I recently received a couple of questions regarding workout drinks and I thought I could start of the nutrition category in this blog with a few tips and pointers in that area.

The first thing to keep in mind is that the body is far better at utilizing protein and carbs during and after training versus the rest of the day. Recent studies actually show that type II diabetics can handle carbs just as well as non-diabetics during and directly after training. If you need to boost your energy intake to pack on muscle mass, this is the best time to do it.
And if you’re on a diet and cutting carbs, those carbs around your workouts are the last to be touched.

So if you have your diet in order, here are some ideas:

If you want to build muscle mass but aren’t growing, then you probably lack in calories. Add more to your workout drinks. Before, during and especially after. Just get the extra calories when they are best utilized.

The amount of carbs and protein depends on factors like lean body mass, carb tolerance and a lot more. A good starting point is 25-30 grams of protein per hour trained and the double amount of carbs (2-1 ratio). If you’re a skinny bastard with a furious metabolism, double or triple it.

Add BCAA during and after the workout for best results. Take 5g per serving if you’re below 200lbs and 10g if you’re above. If you’re on a calorie deficient diet the BCAA and creatine combo is a real blessing! Just add 2-3g of creatine to each serving of BCAA.

Do not underestimate the power of a workout drink during training if you want to gain muscle or keeping your performance level as high as possible. Just make sure to sip it and have it well diluted.

These are a few simple tips that go a long way.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 19th, 2006 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.