Post work out

[Psaletta]

I have a employee that is studying exercise science, she told me that we have a 20-30 min window after working out to maximize protein replacement beneficially after a work out. What are your thoughts on this guys? I always chug a shake after a work out as I'm sure we all do.. But the time line is what I am intrested in..

[austinite]

That's nonsense. Just eat right all day and mind your macros, and you never have to worry about post, pre or any other random invisible window.

[Shsm]

Austinite is correct. Meal timing is irrelevant, just get in all of your macros for the day in however many meals you want and you'll be fine. It's a lot less stressful that way too.

[GreMos]

Woo! Another one of these threads.

You're going to see a LOT of mixed opinion on this subject. So to save you time,

Eat right all day, make sure you meet your macros, and have your post workout shake if that's what jingles your jimmies.

You can do a bit of digging or use the search bar and look for these treads and read through them. Look for the one I started, it has good information.

[MickeyKnox]

Alan Aragon:

Debunking the PWO Window

"The post-exercise “anabolic window” is a highly misused & abused concept. Preworkout nutrition all but cancels the urgency, unless you’re an endurance athlete with multiple glycogen-depleting events in a single day. Getting down to brass tacks, a relatively recent study (Power et al. 2009) showed that a 45g dose of whey protein isolate takes appx. 50 minutes to cause blood AA levels to peak. Resulting insulin levels, which peaked at 40 minutes after ingestion, remained at elevations known to max out the inhibition of muscle protein breakdown (15-30 mU/L) for 120 minutes after ingestion. This dose takes 3 hours for insulin & AA levels to return to baseline from the point of ingestion. The inclusion of carbs to this dose would cause AA & insulin levels to peak higher & stay elevated above baseline even longer.

So much for the anabolic peephole & the urgency to down AAs during your weight training workout; they are already seeping into circulation (& will continue to do so after your training bout is done). Even in the event that a preworkout meal is skipped, the anabolic effect of the post workout meal is increased as a supercompensatory response (Deldicque et al, 2010). Moving on, another recent study (Staples et al, 2010) found that a substantial dose of carbohydrate (50g maltodextrin) added to 25g whey protein was unable to further increase post-exercise net muscle protein balance compared to the protein dose without carbs. Again, this is not to say that adding carbs at this point is counterproductive, but it certainly doesn’t support the idea that you must get your lightning-fast post-exercise carb orgy for optimal results.

Something that people don’t realize is that there’s no “magic anabolic window” that’s open for a short period of time near the workout & then rapidly disappears. As a result of a single training bout, the receptivity of muscle to protein dosing can persist for at least 24 hours." (Burd et al, 2011).

[GreMos]

Alan Aragon:

"The post-exercise "anabolic window" is a highly misused & abused concept. Preworkout nutrition all but cancels the urgency, unless you're an endurance athlete with multiple glycogen-depleting events in a single day. Getting down to brass tacks, a relatively recent study (Power et al. 2009) showed that a 45g dose of whey protein isolate takes appx. 50 minutes to cause blood AA levels to peak. Resulting insulin levels, which peaked at 40 minutes after ingestion, remained at elevations known to max out the inhibition of muscle protein breakdown (15-30 mU/L) for 120 minutes after ingestion. This dose takes 3 hours for insulin & AA levels to return to baseline from the point of ingestion. The inclusion of carbs to this dose would cause AA & insulin levels to peak higher & stay elevated above baseline even longer.

So much for the anabolic peephole & the urgency to down AAs during your weight training workout; they are already seeping into circulation (& will continue to do so after your training bout is done). Even in the event that a preworkout meal is skipped, the anabolic effect of the post workout meal is increased as a supercompensatory response (Deldicque et al, 2010). Moving on, another recent study (Staples et al, 2010) found that a substantial dose of carbohydrate (50g maltodextrin) added to 25g whey protein was unable to further increase post-exercise net muscle protein balance compared to the protein dose without carbs. Again, this is not to say that adding carbs at this point is counterproductive, but it certainly doesn't support the idea that you must get your lightning-fast post-exercise carb orgy for optimal results.

Something that people don't realize is that there's no "magic anabolic window" that's open for a short period of time near the workout & then rapidly disappears. As a result of a single training bout, the receptivity of muscle to protein dosing can persist for at least 24 hours." (Burd et al, 2011).

Magic ponies

[MickeyKnox]

cont...

"It has been shown that muscle protein synthetic rate (MPS) is elevated in humans by 50% at 4 hrs following a bout of heavy resistance training, and by 109% at 24 hrs following training. This study further examined the time course for elevated muscle protein synthesis by examining its rate at 36 hrs following a training session. Six healthy young men performed 12 sets of 6- to 12-RM elbow flexion exercises with one arm while the opposite arm served as a control. MPS was calculated from the in vivo rate of incorporation of L-[1,2-13C2] leucine into biceps brachii of both arms using the primed constant infusion technique over 11 hrs. At an average time of 36 hrs postexercise, MPS in the exercised arm had returned to within 14% of the control arm value, the difference being nonsignificant. It is concluded that following a bout of heavy resistance training, MPS increases rapidly, is more than double at 24 hrs, and thereafter declines rapidly so that at 36 hrs it has almost returned to baseline.."

[Brick]

cont...

"It has been shown that muscle protein synthetic rate (MPS) is elevated in humans by 50% at 4 hrs following a bout of heavy resistance training, and by 109% at 24 hrs following training. This study further examined the time course for elevated muscle protein synthesis by examining its rate at 36 hrs following a training session. Six healthy young men performed 12 sets of 6- to 12-RM elbow flexion exercises with one arm while the opposite arm served as a control. MPS was calculated from the in vivo rate of incorporation of L-[1,2-13C2] leucine into biceps brachii of both arms using the primed constant infusion technique over 11 hrs. At an average time of 36 hrs postexercise, MPS in the exercised arm had returned to within 14% of the control arm value, the difference being nonsignificant. It is concluded that following a bout of heavy resistance training, MPS increases rapidly, is more than double at 24 hrs, and thereafter declines rapidly so that at 36 hrs it has almost returned to baseline.."

Great posts man. Thanks for clearing that up

[Psaletta]

This is exactly why being a member on this site is so beneficial. Great knowledge, sound advice!

[gbrice75]

Pretty much what's been said above. There are all kinds of figures for the 'magical anabolic window'. 30 mins. 1 hour. 1.3434545454 hours. It's all BS. Nutrient uptake and protein synthesis increase and continue to do so for several hours PWO. One could make an argument that a bedtime meal is more crucial than a PWO meal. IMO, just make sure you're eating your meals and hitting your macros. That matters more than anything else. People get too caught up in these tiny things and shortchange themselves. When you're ready to step on stage and need to diet down to 4% bodyfat, then you start worrying about all of these minor tweaks and things. JMO

[Lazarov]

I agree with everyone else. Not only is it bullshit, but it's stressful. I'm sure stressing over it so much would actually cause you more harm even!