coffeecake

Came across an interesting article the other day (apologies if it's been posted in here already.)

Apparently, most exercise science studies are done using male subjects, and when a researcher recently completed and published a study using only women cyclists he had some surprising results. Conventional wisdom holds that you should ingest protein as part of your recovery practice in order to increase uptake of carbs from the blood; however, in women, protein had no such effect. But their muscles showed less damage than the males'.

Of course, this study had a small sample size and has yet to be replicated, but I thought it was interesting. As a woman, I just assumed that exercise studies using men only could be applied to both men and women, with slight adjustments. Huh. This may change things.

Carbonfiberboy 

That's very helpful. Thanks for posting. I've been working with my wife, and it's long been obvious that she doesn't benefit from high daily dose protein feedings the way I do. It just puts weight on her, but doesn't seem to improve muscle recovery. Lower dose feedings do help, however. I'm guessing that .65 figure they quote is about right. I'll start mixing two different recovery drinks for us and see what that does.

She does benefit from consuming some protein during long rides. I'm guessing that 10%-15% protein/carb is about right. That might be a good ratio for a recovery drink, too.

davincirider

I saw the same article in the paper and was truly thrilled that even a group of intellegent men, who make their careers from their brains, can't understand women any better than I can.

Seriously though it was good to see that there was the interest and follow through on the topic of women's endurance. I look forward to seeing what comes out of it.