Vitaminfood meal replacements for post-workout recovery

Nutrients that help keep your muscles healthy before and after a workout

Amongst many factors determining whether you’ll be able to hit your fitness goals is the status of your muscles and joints. Staying healthy allows you to stick to the gym schedule and to be maximally productive during every workout session.

If one happens to get an injury just a few weeks into their weight loss boot camp, and the injury limits their mobility, then that greatly affects their progress. A broken ankle, torn harmstrings and a prescribed bed rest aren’t exactly aligned with your fitness goals because they increase the possibility of adding weight. This all depicts why staying healthy at all costs is necessary for you to achieve your goals.

Nutrition can help you stay fit if done right

1.   Pre-workout supplements

Warming up before the actual workout usually involves light exercise and stretching. This helps the body increase blood flow to muscles and makes the joints more flexible. Well, pre-workout supplements have a similar effect on your metabolism.

Working out requires a significantly higher metabolic rate to help with a ready supply of energy and quick removal of waste products before they accumulate to toxic levels in the muscle cells. A good pre-workout is a highly glycogenic drink that provides easily-absorbable glucose or contains stimulants like caffeine that help ignite the body’s metabolism.

Increasing the rate of metabolism helps prevent injuries in two ways. First, it ensures a steady supply of glucose and energy that is spent during the workout helping to avoid zoning out or even passing out due to hypoglycemia. If you’re alert during your workout, you handle the equipment well and maintain good form. The second way is by increasing the rate of waste products excretion from muscles. For example, lactic acid, the compound that causes muscle pulls and fatigue, is speedily removed from the muscles thus delaying the feeling of fatigue allowing you to remain effective for longer. This waste product removal also helps to reduce recovery time.

What is contained in Vitaminfood pre-workout solution?

-  4.6g beta alanine

-  1.5g taurine

-  300mg caffeine

-  Vitamin C, vitamin B, arginine and much more.

More benefits of pre-workout besides improved performance include enhanced weight loss and thermogenesis, reduced recovery time because of quick clearance of lactic acid from the muscles and improved nutrition because of the phytonutrients present.

Every gym has now carved out some space for sports nutrition from their already crowded gym space. While some of the supplements they sell are worth it, some are just knock-offs with false-volumizing additives. It is prudent to know which ones to bet your success on.

Vitaminfood has been producing meal replacements and sports nutrition for almost a decade now and our products are trusted by many to produce the claimed results. Vitaminfood sports nutrition helps you stay healthy and achieve your fitness goals just according to your plan.

2.       Post-workout nutrition

 As already established, the most important nutrients before and during the workouts are predominantly carbohydrates; a source of glucose. Post-workout however, your body needs more for the repair of cells and torn muscles. You also need a fair share of carbohydrates to restore your energy reserves.

Vitaminfood gives a perfect blend of nutrients in  flavored meal replacements. Complete nutrition meal replacements contain 33g of proteins, healthy slow carbs for weigh loss/weight gain programs and 27 essential vitamins & minerals.

Post-workout nutrition can also focus on specific nutrients. These depend on your workout goal and custom meal plan. For some it is as simple as having extra protein for bodybuilding or enhancing weight loss – protein shakes will come in handy. It may be a little more specific like targeting conjugated linoleic acid or increasing branched-chain amino acids.

Vutaminfood has more sports nutrition that can be integrated into your meal plan for better results.

•         Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA supplements) - CLA is a polyunsaturated trans-fat which can exist in 28 different forms.

Trans-fats are usually inflammatory and linked to highly elevated blood cholesterol levels which clog vessels, raise blood pressure and other cardiovascular complications. This mostly applies to industrial trans-fats. CLA such as the Vitaminfood supplement for sports and nutrition is an omega – 6 fatty acid which confers several benefits to the body.

It is designed to help everyone in burning body fat and muscle mass growth in athletes amongst many more health benefits like improved heart health, reduced recovery time and bone formation.

•         Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA) – working out means that the body needs more amino acids than it normally would in normal conditions. During the rebuilding of the muscles, having readily available nutrients could significantly improve the results. So BCAA intake should be timed around your workout session. Various industry experts recommend taking your protein shakes and BCAA supplements within 1 hour of your workout session but could be extended up to 2 hours.

The benefits include reduced muscle pain after workout sessions in two ways: The mode of action of BCAA is:

1.   Decreases protein breakdown during exercises hence muscles aren’t as heavily damaged.
2.   Decreases levels of creatine kinases; kinases are enzymes that break down substances with this one, in particular, breaking down creatine which is a vital component of protein blocks in muscles and tissues. This indicates muscle damage.

More benefits are: reduced risk of muscle wasting due to heavy weight loss, management of liver diseases, reduced exercise fatigue and increased muscle growth.

Other factors that help in maintaining healthy muscles and quick recovery

1.       Hydration – a good workout leaves you drenched in sweat. All that water lost needs to be replaced in the body along with the dissolved substances. If anything, you might actually need more water. So drinking enough water during the workout and in the periods between your workout sessions helps remain healthy.

In addition to being a solvent for various metabolic reactions, water is also a solvent for some waste products and having enough of it mediates good kidney function and healthy blood volume. It improves muscle flexibility and reduces soreness.

2.       Replenishing electrolytes – sodium in particular is one of the minerals dissolved in water and heavily excreted in sweat. Well, the advice here is not to go on an eating spree for snacks high in sodium but rather to have just enough iodised salt seasoning your meals alongside a healthy selection of natural foods. That will give you all the sodium you need. This will also cater for most other micronutrients that may be lost in sweat.

3.       Sleep – getting enough sleep gives your body enough time in the rest state. That rest state involves physiological conditions that help in muscle recovery and removal of excreted waste. The body also releases protein-building amino acids for building muscles and repairing worn-out fibres/cells.

4.       Light exercise -  this begins with the cooldown after an exercise. Cooldown has the opposite effect with a warm-up, it allows the body to return to its normal level and regulates blood flow preventing its pooling towards extremities which may result in dizziness. On rest days too, you can have a light exercise routine like yoga, walking or swimming to help squeeze out toxins and lactic acid.

5.       Compression garments and cold baths – both work to help in squeezing the muscles and blood vessels in extremities to remove the accumulated toxins and waste products. This leaves you feeling more relaxed and better recovered from your last workout.

References:

1. https://www.herbalife.com.my/articles/tips-to-speed-up-muscle-recovery-post-workout/
2. . https://www.optimumnutrition.com/en-us/Shop-By-Goal/Recover-After-Training/c/43
3. https://honehealth.com/edge/nutrition/muscle-recovery-foods/
4. https://www.military.com/military-fitness/general-fitness/5-steps-to-post-workout-muscle-recovery
5. https://www.vitaminshoppe.com/c/protein-fitness/performance-supplements/intra-post-workout-recovery