Advertisement Any time we expend energy, we need to refuel ourselves. Running, biking, swimming or doing daily chores requires energy that is best replenished by eating foods rich in carbohydrates, your body’s preferred fuel choice. While it’s true your body can get some energy out of fats and proteins, it’s sugar, or carbs, that is most efficient.
But strength training is a little different than these other activities in that we are actually causing a significant amount of damage to our muscle tissues. Repairing these tissues requires more than just energy; we also need building blocks. You can think of carbohydrates as bricklayers and protein as bricks. So in order to fully recover and hasten the muscle tissue repair process, you need both carbs and protein.
The ratio of carbs to proteins in your recovery food or drink is important and so is when you eat or drink it. Recent research suggests that the “window” to take in food or drink is within 30 minutes of completion of your workout. Waiting beyond 30 minutes makes the recovery process take longer (or not take place at all).
By now you’re asking me, “Where does chocolate come in?” It turns out that a drink with a perfect ratio of protein to carbs to enhance recovery from strength training is chocolate milk. For those of you who don’t do so well with dairy, it’s likely that chocolate soy milk would do a pretty good job, too, so that’s encouraging.
Be sure you take the time to recover from your strength training session — it will make it easier to do the next workout and it will enhance your strength gains. It’s nice to know you don’t necessarily need those expensive recovery drinks or foods sold at supplement stores, but rather a serving of chocolate milk that you can buy at a local convenience store.
Travis Erickson is director of undergraduate strength and conditioning concentration at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. E-mail questions to erickson.trav@uwlax.edu.
