While the list of benefits of exercise for your health is long, exercising also can deplete your body with vital calories and nutrition. Drinking a drink for recovery with the proper types of nutrients at the appropriate times after exercise can have a major impact on your exercise results and overall health. Always consult a qualified medical professional for advice when making any changes to your eating or exercise routine.
Timing
Recovery drinks are a great way to replenish fluids and energy lost in your workout, and also get you ready for your next workout. For the first 2 hours after exercise, the liver produces glycogen, a short-term store form for glucose at one and a half times the normal rate. This is the best time to take a high-carbohydrate refueling drink. Consuming carbohydrates after exercise will also trigger your pancreas and cause it to release insulin, which instructs your cells to absorb glucose. In the following four hours, glycogen production remains high but gradually slows.
Fatigue
If you exercise twice a day, drinking a carbohydrate-based recovery drink will ensure sufficient energy to get you through the second session. It can also help you keep yourself from injuries and move more rapidly toward your exercise goals. With regular and consistent training your glycogen storage can increase by as much as 20 percent. This leads to increased endurance and performance in your chosen sport. Try to consume 1.5 grams of carbohydrate per each kilogram of your body weight during the first 30 minutes after exercise and every two hours for the first 4 hours to six hours, according to the nutritionist Sari Edelstein coauthor of “Life Cycle Nutrition: An Evidence-Based Approach.”
Aerobic Capacity
The recovery drink you choose to drink will fulfill both your glucose needs and your chocolate cravings. Based on the University of Texas at Austin Department of Kinesiology and Health Education low-fat chocolate milk is an ideal post-workout recovery drink to increase lean muscle mass and reduce fat. The protein in chocolate milk makes it a superior beverage for recovery compared to carbohydrates alone. It can also increase your endurance, speed, and your aerobic ability – a measurement of your body’s ability to use oxygen by as much as two times.
Body Composition
A study published in the month of June in the “Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research” discovered the consumption of a recovery drink with carbohydrates and protein as well as ribose — which is one of the components of ATP an essential transporter of energy — can improve the overall body composition of endurance athletes. Participants, all males who were in their 20s to mid-twenties consumed the test drink after exercising five days per week for 8 weeks. Results showed reduced body fat percentage within the first three to six weeks. The weight of the body, endurance, and aerobic capacity did not change with the help of the drink to recover in this study.