Using nutrition to reduce post-exercise muscle soreness

Muscle soreness is an unavoidable side effect of endurance training. The only way to avoid post-exercise muscle soreness completely is to avoid exercise.

However, there are several things you can do to minimize muscle soreness — caused mainly by damage to muscle proteins — without sacrificing fitness. Some obvious ones include warming up and cooling down properly and building up your training workload very gradually.

Less known and less widely practiced are some nutritional means of minimizing post-exercise muscle soreness that are based on cutting-edge sports science research.

By consuming the right balance of nutrients before, during, and immediately following workouts, this research shows, you can minimize the amount of muscle protein degradation that is caused by workouts and maximize the rate of post-exercise muscle protein repair and rebuilding.

Start with a full tank
Carbohydrate, mainly in the form of muscle glycogen, is the primary fuel for moderate- to high-intensity exercise. But amino acids, supplied in part through the breakdown of muscle proteins, also provide some energy. The longer a workout or competition lasts, the less carbohydrate contributes and the more amino acids contribute to the body’s energy needs.

Athletes can minimize the number of muscle proteins that must be broken down to supply energy by beginning their workouts with more glycogen stored in their muscles.

It is important, then, that athletes top off their muscle glycogen stores before workouts. The best way to do this is to eat a meal comprising mostly low- to moderate-glycemic carbohydrates two to three hours before exercise.

The pre-workout meal should also contain some protein. New research suggests that providing the body with a dietary source of amino acids (the “building blocks” of proteins) through pre-workout protein consumption can further decrease the body’s reliance on muscle proteins for energy during exercise.It also accelerates post-exercise muscle protein synthesis by increasing the availability of amino acids for this purpose.

During exercise
Consuming a carbohydrate-protein supplement during exercise can further minimize muscle tissue damage and accelerate post-workout protein synthesis. Use of a conventional 6-8% carbohydrate sports drink such as Gatorade slows the depletion of muscle glycogen stores and thereby delays the rise in the use of muscle proteins as an energy source.

But newer research has demonstrated that the addition of a small amount of protein to a sports drink spares glycogen even further. It does this by stimulating more insulin, which is the hormone responsible for transporting glucose to the muscles.

In a study, researchers found that the addition of protein to a carbohydrate sports drink in a 4:1 ratio enhanced aerobic endurance performance by 24% more than a conventional carbohydrate sports drink.

Athletes should consume a few ounces of such a drink every 10 minutes throughout exercise. The precise amount needed depends on factors that include the size of the athlete, the intensity of exercise, and the air temperature.

A study performed at St. Cloud University demonstrated that using a carbohydrate-protein sports drink during a workout can also significantly reduce post-exercise muscle tissue stress. In this study, athletes that used this supplement showed on average a 36% lower level of a physiological marker for muscle tissue stress than controls, suggesting that by providing amino acids in addition to carbohydrate, the sports drink helped maintain cell membrane integrity.

After exercise
It is not possible to consume enough carbohydrate during moderate- to high-intensity exercise to replace what is burned, nor to completely offset muscle protein degradation. So it is important to consume additional carbohydrate and protein after the workout.

This should be done as soon as possible, because the body is able to synthesize glycogen and protein at more than twice the normal rate due to heightened insulin receptivity in the muscle cells following exercise. For this reason, exercise physiologists sometimes refer to the first two hours post-exercise as “the muscle recovery window."

Carbohydrate-protein sports drinks are again the best immediate post-workout nutrition source because of their rapid absorption and their water and electrolyte content. Using such drinks and/or water and solid foods, athletes should be sure to fully replenish fluid losses (i.e. return to pre-workout body weight) and consume 10-20% of their daily carbohydrate and protein intake within the first two hours after completing exercise.

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Alternate methods to boost Competitive endurance cyclists performance (VO2max)

Now, new research carried out at Odense University in Denmark demonstrates that some very simple, moderately intense training sessions will do the job.

In the Danish study, eight cyclists rode their exercise cycles at an intensity of 80-90% V02max (88-95 per cent of maximal heart rate, 260-300 Watts) for 30 minutes per workout, three times per week. Eight other athletes performed interval workouts, which consisted of 10 seconds of all-out exertion at a stratospheric intensity of 880-1025 Watts, alternated with 50 seconds of rest. In the latter case, there were 20 work intervals per training session and three workouts per week.

After just five weeks, the athletes who had ridden steadily at 80-90% V02max for 30 minutes per work-out achieved an extremely useful 6-per cent increase in V02max, from 53 to 56 ml/kg/min, while the interval group failed to bolster V02max. This was true even though the interval group had consumed about twice as much total energy per workout.

The interval group did gain one advantage over the continuous exercisers, however; they were better at doing interval workouts! During a test completed at the end of the five-week study, the interval exercisers were able to carry out 26 intervals at a high power output, while the continuous people could only manage 12. Of course, the interval athletes possessed higher 'anaerobic' capacities, as well.

The Danish study is especially interesting because it reinforces the notion that a fairly modest training session - 30 minutes at 80-90% V02max - can be a potent evoker of improved aerobic capacity in a fairly short period of time. It also reminds endurance athletes that super-high intensities and fast-tilt interval sessions aren't always necessary to bolster V02max; in fact, if the intensity is very high and the interval is fairly short, such efforts may not raise aerobic capability at all.

In addition to the '30 minutes at 80-90% V02max' session, another workout is a proven V02max-booster: exercising for five-minute intervals at the maximum intensity which you could sustain in a race for 15-20 minutes. As your V02max goes up, your basic endurance will also increase, and your race times should improve significantly. ('Training Specificity In Relation to Intermittent Exercise Performance,' Biochemistry of Exercise Ninth International Conference Abstracts, #19, p. 18, 1994 )

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Exercise Tip

Want to know how many calories you are burning during your 30 minutes treadmill walking? Then all you have to do is visit your local exercise physiology laboratory and get evaluated for your metabolic functions amongst other things. By taking a sports performance stress test you can get a chart of exercise training zones based on heart rates expressed in beats per minute, and each heart rate zone corresponds to a certain energy expenditure in kcal/min. I.e. a test result has revealed that during exercise (running) at a pace of 135 bpm in a speed of 7km/h 0% gradient,  you burn 11 kcal/ min  thus if you were to exercise at this intensity for a duration of 30 minutes you would burn 11 x 30 = 330 kcal. And so forth….

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Aqua Jogging

Got knee, hips or ankle joint problems but still want to exercise? Try getting wet with aqua jogging, or the simple term running in the water. Running injuries, overuse syndromes or a rehabilitation training program can be accommodated in the water with proper progression in the exercise regimen. Deep-water running is a super, no-impact cross-training activity for anyone who wants to build or preserve leg strength, and simultaneously maintain fitness in the aerobic system. It is also recommended for top athletes as a different mode of exercise and a mental break from the everyday life same-old activities. Furthermore overweight and obese individuals are highly recommended to use the water element in order to build their fitness and manage their weight.

Aqua-jogging requires little (if any) swimming skill. Most people who might be uncomfortable in the pool can either jog in waist-deep water or invest in a flotation vest (a vest is also recommended for those athletes whose buoyancy may be bad due to high body density / low fat %). If the aqua vest is not used then maintaining buoyancy in lean exercisers might be extra hard and even burn more kcal due to the high rate of exertion.

Performed steadily and with a good intensity and effort and you will probably boost fitness significantly from Aqua-jogging. In a study researchers found that maximal oxygen consumption, lower extremity concentric muscular strength, and endurance in well-trained male runners remained unchanged during a three-week deep-water training program ("Effect of Water Running and Cycling on Maximum Oxygen Consumption and 2-Mile Run Performance," The American Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 21(1), pp. 41-44, 1993).

-------------------------------------------------------Busy but with medium current fitness status? You can still use the gym in a modified and quicker way. Try big “value for money” exercises or exercises that utilize a lot of muscle groups at the same time such as the lunge and cable row, or the low back hyperextension with dumbbell rowing, or the ball push-up with knee tucks.

Again the usual problem with time? Only 45 min of actual training time? Try circuit training, the two in one fitness program. Exercise aerobically and strengthen the heart with 4-6 min  then hit 4-6 different strength training exercises with medium to easy intensity and then hit the aerobic component for another 5-6 min and then repeat with 5-6 different exercises for strengthening other muscles and bones. Constantly on the go and reaping the benefits of strength and cardiovascular fitness.