Post-Intensive Workout Foods to Help Boost Recovery Times
by Melinda Burris
You did it! All the hard work and weeks or even months of determination to build your muscle and willpower have paid off, you’ve just completed the most challenging workout or competition of your life to this point. But wait; don’t congratulate yourself too soon! Have you completed your challenge? To put it another way, have you done a proper cooldown, stretching your body and doing what’s needed to enable your body, both physically and mentally, to bring down the pace and reset?
Have you properly considered what comes next? You’ve pushed your body to the limit, and in so doing, you have depleted your body’s fuel. If you haven’t already, now is the time to seriously evaluate your best option(s) for a post-intensive workout meal or at least a snack that will give your body what it needs to recover and start rebuilding its energy reserves. This is an important question, and you must carry it through if you intend to build upon your achievements to date. Treating your body well as you ask it to keep pushing forward and establishing new personal bests is mandatory.
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Registered dietician and nutritionist Leslie Bonci is also the owner of Active Eating Avice in Pittsburg. Her advice when it comes to eating post-workout is you should do it, calling trying to skip these meals “a mistake.”1 She recommends thinking over what you’d like to have as your post-workout meal while you are stretching and going through your cooldown routine, which is meant to bring your body back to its regular temperature as your heart rate and blood pressure also return to normal levels.1
Refuel, Repair, and Rehydrate!
Just as your body functions need to return to normal, your food and energy stores including glycogen (glucose stored in the muscles) and carbohydrates need the opportunity to build themselves back up. To help your body restore itself after intense exercise, you need to focus on taking in high-quality protein from a natural source such as fish or eggs or from a certified protein powder.1,3 The adage, ‘You are what you eat,’ has been a popular saying for a long time for good reason: it happens to be true.
Bear in mind that when you participate in activities like strength training to build up your muscles and create mass, you perform movements that cause micro-tears, which is exactly what it sounds like, very small tears that occur to existing muscles as you work to build that muscle tissue up. The body is remarkably adept at repairing itself; but, by making sure you have an adequate intake of high-quality protein after these exertions, you assist the body as it works to repair and rebuild the small tears in your muscle fiber.1 When you skip post-workout meals, you are depriving your body and mind of what they need to repeat and in time surpass the level of fitness you reached today.2 You are setting yourself up for failure as a fatigued body running on little to no fuel simply will not have what it takes to come through for you when the stakes are at their highest.
Timing and Good Choices Are Key!
A 2018 study published in Nutrients demonstrated that those who went to the gym to complete their workouts had a strong tendency to make better decisions regarding their diet before working out as opposed to after their training session was concluded. Participants for the study were chosen at random, with some being asked to choose from the options of post-workout snacks offered before their workout had begun and others asked to make a selection upon completing their workout.2 As is so often the case, timing proved to be essential to the outcome.
The study results showed the chances of participants choosing an apple as their workout snack decreased by 26% when they were asked to make their selection after their workout. In contrast, participants who were asked to pick what they would like for a post-workout snack when their workout was complete were 45% more apt to select a brownie rather than an apple as evidenced by the data documenting pre-workout choices.2 These results underscore the importance of planning your post-workout meal or snack ahead of time.
Remember, your goal is to replenish yourself, not necessarily reward yourself! You may think you’ve earned that brownie! But are you rewarding yourself if you give in to temptations and engage in bad behaviors that will only make achieving your next athletic goal even more difficult, perhaps impossible?
Examples of Good Post-Workout Meal Choices
When deciding what you will consume post-workout, bear in mind your aim is to replenish the levels of carbohydrates, proteins, and fluids in the body to give it what it needs to recover properly.1,2
- Chocolate milk is a good option because it contains protein, carbohydrates, fluids, and electrolytes. An article published five years ago in the European Journal of Sport Science reported findings that supported the claim that drinking milk following exercise “enhances muscle protein synthesis and rehydration, replenishes glycogen stores, and eases post-exercise muscle soreness…”2
- Eggs are an excellent source of protein. (You can also cook them in any number of healthy ways that will bring out the flavor.) Combine eggs with whole-grain toast and you have given your body a good source of protein along with a healthy carbohydrate (the toast). Have plenty of water and plain, non-caffeine tea or coffee and you check the third box by making sure you rehydrate by replacing the fluids and electrolytes you lost during your workout.2
Don’t forget the carbohydrates! Although carbs have gotten a bad name and reputation thanks to many highly-publicized diet plans that pretty much ban eating a single carb, the body needs carbohydrates. They make up the fuel our body looks to when we exert ourselves. The American Heart Association (AHA) describes carbohydrates as “the main fuel for your muscles.”2 So, after a good workout, be sure to resupply your body’s carbohydrate stores by consuming fruits, vegetables, beans, rice, and whole grains.2
Once you have properly fed your body all the things it needs to replenish its energy stores, rehydrate, and recover from your workout, your challenge is truly complete, and you will be ready to take on the next one!
References:
- Colino, T. (9 January 2024). What to Eat After a Workout: Post-Exercise Meals.
- Austin, D. (17 January 2024). Eating These Foods After Working Out Can Improve Recovery and Rebuild Muscle.
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