RD, CSSD, LD, a board certified specialist in sports nutrition who has worked with college and professional athletes in the NBA, MLB, and Pac-12. Additionally, she shares her expertise in various men’s health publications along with mentoring dietetics students to improve their chances of becoming successful registered dietitians.
In the world of sports nutrition, a lot of emphasis is placed on the pre-workout nutrition along with general eating habits to build muscle or lose fat. That said, recovery is what most athletes tend to slack on. After all, the game/race/match is over now, right? Wrong. Recovery should be just as much a part of a training regimen as all other aspects of staying in shape. So, let’s look at 3 key thing every athlete should know about recovery.
1. Getting Enough Protein And Carbohydrates
Nutritionally, this is the most important thing an athlete can do after activity. Though needs may differ based on the method of activity (endurance, weight training, cardio, etc.) and sport type, the rationale remains the same.
Protein is essential at giving the muscles they need to recovery properly enough to grow back bigger and stronger for future activity. High-quality protein is defined as protein that is rich in all of the essential amino acids which you would find in lentils, tofu, meat, seafood, and dairy including whey.
Athletes should get in at least 20 grams of high quality protein at some point after exercise. Some athletes may have higher daily protein needs, so this number may be higher. Contrary to popular belief, the idea of an “anabolic window” is a myth according to recent science. We used to believe that you had to get protein in immediately after working out or you would seriously hinder your ability to gain muscle.
However, recent studies have shown that as long as daily protein needs are being met and the athlete has consumed a pre-workout meal that’s high enough in protein, this post-workout timing is less important. Nevertheless, if you exercise late in the day, you are still going to want to give your body some protein to have some amino acids to work with while you are sleeping. More on that later.
However, fast-digesting protein sources like whey and eggs are optimal as they can make their way to the muscles to start the recovery process much sooner. The longer muscles go without these amino acids, the greater the chance muscle breakdown will occur which can result in overall muscle loss and greater muscle soreness.
As far as carbohydrates, sports dietitians recommend 1 – 1.2 grams per kilogram of body weight within 2 hours. For a 120 pound female athlete, this comes out to about 54 – 67 grams of carbohydrates.
Carbohydrates right after activity does two things for recovery. First, it releases insulin, which helps the protein be mobilized into the cells more quickly. Second, it replenishes the body’s glycogen stores, sort of like refilling the gas tank. Even if the athlete is done exercising for the day, replacing glycogen gives them enough energy to resume their activities of daily living.
Sufficient glycogen can also be muscle sparing. In other words, if the athlete’s protein intake is subpar that day, glycogen present in the muscles can provide enough energy to prevent the body from burning through muscle tissue for energy.
2. Adequate Sleep
To reach their full potential, athletes focus so much on nutrition and their training – and rightfully so! However, members of any performance staff will tell you that enough sleep is just as important as any diet or training program. For the non-athlete, 7-8 hours of sleep is adequate. However, athletes should be getting a minimum of 8 hours of sleep with the ideal goal of 10 hours. Athletes need more because they put their body more physiological stress than the average person.
Ever lifted weights but didn’t start feeling sore until you woke up the next morning? That’s because, if you can believe it, the majority of muscle recovery occurs during sleep. When you’re sleeping, the body takes you resting as an opportunity to perform several processes. It restores energy levels, dumps information from the brain it no longer needs, and repairs cells along with much more.
All of the processes noted above are important to helping an elite athlete achieve peak recovery. The body releases a rush of hormones like testosterone when we sleep to help rebuild and repair muscle cells that were worn down during training. However, the release of these hormones happens primarily during REM sleep. If sleep is too short to reach REM or is too short in general, your body is deprived of all of the potential repair it needs before you get back to training.
Another thing that’s often forgotten about is mental acuity. When a person is sleep deprived, their mental sharpness, focus, and reaction time is greatly reduced. In most sports, but especially basketball, baseball, and tennis, the ability to stay focused and make quick decisions can be the difference between a win and a loss.
3. Hydrate Hydrate Hydrate
Rehydrating after exercise should always be a given, but this is especially true if you exercise in heat, at altitude, or in water such as in sports like swimming or water polo. All of these conditions cause the body to lose water at a much faster rate and the body only needs to lose 2% of its body weight to see performance deficits. These deficits include reduced power in the lower body, reduced speed, and mental cloudiness.
The general guideline is to drink 129 ounces of water per day as an athlete plus an additional 8 ounces for each hour of physical activity. If you are a heavy sweater, you are likely losing more sodium than the average lately. So, heavy sweaters should be drinking electrolytes along with their fluid to replace what’s lost in sweat. If these electrolytes aren’t replaced, performance can suffer from lack of water retention and risk of developing muscle cramps goes way up.
The Bottom Line
Getting enough protein and carbs post-workout is widely known among most seasoned athletes as the typical way to recover. The importance of proper sleep and hydration cannot be overlooked, however. Speak to a sports dietitian if you need more specialized recovery advice for your individual sport and body composition.