Nutri-Sport supplement tip -nutrition during training
January 13, 2010 by Ryan Irwin · Leave a Comment
In order to make the body adapt and change, one needs to do three primary things: stimulus (exercise/training), nutrition and recovery. If one of those three components is lacking, progress either won’t be made or will be slowed. While constantly changing one’s training is essential for continued growth and performance is important, rest and nutrition should always be a mainstay and fairly consistent.
One aspect of nutrition that many individuals overlook is during their training. It is critical to fuel the body throughout the day, especially what we call the four most important meals of the day (before/after training, breakfast and before bed). However, by ingesting specific key nutrients during your workouts, you can accelerate your recovery and progress big time!
A recent study published in the Journal of International Society of Sports Nutrition once again proves this. While pre and post workout nutrition is critical, one’s digestive system still needs to break down the foods before it can absorb the nutrients. Even a shake (which we recommend due to it’s quick absorption) takes time, so one should allow at least 30 min before workouts to allow for this process. During training, you don’t want to have solid food in your stomach as it could not only make you sick, but also makes your body pull blood and energy from your muscles while you want them to perform.
We recommend sipping on a mixture of simple carbohydrates and Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs) during training. This minimizes digestion, which gets the nutrients into your bloodstream and delivered to your muscles quickly, to begin the recovery process. Performance will be enhanced as well (especially if one is not taking full advantage of pre workout meals). As the research in this study shows, supplementing with this combo improves performance greatly over just drinking water. For recommend 2 Tbsp of dextrose (20 grams of carbs) and 2-4 scoops of Scivation Xtend, depending on your weight and intensity of the workout. Of course a sound post workout shake with the proper ratio of protein and carbs should be taken within 30 minutes to optimize growth and recovery.
Xtend from Scivation
Ryan Irwin, BS, CPT,
Certified Sports Nutrition Specialist
Nutri-Sport & Full Potential Training
9992 Swanson Blvd
Clive, IA 50325
515-331-2141
www.nutrisportfpt.com
Is there really an “off season”?
November 11, 2008 by Ryan Irwin · Leave a Comment
This past weekend Mandee and I judged the NANBF USA bodybuilding and figure championships in Chicago. It is the toughest natural competition of the year, as competitors need to qualify for it and each class winner receives their pro card.
I have competed at this event the past three years (last year taking third) and being in the judges seat verses onstage was tough, but very motivating! It got me to re-ignite myself with my training. It got me thinking too, ‘is there every really an offseason’?
I truly believe you need to listen to your body. If you don’t give it a break now and again, you will go into “overtraining” and actually limit your progress. However, cycling your training (and supplements) is key to avoid this stagnation.
No matter what your sport, bodybuilding, triathalon, wrestling, there should be a “de-training” period where you focus on some other aspect that is either an active recovery or a type of cross-training that isn’t going to take you a step backwards. For example, here is a great article about triathletes increasing their weight training in the off season.
Work hard, but work smart and don’t give yourself an excuse to get lazy.
