Post Workout Nutrition: Real Results, Real Fast!

I receive so many questions regarding so many different aspects of training, nutrition, and supplementation on a daily basis that it’s hard to keep up with them. Not just through the 1st Phorm community, but in day to day life; from family, friends, and people I see and meet at the gym.

One thing that stands out to me is how many people concern themselves with minute details of nutrition and supplementation and yet overlook the core, foundational things that really work.

All the quick-fix marketing out there makes it really hard for a person to filter through the bullshit and get real results… which is what we all ultimately want!

I get asked so many ridiculous questions daily, about every product you can imagine. I get asked about this mineral or that vitamin or this “new” pre-workout powder.

It makes me truly realize how many people out there are truly looking for that “quick fix” or “secret” to results in the gym and are overlooking the strategies that truly produce results.

They want it now and they think that the latest, greatest “secret” will give it to them. It’s not their fault; typical supplement marketing beats this message in their head over and over and over again. Because of this, the reality of what works gets overlooked or lost in the shuffle and people just end up jumping from product to product without really ever truly understanding what they are trying to accomplish.

They end up frustrated and pissed off because no matter what they do, the results are mediocre at best… I’ve been there too! If this is you, and you are tired of flip-flopping products for mediocrity and you truly want the quickest road to results…pay attention.

Because what I’m about to tell you will put you on the absolute fastest possible track to results when it comes to building quality muscle and burning fat.

This is not “new” information by any means; it is just highly overlooked when it comes to what truly works.

Let me get right down to the nuts and bolts of post-workout nutrition. First, we need to understand, when you are lifting you are not actually “building” muscle, helping you tone, or burn a bunch of fat.

What you are really doing is:

1) Creating microscopic tears in the muscle fiber called microtrauma (These tears are what will be rebuilt while you are resting to create larger, stronger muscles).

and

2) Severely depleting your glycogen stores.

Glycogen is your body’s carbohydrate stores that are used for energy during training, activity or sport; it’s your onboard energy source.

When you finish training your body has two distinct tasks to accomplish:

1) Replenish your glycogen stores.

and

2) Repair the micro-trauma in your muscle cells.(1)

Your body will accomplish the aforementioned tasks in that order. Your body will always choose to replenish glycogen stores before repairing the microtrauma; that’s just how the human body is programmed.

Your body instinctively has its own set of priorities and having stored energy is essential for survival, whereas looking good or really even reaching your goals is not. There is no way to get around it and no supplement on the face of the planet that can “re-program” your body or genetics to operate any other way.

Most everything you consume post-workout is going to be used first for glycogen replenishment, then for the repair of muscle tissue.

This means that when you are drinking that expensive protein powder after you workout, when your body is starving for glycogen, there is a good chance that a large portion of the protein you drink will start to be inefficiently broken down into sugars (carbohydrates) and stored as glycogen instead of being used for muscle recovery, as it is intended.

It doesn’t matter how good or how expensive your protein is, if you are not consuming it with glucose post-workout, you are wasting your money. What your body wants and needs is protein and glucose, not one or the other.

If you don’t give your body that glucose; you are, in effect, stalling the muscle recovery process and short-changing your results.

What most don’t realize is that when you leave the gym your body doesn’t know you’re done training, so it continues to breakdown muscle tissue for the next 6-8 hours. It has no way of knowing that you stopped working out and therefore should begin the recovery process. Once the catabolic ball gets rolling it continues to roll…until YOU stop it.

It’s your job to stop this process dead in its tracks and flip the switch to get moving the other direction and create a highly anabolic environment in your body. This is done with insulin and by stimulating muscle protein synthesis. (2)

The first thing we have to do to halt the breakdown process is we must create an insulin spike.

Insulin is essentially a transport hormone that tells the body it is ready to begin the repair process by delivering nutrients where they need to go. A spike in insulin will halt the catabolic process and open amino acid receptors in the damaged muscle tissue in order for the repair and recovery processes to begin.

A fast assimilating whey protein will give you enough of an insulin spike to stop the catabolic process known as muscle protein breakdown.

However, when your body is in a glycogen depleted state, glucose is what your body needs and will take any form of carbohydrate (or protein) and eventually break it down to glucose in order to get it. “Eventually” means wasted time and wasted time equates to inferior results.

Not only does supplying your body with carbohydrates other than actual glucose waste valuable time, but by giving your body glucose you are essentially killing two birds with one stone.

You are creating an insulin spike and giving your body the exact material it needs to replenish glycogen stores you depleted in your workout. This way, your body can begin rebuilding damaged muscle immediately. Without a strong serving of glucose, it can take your body 12-14 hours to replenish your glycogen stores and kick the muscle recovery process into full speed.

This means that without glucose, during those 12-14 hours, much of what you eat may be inefficiently converted to glycogen and used for the replenishment of depleted glycogen stores, including that expensive protein powder.

This is part of the reason why it’s a good idea give your body the glucose right alongside your protein immediately post-workout so that it can start the glycogen replenishment and muscle recovery processes simultaneously and instantly. (3,4)

By putting glucose with your protein post-workout you are giving your body exactly what it needs to get the job done. The glucose will cause a greater insulin spike than the protein would alone, which will in-turn put an immediate halt to the catabolic process of breaking down your muscle, while at the same time opening your amino acid receptors in the muscle and delivering the nutrients exactly where they need to go.

The glucose gets delivered and stored in your body as glycogen and the amino acids from the protein are delivered directly into the muscle cell for muscle repair.

This is THE MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPT to understand when it comes to getting benefits from weight training.

Go back and read it all again if you didn’t grasp the concept completely. If you aren’t doing the proper post workout nutrition then you need not waste your money on anything else, it’s that important!

This is specifically what Ignition post workout carbs was formulated for. Ignition with Dexanhydrous Glucose Crystals is a powder you can use pre and post-workout. Ignition contains the highest quality, fastest absorbing sugars known to man and is also the highest glycemic carbohydrate source available.

Dexanhydrous Glucose Crystals are a monosaccharide, Ignition induces a higher insulin response that normal table sugar would.

Upon using Ignition you will notice the immediate effects of increased energy, increased muscle stamina, huge pumps and increased mental alertness. However, you don’t want to take Ignition alone. You want to take it with a protein so that you can take advantage of the open amino acid receptors on the damaged muscle fiber for repair and growth.

There is a very specific type of protein that is ideal to be used and it all comes down to proper nutrient-timing. Post-workout, it is important to use pre-digested, hydrolyzed whey isolate and believe me there is a huge difference from your everyday bulk whey protein! Allow me to explain.

A low-temperature processed, pre-digested pure hydrolyzed whey isolate is a super-fast absorbing protein that breaks down and assimilates with-in roughly 30 minutes of digestion.

Regular whey isolate and concentrate blends can take 2-3 hours to digest depending on the specific protein ratios used. Using a fast-absorbing protein immediately post-workout along with Ignition allows you to take advantage of the insulin spike that Ignition creates.

When you use Ignition post workout you will get an insulin spike almost immediately. So you will have insulin that is ready to deliver nutrients to the cells and a lot of amino acid receptors that are ready to receive aminos. Because of the timing, you’ll want to use a protein that is ready to be delivered quickly and effectively.

As mentioned previously, insulin is a hormone that opens the doors to your muscle cells, so the protein/amino acids have to be present at that specific time when they are open to being received by the damaged muscle fiber.

If you are using a slow assimilating protein some of the aminos won’t arrive for 2-3 hours and by then the door is closed and the aminos can’t get in to do the repair work.

This is where Low Temperature Processed predigested hydrolyzed whey isolate comes in; it is predigested and ready to be delivered almost immediately. The insulin, Ignition (glucose) and protein (amino acids) are all on the same schedule and ready to be assimilated and absorbed at the same time.

This means that you will get the glucose and the protein delivery at the same time to the exact locations where they need to be. (6)

“So what protein do you recommend for this?”

Phormula-1 is a Low Temperature Processed Hydrolyzed Whey Protein Isolate Specifically formulated to be the highest bioavailable and fastest assimilating protein in the world.

It utilizes only the highest quality hydrolyzed and predigested whey protein fractions along with Low-Temperature Processed Cross-Flow Micro-Filtrated Whey Protein Isolate for maximum assimilation speed and amino acid retention.

Phormula-1 was formulated specifically to work in tandem with Ignition for ideal recovery and muscle tissue repair after periods of moderate or intense training.

In addition to the ultra-premium protein sources used, Phormula-1 is by far the best tasting, best mixing isolated protein on the market. Not only will you taste the difference, but you will also actually feel the difference immediately when you use it.

The taste of these two products mixed together is nothing short of AWESOME

I really can’t stress enough how much of a difference replacing your current post-workout plan with this proven regimen will make. After you start including Ignition and Phormula-1 into your supplement routine, I guarantee you won’t EVER quit taking it!

Proper post workout nutrition is where it’s at and from a supplement standpoint it will make the largest immediate impact on your results!

The difference is nothing short of drastic.

Like I said earlier; this is undoubtedly THE MOST IMPORTANT CONCEPT to understand when it comes to getting the greatest benefits from weight/resistance training.

If you aren’t doing the proper post-workout nutrition, then do your wallet a favor and don’t waste your money on anything else.

Sources:

1. Jacobs, I., P. Kaiser, and P. Tesch. Muscle strength and fatigue after selective glycogen depletion in human skeletal muscle fibers. Eur. J. Appl. Physiol. 46:47–53. 1981.
2. Chandler, R.M., H.K. Byrne, J.G. Patterson, and J.L. Ivy. Dietary supplements affect the anabolic hormones after weight-training exercise. J. Appl. Physiol. 76:839–845. 1994.
3. Biolo G., BD Williams, RY Declan Fleming and RR Wolfe. Insulin action on muscle protein kinetics and amino acid transport during recovery after resistance training. Diabetes 48: 949-957, 1999.
4. Ivy, J.L., A.L. Katz, C.L. Cutler, W.M. Sherman, and E.F. Coyle. Muscle glycogen synthesis after exercise: Effect of time of carbohydrate ingestion. J. Appl. Physiol. 64:1480–1485. 1988.
5. Kraemer, W.J., J.S. Volek, J.A. Bush, M. Putukian, and W.J. Sebastianelli. Hormonal responses to consecutive days of heavy-resistance exercise with or without nutritional supplementation. J. Appl. Physiol. 85:1544–1555. 1998.
6. Haff, G.G., M.H. Stone, B.J. Warren, R. Keith, R.L. Johnson, D.C. Nieman, F. Williams, and K.B. Kirksey. The effect of carbohydrate supplementation on multiple sessions and bouts of resistance exercise. J. Strength Cond. Res. 13:111–117. 1999.
7. Bowtell JL, K. Gelly, ML Jackman, A Patel, M. Simeoni, and M. J. Rennie Effect of different carbohydrate drinks on whole body carbohydrate storage after exhaustive exercise. J Appl Physiol 88: 1529-1536, 2000.
8. Roy, B.D., M.A. Tarnopolsky, J.D. MacDougall, J. Fowles, and K.E. Yarasheski. Effect of glucose supplement timing on protein metabolism after resistance training. J. Appl. Physiol. 82:1882–1888. 1997.

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