When you’re working out in the gym and lifting weights, you’re not building muscle. You’re actually tearing it down. The muscle building comes during the recovery process after the workout. Think of your body as a house. If you plan on remodeling it, you can hire a guy to tear down a couple of walls, clean up the mess, and then bring in someone to build a bigger and better wall. But what if you the person who is rebuilding the wall doesn’t have any bricks?
The same can be said about when we are in the gym tearing down our muscles or “walls”. The carbohydrate stores of our muscle along with the protein structures are getting broken down. Once the immune system comes in to clean up the mess, the body then switches its focus to the rebuilding process. However, there must be sufficient protein and carbohydrate “raw materials” available otherwise the rebuilding can’t take place. This is where the post-workout shake comes into play.
Because all exercise uses carbohydrate for energy, it is imperative that a post-workout shake be relatively high in carbohydrate – enough to illicit a substantial insulin release. Insulin is a hormone that is tasked with shuttling carbohydrates amino acids into the muscle. Therefore, by using the post-workout shake strategy, the muscle tissue repair process is accelerated. Keep in mind that timing is critical. For maximum impact, you should consume the shake during and immediately after a resistance training workout when your muscles are primed to “accept” more nutrients.
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