerate, repair and adapt. After undertaking hard exercise, damage is often done to the muscles. Protein is essential for them to recover. Protein also allows the body to adapt to the training by providing the fuel to build new enzymes and muscle fibres.


Source: bikeradar.com/By Dr Kevin Currell, Triathlon Plus


No comments:

Established in December 2006