Tag: strength training

  • Football Season Is Here!

    Football Season Is Here!

  • Good Luck, Zion!

    Good Luck, Zion!

  • How Many Sets Per Week to Maximize Muscle Building

    How Many Sets Per Week to Maximize Muscle Building

    How many sets should we have per muscle group each week to make the most progress in the gym? There is significant scientific data suggesting that at least 10 sets per muscle group per week is sufficient to make significant progress with weight training. What we do not currently know is the extent to which increasing this number beyond 10 has on our progress parameters – and requires further scientific investigation. This does not however, mean we should only do 10 sets per muscle group per week.

    If we are truly aiming to maximize the results we see from our training sessions, we can start a training phase at 10 sets per muscle group and add 1 or possibly 2 sets each week until we find what it is we can still recover from. It is easy for us to think that muscle soreness is indicative of recovery but unfortunately this is not the case. Muscle soreness resembles disruption to the muscle cell – once this disruption has passed and has been recovered from, we no longer feel muscle soreness. At this point, our muscles are recovered but full recovery comes from our whole body, not just our muscles.

    Our central nervous system accumulates fatigue every rep of every set. This is why our level of soreness may make us feel like we have recovered but are unable to progress in the gym week to week. Our muscles are actually continuing to make progress with strength and size, we just can’t see it in our performance because our central nervous system is too fatigued for our performance to improve.

    What we should do to combat this as briefly mentioned above, is add 1-2 sets per muscle group per week until we find our maximum recoverable volume (MRV) – in other words, finding the absolute maximum amount of training volume (sets and reps) we can handle in one week, while still being able to be fully recovered by the next time we train that muscle group. Taking a full training program (4-6 weeks) to increase sets each week until we find our MRV can be incredibly useful to prevent ourselves from overtraining and getting injured in the future.

    The intensity of each set we perform heavily influences the amount of fatigue we accumulate throughout a training program. We discussed relative intensity in detail in our “How to Train for Muscle Growth” but will briefly discuss how we can manipulate intensity so we can still recover week to week.

    We want to have at least one set per exercise where we are within 5 reps until failure (5 reps in reserve or RIR) 5 RIR has been shown to be about 90% as effective for muscle building as going all the way until technical failure (0 RIR) but with significantly less fatigue accumulation.

    We can start a new training program with 10 sets per muscle group per week, with our last set of every exercise done within 5 RIR. The next week we can increase from 10 sets to 11 and now get our last 2 sets done within 5 RIR and so on. When calculating sets per muscle group per week it’s very important we first have a good understanding of what muscles are used throughout various movement patterns.

    A quick example is body weight dips: this may seem like it as an exclusive chest exercise but we must remember that sets of dips also count towards our weekly totals for tricep and front deltoid involvement. Even if the chest is the primary mover, we will still factor these in as full tricep, shoulder, AND chest sets in our weekly totals. If this is done incorrectly, it can be very easy to miscalculate our weekly totals and begin overtraining.

    If you want more information on what you can do if you think or know you are overtraining, give our article titled: “What to do When you Stop Making Progress in the Gym ” a read as it goes into detail with various strategies you can take to overcome this.

    If you or anyone you know is interested in taking their training or athletic performance to the next level, give us a call (312-666-7147) or send us an email (info@performancetrainingsystems.com) and one of our many qualified professionals will be eager to help in any way we can!

     

    References:

    • Helms, 2015
    • McNaughten, 2016
    • Schoenfeld, 2016
    • Tang, 2009
  • How to Eat to Maximize Muscle Mass and Gain Strength-Part 3 and 4

    How to Eat to Maximize Muscle Mass and Gain Strength-Part 3 and 4

    Part 3

    We digest protein into amino acids which are transported through our bloodstream to repair our damaged muscles. Amino acids circulating in our bloodstream need to be let into the cells they are trying to repair to do their job – our bodies must secrete insulin in order for this to happen. For example, if we were to drink some branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s) we immediately absorb these into our bloodstream, but without producing an insulin secretion, we cannot use these BCAA’s to repair our muscles. Our previous recommendation for BCAA consumption prior to fasted training works because resistance training elicits an insulin response.

    Once amino acids are circulating in our bloodstream, it takes about 3-4 hours for this amino acid concentration to reach baseline again. Once we reach baseline, we will not be repairing our muscles anywhere close to what we were right after eating. For this reason, it is best practice to eat at least 25g protein every 3-4 hours (25g has been found to be the minimum threshold to “maximally” stimulate MPS). Protein sources that come from animals are our best bet, as we know our bodies produce more testosterone (testosterone is the MOST useful hormone with regards to strength improvements and body fat loss) by eating animal fats. It can be difficult to always have access to animal sources of protein, so we recommend eating something easy to prepare like a protein bar, Greek yogurt, or drinking a protein shake when we are unable to get a full meal at this 3-4 hour mark.

    If you are someone who truly wants to maximize their nutrition and recovery strategies, at this point you may be wondering “if we want to always keep MPS elevated above baseline by eating a minimum of 25g protein every 3-4 hours, aren’t we wasting a large portion of the day by not keeping these levels elevated when we sleep?” The answer is: yes, we are wasting time. In order to combat this, we can use casein protein right before bed. Whey protein is very similar to animal sources of protein where MPS remains elevated for ~3-4 hours but casein actually doubles this to 6-8 hours before MPS returns to baseline – almost a full night of sleep! This slower circulation also comes with a slower absorption rate so while 25g of whey “maximally” stimulates MPS, you need twice as much casein (50g) to accomplish the same goal. Drinking a protein shake with 50g of casein right before bed will allow us to keep MPS elevated for most if not all of the time we spend sleeping – this way we can actually be consistently recovering for every minute of every day. Although for different reasons, this process of slower nutrient digestion and absorption also occurs when we eat large meals.

    As previously mentioned, 25g of whey protein maximally stimulates MPS. This elevation in bloodstream amino acids lasts for 3-4 hours – the same applies for 25g of protein (3 Oz.) from chicken breast. This changes when we eat anything other than just protein in a meal. Most of the time we eat we are not exclusively eating protein. When our stomach needs to concentrate its efforts to digest carbs and fat in addition to protein, this process takes slightly longer and the increase in MPS is smaller in magnitude (this means we do not “maximally” stimulate MPS). So what this means for us, is that on average, when eating well-balanced meals consisting of protein, carbs, and fat, we should aim to eat between 45-70g of protein as this will allow us to still maximally stimulate MPS regardless of our bodies rate of absorption. When eating meals with mixed nutrient absorption, the previously mentioned MPS elevation of 3-4 hours, now changes to 4-5 hours. This is something we need to consider for instances like fueling strategies where if we eat too much too soon before an activity, our performance can decrease due to nausea and stomach cramps.

    To this point we have discussed how much protein to eat but only briefly mentioned which protein sources and how often we should be trying to eat. Piecing together the information presented above, we should be trying to eat at least 25g of protein per meal to maximally stimulate MPS (45 – 70g protein for larger meals). We want to try to eat every 3-4 hours with any size meal. Even though MPS does not reach baseline at 3 hours with larger meals, we still want to keep MPS elevated as much as we can throughout the day. If you are someone who has a hard time eating every 3-4 hours, a good strategy is to alternate what you eat with each protein “feeding”. We can have a full meal, then around the 3-4 hour mark, if we are not hungry, we can have a protein snack like a protein bar, shake, or Greek yogurt (as long as it has at least 25g of protein). This way, we can keep MPS elevated throughout the day and don’t let our hunger stop us from meeting our goals! The amount of protein we eat in a day might be the most important part of eating for strength gain or muscle growth, but the type of protein we eat is also incredibly important.

     

    Part 4

    Our body digests protein sources into amino acids that are circulated through the bloodstream. Of the 20 amino acids, 9 are essential, meaning that our bodies cannot make these on its own. Because of this, we need to ensure we consume protein sources with complete amino acid profiles (consisting of essential amino acids). For the most part, it is relatively easy to get plenty of complete protein sources because all animal sources of protein have complete amino acid profiles. Specifically, leucine and isoleucine are the two most important amino acids we need to make sure we are eating – without these, our body will not understand how to utilize these amino acids to repair our muscle cells. Most of us will not have a hard time eating plenty of complete proteins but for those who practice a vegetarian or vegan diet, it can be tricky.

    When investigating plant sources of protein, it can be easy to think that we are getting some protein in because we are literally eating protein. The difficult part comes when we realize that the protein source we just ate does not contain leucine or isoleucine. Below is a list of some of the protein sources that are either complete or incomplete to help guide your decision-making process:

    Incomplete:

    • Nuts
    • Seeds
    • Whole Grains
    • Legumes (lentils, peas)
    • Beans
    • Rice
    • Vegetables

    Complete:

    • Meat
    • Poultry
    • Fish
    • Eggs
    • Dairy (milk, yogurt, cheese)
    • Whey

    Complete Vegan/Vegetarian Options:

    • Soy
    • Buckwheat
    • Quinoa
    • Chia seed
    • Spirulina
    • Tempeh
    • Amaranth

    This is not an exhaustive list, but a good place to start. Just because protein sources are incomplete, that does not mean we cannot complete them ourselves. For example, let’s say for lunch you eat rice and chicken. If you were to eat the rice alone, our body would be unable to utilize those amino acids to repair our muscle cells, however, if we were to eat the same amount of rice in addition to chicken, the leucine and isoleucine from the chicken will then allow us to utilize the amino acids from the rice to repair our muscles and make us stronger. For those who do not eat meat, we can still utilize the same strategy of completing our amino acid profiles ourselves, but this will require considerable knowledge of amino acid profiles regarding a wide range of vegan and vegetarian food options. An easy way to complete our amino acid profiles is to make sure that we are eating at least 1 complete protein source with each meal (reference list above). To this point, we have discussed general timing strategies, but what nutritional strategies can we take before and after our training sessions to maximize our recovery?

    In the past article titled: “Pre- and Post-Workout Nutrition Strategies for Strength Training” we discussed why it is a good idea to train in the “fed state” and how we have increased nutrient absorption following exercise. For these reasons, we recommend that you have a meal before training to begin recovery at the onset of training (25g protein and ~33g carbs -1 hour before training, for full meals, give at least 2-2.5 hours). We experience increased nutrient absorption, much like how MPS remains elevated, for 3-4 hours depending on the intensity of our training. This timing works out perfectly because if we have a protein shake immediately following training, MPS level will begin to dissipate around 3 hours so we can get two “protein feedings” in this “anabolic window” following exercise.

    If we implement all the nutritional strategies discussed in this article, we will ensure that we are maximizing your recovery with what we eat! If you or anyone you know wants to improve their training, diet, or body composition, give us a call (312-666-7147) or send us an email (info@performancetrainingsystems.com) and one of our many qualified professionals will be happy to help in any way we can!

  • What to do When You Stop Making Progress in the Gym

    What to do When You Stop Making Progress in the Gym

    Have you ever been making steady progress in the gym only for you to spend an extended period of time not making any progress? In this article we will discuss what you can do when you hit a plateau with your progress in the gym.

    In previous articles, we have discussed why it is important to train close to failure and to sometimes, even, train all the way to failure. But what happens if we train to failure every set every time we train? It might surprise you to learn that we actually do continue to make progress when training to failure every set; however, after a short time (1-2 weeks) we will be training a specific muscle group before it has had time to fully recover. Without giving our bodies time to dissipate these effects, this will result in us accumulating fatigue from one session to the next. This does not mean we will not be making progress but rather the progress we are making will become masked by our accumulated fatigue.

    For example, on a Barbell Back Squat, let’s say we are able to do 8 reps with 185 lb on the bar and we train every set until complete failure; the next week our muscles will likely be stronger and able to move more weight but we are unable to actually go up in weight on the bar because we are still fatigued from our last session where we did Barbell Back Squat.

    Too much accumulated fatigue is one of the most common reasons for plateauing in the gym. But what can we do to avoid this? And what can we do if we have already accumulated too much fatigue?

    In order to avoid this, take a look back at the past articles titled: “How to Train for Muscle Growth” and “The Importance of Tracking your Progress in the Gym”. These articles outline how to safely and effectively implement progressive overload and how to train close to failure without accumulating too much fatigue.

    If you have already accumulated too much fatigue and want to get back on track, it is advisable to take a “deload” or “active recovery” week. The purpose of this is to allow fatigue to completely dissipate before we begin serious training again while still keeping all of the strength we have gained up to this point. One strategy we can take for a deload is to do the same training we have been doing, using 100% of the weight we were using BUT only doing 50% of the total volume. So if we had 4 sets of 8 on the Barbell Back Squat, to deload we would use the same weight but only do 2 sets instead of 4. This way we continue to hold the strength we have gained but do a small amount of total volume, so we aren’t accumulating too much fatigue.

    Another strategy you can take to dissipate fatigue is to begin a new training program. During the first week of a training program with new exercises, we never exactly know what our working weight is right away. So we can start with the weight low and work up from there. For example, if you have 4 sets of 8 reps, start with the weight low, and work up from there to the point where only the last one or two sets are at our working intensity (~5 reps in reserve).

    [Sample progression for Barbell Back Squat]

    • Set 1: 115lb x 8
    • Set 2: 135lb x 8
    • Set 3: 165lb x 8
    • Set 4: 185lb x 8

    This will allow us to learn the correct technique of the exercises we will be doing next, while still using the muscles we want to keep our strength with so that we do not lose any of it. You can see how this strategy is similar to the deload week but this way, we can use our “deload” time to practice the technique for future exercises.

    If you or anyone you know is interested in taking their training more seriously and taking all of the guesswork out of your training decisions, give us a call (312-666-7147) or send us an email (info@performancetrainingsystems.com) and one of our many qualified professionals will be happy to help!

    References

    • Helms, 2015
    • Schoenfeld, 2016
  • Why You Should Track Performance While Training

    Why You Should Track Performance While Training

    Do you want to make sure you are making progress in the gym from week to week? Tracking your performance is one of the most important factors regarding our previous article: “How to Train for Muscle Growth” where we discussed the proper implementation of progressive overload.

    For a quick recap, progressive overload refers to us progressing the difficulty of our training from one week to the next to continue to challenge our bodies. Without a continuous increase in difficulty, there is no need for our bodies to adapt any further. This increase in difficulty can come in many forms, from increasing the weight, to reducing rest periods, to changing our repetition range, the list goes on. The bottom line is that if we do not continue to challenge ourselves, we will not continue to make progress.

    With progressive overload in mind, we want to make sure we are not pushing ourselves too hard from week to week. Pushing too hard can cause us to become overtrained and unable to recover before the next time we train that muscle group.  You could actually be continuing to make strength improvements when overtrained but are unable to increase weight room performance week to week because our fatigue is masking our progress.

    Being overtrained also puts us at a significantly higher risk for injuries while training. When the muscles we are trying to train are fatigued, we begin to incorporate other muscles into our movements in what we call “compensation patterns”. For example, if our legs are overtrained heading into a leg day and we start with deadlifts; due to fatigue, our legs will be unable to produce the same force they were last week so when we try to lift the same weight, we could be using more of our low back muscles than usual which increases our risk for back injuries.

    The two most important aspects of this article are that we need to increase the difficulty of our training from week to week and we need to make sure we are not overtraining ourselves. The implementation of these two aspects becomes significantly easier when we begin recording the performance of our training.

    Without recording our performance, it can be very difficult to remember what we did each set the previous week. If we can’t remember what we did the week before, we could choose a difficulty that is either too hard (which makes us overtrained) or too easy (where we could make more progress). Recording our performance eliminates any guess work and will keep us increasing the difficulty and getting stronger week to week.

    Of the many ways you can track your progress, we recommend using an app like “GymBook” or using the old-fashioned method of writing it into a notebook or the notes app on your phone. You can’t go wrong with the notes app or a notebook, but apps like “GymBook” are great because they automatically chart your performance of each set on a line graph so you can see an accurate visualization of your progress.

    Here at PTS, all of our Strength and Conditioning Coaches track your performance of every rep of every set, in order to ensure that we are safely and effectively implementing progressive overload to your training.

    Give us a call (312-666-7147) or send us an email (info@performancetrainingsystems.com) and one of our many qualified professionals will be able to discuss any questions you may have.

  • How to Train For Muscle Growth

    How to Train For Muscle Growth

    If you have ever tried to exercise on your own and have found that your progress stalls out after a few weeks of training, this article is for you! We will be discussing how you should be training in order to ensure you continue to make progress.

    The most important aspect of any training program is the implementation of what we call “Progressive Overload”. If we implement progressive overload in our training, all this means is that over time, our training increases in difficulty as we challenge ourselves more from week to week.

    Our bodies are always adapting to meet the demands of our daily activities. If the difficulty of our training remains the same, our bodies have no reason to continue to improve. As long as our body thinks it can handle what it needs to do during a training session, in an effort to conserve energy, we will only adapt to meet the demands required for training and will have our progress plateau. So, you can see, as demands for training increase over time, so do the adaptations we experience. The most important part of progressive overload is making sure the demands for training are increasing over time.

    The extent to which our strength improvements can be made while utilizing progressive overload will be determined by the amount of fatigue we accumulate from one training session to another – this corresponds to how close to “technical failure” we go. Proper management of these two aspects of training are incredibly important for avoiding plateaus with our progress over time.

    An example of using fatigue management in a training program would be if we were doing 4 sets of 10-12 reps, for example, we would want the first set to be relatively easy; then, as fatigue sets in, using the same weight, each following set will increase in difficulty until the last set (or two) are close to if not all the way to “technical failure”. The term “technical failure” refers to the point where, during a set, fatigue no longer allows you to perform the exercise with correct form; if your form begins to break down and you start to cheat, that is technical failure and where we want to stop the set.

    If we go too hard and are close to failure the first set, fatigue will set in too soon and we will already be unable to get the same reps as before only after the first set! On the other hand, only using the last one or two sets to train close to failure will allow us to still challenge ourselves without accumulating too much fatigue and run the risk of not being able to recover in time for our next training session.

    Using this set-to-set progression will allow us to frequently train close to, if not all the way to failure. Training to failure every set will be too much fatigue for us to recover from before our next training session. There is significant scientific data regarding what level of intensity provides the most stimulus for us to improve strength. What has been found is that training within 5 repetitions to failure (or 5 reps in the tank) provides an almost identical strength improving stimulus as all the way to failure. So, training at 5 reps in the tank would be ideal as this would allow us to minimize fatigue accumulation however, if we never actually train to complete failure, we never really know how close to it we are. So, something could feel like 5 reps in the tank but actually be 6,7, or 8, and then we start leaving some progress on the table that could have been gained.

    Using the information above, a simple way of using progressive overload in your training is to use a weight where you can do all of your sets at the same rep range but have the difficulty increase set-to-set as fatigue accumulates. It is not necessary to always have the last set go all the way to technical failure, but it should be done somewhat frequently (once every 4 weeks or so) in order for us to know that our level of intensity is sufficient to provide us with the strength adaptations we want (within 5 reps to failure). Regardless, we always want at least one set per exercise to be within the 5 reps to failure range.

    If you are someone who is looking to start training or just to break through a plateau, send us an email or give us a call and one of our many qualified professionals can help give you a place to start!

    References

    • Helms, 2015
    • Schoenfeld, 2016
  • How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet

    How to Begin a Fat Loss Diet

    Have you ever set out on a fitness journey with one of your friends only to find that they are making more progress than you when you’re both doing the same thing? In this article we will discuss how your diet plan should be specifically tailored to you and your individual goals – and how your strategies may differ from that of others.

    At this point in time it is common knowledge that in order to lose body fat we need to be consuming less energy (food) than we are using throughout the day for daily activities (brushing your teeth, walking to your parked car, exercising, etc…). When this happens, we begin to use the energy we have stored in our bodies (body fat). This line of thinking could then lead us to believe that more is better, and that the fewer calories we take in, the more fat we will lose. This is true only in regards to short-term (1-2 weeks) fat loss but will not provide us with the desired results long term and can have adverse health effects in regards to our quality of life. This will be discussed further in the following article.

    It is easy to find an estimate of how many calories we should eat in a day to maintain our current body weight but since these numbers are only estimates it will take some guess and check work initially to get dialed in. The first step in this process is to find our basal metabolic rate (BMR) which is our energy expenditure estimate for a day. There are many online calculators you can use but we can also use the Harris Benedict Equation that these calculators are derived from:
    Men: BMR = 13.397W + 4.799H – 5.677A + 88.362
    Women: BMR = 9.247W + 3.098H – 4.330A + 447.593
    Where W = weight in kg, H = height in cm, and A = age in years

    For example, a 180lb, 5’11, 27 year old male would burn roughly 1,814 calories throughout the day without physical activity. To add physical activity into our daily energy expenditure, we will multiply this number (1,814) by our “activity factor”. If I were a sedentary individual (little or no exercise) I would multiply this number by 1.2, meaning I burn 2,176 calories throughout the day living a “sedentary lifestyle”. This multiplication changes as your activity level increases and is as follows:
    – Sedentary
    – x1.2 = 2,176 calories/day
    – Lightly active (light exercise/sports 2-3 days/week)
    – x1.375 = 2,494 calories/day
    – Moderately active (exercise/sports 3-5 days/week)
    – X1.55 = 2,811 calories/day
    – Very Active (hard exercise/sports 6-7 days/week)
    – x1.725 = 3,174 calories/ day
    – Extra Active (Physically demanding manual labor jobs, i.e. construction or landscaping work)
    – x1.9 = 3,446 calories/ day

    Once we have our BMR, we can then aim to eat less calories than our given number to lose weight. We can also utilize the information regarding protein intake discussed in the “How to Prevent the Age Related Loss of Muscle Mass (Sarcopenia)” and “Differences in Losing Body Weight With and Without Exercise” articles posted on our website to help us keep our muscle mass throughout this process. Once our protein requirements have been met and we are ensuring optimal fat intake, we can then fill in the rest of our calories with carbohydrates. We should aim to eat no fewer than 500 calories less than our BMR as this will help us preserve muscle mass and lose body fat in a way that will not cause adverse health effects.

    Stay tuned for the next article where we will discuss various strategies we can implement to ensure that the weight we are losing is fat and not muscle in a safe and effective way. If you are someone looking to begin their fitness journey and are unsure where to start, give us a call as we have many qualified professionals eager to help you take the first step!

    References:
    – Wilkinson, 2016
    – Helms, 2022
    – Antonio, 2018

  • Pre and Post-Workout Nutrition Strategies for Strength Training

    If you are someone who frequently engages in strength training, the amount of protein you eat each day plays a major role in how much progress we can make in a specified amount of time. In this article we will discuss how much protein we should eat to make sure we are gaining strength as fast as possible. To take that a step further, we will also discuss how managing when we eat our protein surrounding our training time can help us improve even more!

    For those of us who engage in regular strength training, we should aim to eat a minimum of 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body mass (about 150g for a 150lb person). This amount has been scientifically proven to provide our bodies with more protein than we can break down during weight training. The most important factor regarding protein intake is the total amount we eat each day. Once we ensure we are eating enough to repair our muscles, we can then improve these results by eating more protein before and after our training sessions.

    If we were to consume, for example, 1 scoop of whey protein (~25 grams of protein) 1 hour before we begin training, we will actually begin recovering from our workout after the first rep of the first set, and so on – we don’t have to wait to recover until afterwards if we can get out in front of it. After each rep of our training sessions, our bodies quickly adapt by increasing the amount of amino acids (digested protein) our muscle cells can intake and use to repair. This increased nutrient absorption will continue to increase as we cause more cellular disruption to our muscle cells throughout the duration of our training sessions. Having protein in our systems before training will help improve our recovery but we can also get more out of our training sessions by including carbohydrates into our pre workout “meal”.

    Consuming carbohydrates with protein before training puts us into what we call the “fed state”. It has been scientifically proven that training in the “fed state” will increase our time to fatigue, increase our power output and force production in our muscles, and improve recovery following exercise – yes this is all from eating before training! One important consideration to make with a pre-workout meal is that larger meals take longer to digest – we should do our best to give our bodies enough time to digest and begin circulating these nutrients throughout our bloodstream to get into this “fed state” (training too soon will result in stomach cramps). Some examples would be 1 scoop of whey protein or 230g scrambled liquid egg whites (8 egg whites from actual eggs) with ~33g of carbohydrates (this would be equivalent to 0.5 cups of oats or a gomacro bar) ~1 hour before training – and remember, with larger meals we should give ourselves more time for digestion.

    If you are someone who trains first thing in the morning and do not have 1 hour before training we may not be able to train in the “fed state” but supplementing this pre workout meal with some branched chain amino acids (BCAA’s) can provide a similar – but not the same – benefit as a pre workout meal. BCAA’s are just proteins already in the digested state so all your body has to do is quickly absorb them (in about 15-25 minutes). This way we can still begin the recovery process during our training – we just won’t have the increased force production and time to fatigue that we do when eating carbohydrates with our pre workout meal. Something important to note about BCAA’s is that they are ONLY effective when consumed on an empty stomach, without amino acids circulating in our bloodstream. If we were to take BCAA’s with a meal, we would just pee them out as our body will prefer to use digested protein sources.

    In order to maximize our strength gains, we need to ensure we are taking full advantage of our increased nutrient absorption during this “anabolic window” following training. Nutrient absorption remains elevated for ~3 hours following a hard training session so getting a well balanced meal in this time consisting of high quality fat sources, carbohydrates, and protein is of utmost importance. The meal should consist of at least 40-45g of protein (5-6 Oz. chicken breast or 8-9 Oz. Cod) with 50-60g carbohydrates (200-220g of dry brown rice or 7-8 Oz. dry Jasmine Rice). The oils we use when preparing our food will provide us with adequate fat consumption – if it is coming from a good source (cold pressed extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil, for example) this will help our bodies with hormone regulation as optimal insulin and testosterone secretion will help our bodies recover and mobilize fat stores to be used as energy.

    If you are an individual who is very active throughout the day or someone who trains multiple times in one day, the carbohydrate recommendation post-workout will increase to 60-90g as we can utilize the anabolic window to quickly resynthesize our glycogen stores (energy stores within a muscle) and be energized and ready to go before the next time we are active later in the day. For the rest of us, the previous recommendation (50-60g carbs) will be sufficient as our bodies have no trouble resynthesizing these glycogen stores over a 24-hour time span with evenly distributed food intake throughout the day.

    The last thing we will touch on is one more way to utilize the “anabolic window”. Since this window is open for almost 3 hours, and we know that 1 scoop of whey protein begins absorption after 1 hour, then we can come to the conclusion that if we drink a whey protein shake immediately following our training session, we will then be able to get 2 “meals” (if you can call a shake a meal) in before our increased nutrient absorption fully dissipates.

    The bottom line is that we need to ensure we are getting adequate protein (2.2g/kg body mass) throughout the day in order for any of this “meal timing” to actually provide us with any additional benefit. If you are someone who is looking to improve their strength, body composition, or get on a nutrition plan to help you reach your individual goals, then give PTS a call as we have many qualified professionals who are eager to get to work with you!

    References:

    – Helms, 2015
    – Mcnaughten, 2016
    – Moore, 2009
    – Tang, 2009
    – Trommelan, 2019
    – Wilkonson, 2018