Food for Recovery ….. Keep It Simple

 In an effort to help athletes stay healthy, injury free and well nourished much has been written about recovery foods and drinks. I have written a few articles myself  The Performance Zone 45W15-30 geared toward the youth athlete. Here is a no nonsense approach to help you with your youth athletes recovery plan with out breaking the bank.

 Here is what is known about proteins, carbohydrates and performance.

• During exercise, muscles stop the biochemical reactions used to maintain themselves such as replacing and resynthesizing the proteins needed for day to day activities.
• It’s not that exercise is damaging your muscles; it’s that they halt the maintenance process until exercise is over.
• To do this maintenance, muscles must make protein, and to do so they need to absorb amino acids, the constituent parts of proteins, from the blood. Just after exercise, perhaps for a period no longer than an  hour.
• The protein-building processes of muscle cells are especially receptive to amino acids. That means that if you consume protein, your muscles will use it to quickly replenish proteins that were not made during exercise.
• Muscles don’t need much protein, researchers say. Ten grams is as much as a 90 pound youth athlete muscles can take. boys,young men, who are larger and have larger muscles even compared to their body sizes, need more about 20 grams up to the 176 pound boy- young man
• Muscles also need to replenish glycogen, their fuel supply, after a long exercise session - two hours of running, for example. For that they need carbohydrates. Muscle cells are especially efficient in absorbing carbohydrates from the blood just after exercise.
• Once again, muscles don’t need much; about one gram of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight is plenty, Example Lauren  weighs 29 kilograms, or 65 pounds, which means she would need 70 grams of carbohydrates, or say, 12-15 ounces of fruit juice, he said.

 You don’t need a special drink or energy bar to get it. One  boiled egg has 6 grams of protein. Two ounces of chicken has more than 12 grams. a piece of fruit has 30 grams of carbohydrates, or 12oz of fruit juice. A 8 and 1/2  chocolate milk is a complete recovery in a cup.It cost pennies on the dollar to make.

 Until Next Time

Related posts:

1. Eating The Right Foods After Training for Proper Recovery
2. The Performance Zone 45W15-30
3. The Performance Zone Part 3
4. The Middle Distance Runner And Recovery
5. Proper Hydration Guidelines