When it comes to fitness the real “sweet spot” isn’t when you figure out how much work you can do, it is finding out how much work you can do and still recover from. We all have those workout warrior moments when we really push the limits of what our body is capable of. I will admit that I do this as much as anyone and many times I go over that danger line too often and rack up a collection of injuries. I’m a sucker for the “Let’s find out if I can do THIS” mindset!
Let’s face it……..we have worked hard for our new body and we want to see what we can do with it! With this blog post I want to emphasize how important recovery is because that is the key to keeping our body in top condition so that we can keep coming back for more!
I’m going to use three separate blogs to break “Recovery” down into the following categories:
- Nutrition
- Rest (Sleep and rest days)
- Mobility (Stretching, warm up, foam rolling, dynamic movement)
So first let’s talk about nutrition. You’ve all heard me say it before “not every calorie is created equal.” When we talk about recovery from a nutritional standpoint you have a few things to consider. The first key thing is getting enough clean calories in your body to fuel your workouts. Now if you are on a weight loss program one of the keys is to burn more calories than you consume so this is a fine line that we have to walk. The key is that you need to consistently measure your results so that you can tweak your nutritional program. For example, here at NGPT, we have our clients come and weigh in every two weeks when they are doing a Meltdown program or a Meltdown Boot Camp geared towards weight loss. If they are hungry we have them add meals with extra clean calories as long as the weight loss continues to happen. One of my favorite new lines is “It is really hard to get fat by eating extra chicken breasts.” By that I mean that adding in a sixth meal of the day that includes baked chicken and veggies is not going to make you gain body fat.
The next key point to discuss when relating recovery to your nutrition is proper usage of a recovery meal post workout. The body is primed for about one hour following a workout. Your insulin sensitivity will be high and your body will be ready to accept calories and put them into the recovery process. You want to make sure that you have a clean meal consisting mainly of lean protein and some carbs post workout. You don’t want to have a high fat meal right after a workout because fat slows down the digestive process. If you are following one of our Meltdown meal plans you should save one of your protein/carb meals for your post workout window. A great second choice would be a protein shake because it will digest very easily and protein shakes usually have a great amino acid profile and amino’s are the building blocks of the recovery system!
I also get asked a lot about how much protein a person should consume. Here are some very general numbers. If you are in a weight loss program you should still look at getting at least 50% of your bodyweight in grams of protein per day up to 100 grams total. If you are in a weight maintenance or lean muscle tissue program you need to shoot for 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight. So what do I do? I weigh about 215 lbs and I consume around 325g of protein each day……give or take a few grams! Each person digests protein differently so, once again, these are pretty general numbers that might need to be tweaked to hit your individual digestive situation.
Check back on Wednesday for Part Two: Rest Days and Sleep
