Recovery and sugar?
 

This is a question about the role of sugars in post-ride recovery. In a thread last July on "Next Day Recovery," roadbuzz gave this quote,

"An alternative offered by Joe Friel, author of The Cyclist's Training Bible, is to add 5 tablespoons of sugar to 16 oz of skim milk, and drink w/in 1/2 hour of completing the ride. You get the 4:1 carb : protein thing, and your tired body will suck up the carbs."

The latest article from Peak Performance states, "After exercise – avoid sugar for two hours post exercise but take 25g protein immediately afterwards..."

This is a bit confusing. Anyone else have insights on sugars and post-ride recovery?

You want to take in some simple sugars right after your ride for resons of recovery. There is window that is open right after exercise that allows your muscles to replenish these sugars well. This should lead to a quicker recovery for your muscles, and thus, allow you to ride better the following day.

There is never any reason for someone who is eating right to ingest 5 tablespoons of sugar. Those of you who are interested in health through proper nutrition see "The Zone Diet" by Dr. Barry Sears. www.drsears.com

If you are going to ingest simple sugars for post intense exercise recovery apparently immediately post exercise is the best time due to the window bac mentioned where it is preferentially shuttled to storage without spiking insulin.And combined with some protein as Friel mentioned will aid recovery and blunt insulin spikes.After several hours you should definately avoid the sugars and go with complex carbs as a part of balanced nutrition.And if you are sensitive to simple sugars you don't have to take advantage of the window with simple sugars but can use complex carbs they will just be stored somewhat slower.I think this later approach is what G-Hoch is recommending and is more the approach I use as well.For instance I use a water based shake with whey protein and oatmeal(as complex storage carb)along with several fruits (for simple quick energy carb).The additional advantage here is the added nutrients for recovery in addition to just storage sugar.

I'm curious about the Peak Performance article. That excerpt of advice seems to fly in the face of pretty widely accepted recovery nutrition. (Never mind the thought of trying to snarf down 4 oz. of tuna after a hard work-out.) I'd like to hear where they're coming from... could you provide a link to the article?

Hey roadbuzz. The article is from the "How to Win" newsletter that they send out by email about once a week. This excerpt was from this week's Newsletter #57. Since it's email there's no link to it, but here's the link to Peak Performance home:
http://www.pponline.co.uk/

I'll see if I can attach the newletter in an email to you. I'm a newbie to systemized training and nutrition so I'm still pretty ignorant of this stuff. If you can make heads or tails of it please let me know.

From everything I read on that site PP is a big advicate of carbs+protein post workout and recommends 2grams of carbs/kg of body weight plus approx. 40grams of protein which is in line with the conventional wisdom.What that newsletter may have been refering to was a strategy for weight loss where you maximize postexercise calorie burn by delaying sugar consumption.When I am in a weightloss mode I often delay eating for a few hours particularly after weight training.If this is the case I would be interested to see if they recommend just protein (probably to protect muscle breakdown)as I usually don't like to consume protein alone.

RWTD- Actually it was in reference to stimulating human growth hormone, I would guess for increased performance. This is all so new to me. Here's a cut and paste of the relevant section of the article:

"...So if hGH is your ergogenic drug of choice, learn how to use it the smart way by reading new contributor Richard Godfrey’s fascinating article on how to boost your own production of the stuff in the latest issue of Peak Performance.

Growth hormone secretion, explains Godfrey, can be triggered by a number of natural stimuli, the most powerful of which are sleep, exercise and diet. The article is packed full of helpful advice on how to harness these natural stimulants, including the following concluding tips:

• Exercise – perform three sessions per week, each involving at least 10 minutes’ work above lactate threshold or a number of sprints, with a 1:3 work-rest ratio;
• Before exercise – no fat for 60 minutes before, 2g glutamine 60-90 minutes before;
• During exercise – plenty of plain water (ie 200ml every 10-15 minutes if training in 18-21°C);
• After exercise – avoid sugar for two hours post exercise but take 25g protein immediately afterwards in the form of either a protein shake, protein bar, lean meat or eggs (although you should limit your consumption of eggs to avoid too much cholesterol)."

Comments?

Well thats explains where they are coming from on this then.It is a body composition strategy rather than a recovery/performance strategy.Gh promtes lean body mass ie muscle gain plus fat loss.So basically this would be a stategy to maximize fat loss(toning) rather than future performance.For instance in weight training less weight /more reps/less rest between sets maximizes Gh production while heavy weight with more rest stimulates more testosterone production which is more tilted towards muscle gain(than fat loss) among other things.The reason for the protein I suspect is that certain amino acids such as arginine and glutamine are believed to stimulate gh production if taken on an empty stomoch.So I would suggest to consider this as a weight loss(toning)strategy not a recovery/perfrmance strategy.If you still wanted to try something like this taking the above mention amino acids on an empty stomoch right before sleep is also said to increase gh production during sleep.

Ahhhh. Very well explained :) . It's all making so much more sense now. Thanks!!

Got your PM, rj, thanks. Given all that, I'd say that for a general development program, you'd be better off going for the carbs w/protein after workouts. Whether you use a commercial recovery formula (like Endurox), mix your own (as RWTD does), you'll have more energy for the next workout. Another easy post work-out snack that you might consider is fruit and yogurt.

Good luck with your program!

Stimulating natural growth hormones
 

This article, GH, with refs.doc, reminded me of this thread. It describes some techniques for increasing the bodies natural growth hormone production.

Thanks for the link roadbuzz. Interesting article. I'm taking RWTD's and your suggestions and trying a modified version of PP's HGH plan: 4-to-1 carb/protein mix immediately after workout for recovery, arginine and other BCAAs before sleep and before workouts. Seems to be working well, but I just started. The inconsistent winter weather is making it hard to stick to the training schedule, so I'm trying to get a hold of a CycleOps Fluid 2 for the rain and snow days. Will keep an eye out though for more HGH research and studies. Thanks!!