The Importance of Recovery after Exercise

Written by Sprout Cooking School & Sprout Health Studio

Have you been training for the Westpac City-Bay Fun Run? If not, now might be the time to start going through the City-Bay’s Training Guides (for Running and Walking) and if you’re new to running, you may be feeling a few muscles that you never knew you had.

Did you know that ensuring your post exercise meals are balanced and comprised of carbohydrate and protein can help minimise muscle soreness and also help you capitalise on the hard work you put in on the training track?

Training is designed to put our energy systems and muscles under stress and to help them function more efficiently. However, this process of adaptation is maximised by quality nutrition. Ensuring that we fuel our muscles and brain with quality carbohydrate allows us to work harder, for longer and achieve greater results, and well fuelled clear brain allows us to make the correct decisions, reduces our feelings of effort and allows important training decisions to become habitual.

After exercise, carbohydrate is important to restore energy levels so you can train again and protein is important to assist muscle recovery and growth, and let’s not forget about fruits and vegetables. Too many people focus on the macro-nutrients such as carbohydrate and protein and forget about important micro-nutrients. If carbohydrate is the fuel for your car, vitamins and minerals are the switch inside your car that allow the petrol tank to open and the fuel to be used. Or if protein is the bricks required to build muscle, vitamins and minerals are the mortar that hold the bricks together. Essentially, don’t forget about the vitamins and minerals required to actually use the protein and carbohydrate you consume.

After training aim to consume 1 gram of carbohydrate per minute of exercise from nutritious foods such as whole grains, fruits and dairy and 25 grams of protein from quality sources including lean meat, eggs, seafood and dairy. Consuming carbohydrate and protein from nutrient rich foods will ensure you also consume the vitamins and minerals you require to efficiently use the protein and carbohydrate you consume.

Keep your eyes posted for next week’s City-Bay editorial as we will be sharing the perfect post exercise recovery meal –

providing all the protein, carbohydrate and vitamins and minerals that you need for an effective recovery.