Are You Justifying Your
Post-Workout Carbs?

Home Featured Articles Lonnie Lowery Post-Workout Carbs

Today I spent about 65 minutes doing my usual chest and arm session. (Yes, it's fun to work t-shirt muscles but there's far more to my schedule and reasoning than that.) I have moved away from voluminous workouts over the past several years but six sets of benching, four sets of direct biceps and triceps work, and some accessory / peripheral exercises did take about an hour. After finishing with abdominal exercises and a few treadmill sprints, I headed for my usual post-workout drink of 30 grams of a whey-casein blend and about twice that many grams of carbohydrate (as fruit sugars, sucrose and starch). It's not fancy, at least on the surface, I know.

But I digress. While I was loading some plates, I got to thinking that my last workout, due to life and scheduling reasons, had to be ridiculously brief. In fact, it was only about 20 minutes long. Sad. I'm glad I squeezed it in, but does such an effort require special nutritional support? Let's do some simplified math.

If a decent resistance training session requires an estimated 250 kcal to perform, a post-workout shake like I consume resupplies all of those calories, plus about 110 extra. When we also include about 80 kcal worth of pre-exercise protein (even if it's not a preferred fuel), that's nearly 200 surplus kcal towards muscle growth. Since protein synthesis is costly - about 2800 kcal to build a single pound of muscle tissue - and everything else is constant in my life, I'm going to be adding about one-half pound of muscle per week at best.

Of course, this would be a huge home-run for a near-genetic-maximum veteran like myself, particularly considering the calorie cost of lingering post-workout soreness, muscle remodeling and hypermetabolism.(3,8)

But what about that pitiful squeezed-in session a few days ago? Well, since 20 minutes is 1/3 of a regular 60-minute session, I spent all of 85 kcal. And since I didn't get sore (which would require additional kcal to correct), my usual pre- and post-workout drinks would place me way over what I would need for weight maintenance and/ or cautious weight gain at my age. Although it was just one workout, I did notice that I've had a fair number of these lately, perhaps one in five sessions.

But I hate calorie counting. So, let's focus on the 60 grams of high-glycemic index carbs in my usual drinks. Many readers are aware that the whole "post-workout carbohydrate window" was established by landmark studies by the likes of David Costill, John Ivy and Bill Sherman back in the 1980s, and that boy or girl, carb loading can be effective.(6,7)

Yet I'm coming to realize that not all of my workouts induce such a need. Whether I obsess over glycemic index, total carb dose or a mixture of the two (glycemic load, if you will), I just don't see those carbs being very necessary for a guy like me. Maybe at times of the year you are similar. When one considers that a decent weight workout will deplete about 1/3 of his (mostly muscle-specific) glycogen stores,(4) a 20 minute effort may be demanding only 10% of them. Do I really need to worry about getting-in my usual shake?

There are pros and cons to consider.

On the positive side, ample glycogen reserves and full muscles sure sound good. (Indeed they are, being conducive to anabolism and providing a 20% reduction in fatigue during longer events and a 2-3% performance boost in speed-focused events.[5]) Also a plus is the fact that carbs may add a little neurological or muscular oomph, even in shorter sessions.(2,10) On the negative side, however, studies suggest that high-carb diets induce lipogenic enzymes.(9) One can crack open any modern biochemistry text to see this.

Carbs may also induce sleepiness if consumed too far ahead of a workout, if you are anything like me. Insulin is part of the effect and it's a real Jekyll and Hyde hormone - permissive on muscle anabolism (and preventive of its breakdown) but indiscriminate in its ability to store fuels, including fat. After a while, especially considering that for many people a short 24 hour glycogen load can be max-out one's muscles nicely,(1) I started to become more and more low-carb… at least regarding myself.

The bottom line is this: Get introspective and be brutally frank with yourself if your training logs suggest shorter workouts of late. Training periodization makes this almost inevitable in the long run. (I sure hope you're not lifting high-volume, year-round like I did as a skinny teenager.)

Here's how to see if you are justifying fast-acting carbs, as you look at your training log…

So...Want Even MORE Strength, Muscle-Building and Fat Loss Info, Just Like This? ...and get a FREE copy of "The Unnatural Athlete" ($29.95 value!), Charles Staley's most politically-incorrect views on training, nutrition, fat loss, muscle-building and more!

Consider the main goal of your current training mesocycle (muscle gain, fat loss or weight maintenance for in-season performance); some additional carbohydrate may be okay and even helpful if you're in a mass gain or performance phase Ask yourself if your workouts are justifying glycogen replenishment; most research suggests that workouts should exceed 60 or even 90 minutes to justify carbs from an ergogenic perspective(2,5) Be fair and assess whether you have been in hard training for several weeks lately or you have been more of a twice-per-week "workout enthusiast" - regardless of how advanced you've become in your lifting knowledge (knowledge does not equal physical need) Be sure to maintain your protein intake (essential amino acids are what you're really after) at 6-40grams post-exercise,(11,13) as you add or subtract the carbs. The same goes for pre-exercise amino acids (12) Remember that dietary fat choices and amounts can also be nudged up or down, even if they're not much of a pre-post-exercise issue.

So be mindful, young Jedi, of your changing training volume and eat accordingly. Employ this simple concept of nutritional periodization and you will be closer to mastering the Force… or at least your athletic progress.

For References See Below

 

Click here to post your comments on this article in our Team Staley Forums!

 

 

	An Webinar with Dr. Lonnie Lowery Optimizing Protein Intake Get Hundreds of Dollars worth of information for the price of just over two gallons of gas! In this teleseminar, Dr. Lowery spoke for an hour on types, timing, safety, dosage, of protein and more. Lonnie not only gave a direct presentation on the topics at hand, but also hand-selected some questions from the participants. Click Here to Learn More and Grab Your Recording Now!

	Click here to return to Lonnie's Article Index

References / Further Reading: