Post-Workout Nutrition > The 60 Minute Window of Opportunity
What a serious weight trainer does immediately after a workout is nearly as important as what they do during the workout itself. Post-workout nutritional supplementation works wonders and actually improves results – but only if
Josh Bunch Workout
you do the right thing at the right time. The right thing is flood the body with highly potent nutrients; the kind needed to promote repair, healing and growth. The right time is right away. Immediately after training a muscle, feed it. Even better than eating post-workout calories, drink them and the healing nutrients enters into the bloodstream quicker yet. ‘Lift big, eat big, rest big, grow big’ has been an Iron C o m m a n d m e n t among those in the know for a more than decade. What exactly is the rational behind post-workout nutritional supplementation?
The fact is results are so astounding and the procedure so simple that not using postworkout supplementation defies logic and rationality. The philosophy behind this approach is simple and its thesis irrefutable: nutrients are drained from the body by intense weight training. In order to jumpstart the recovery and growth process, replenish with quality nutrients right after training and all good things are accelerated. Starved, exhausted and depleted after an intense workout, muscles ‘up-take’ these nutrients at a greatly accelerated rate. Hard and heavy weight training is self-inflicted muscle trauma and muscles grow in order to cope with training-related stress. If traumatized muscle tissue is starved and deprived no muscle growth is possible.
Regular and repeated high-intensity weight training while deprived of critical nutrients causes the trainee to go backwards, to physically regress. Hard training combined with poor nutrition causes the body to cannibalize muscle tissue to cover energy shortfall as the body wants to save stored body fat for future emergencies. Catabolism is a horrible thing and the human body will satisfy severe and prolonged caloric deficits by breaking down muscle tissue. Catabolism can be avoided by ingesting a sufficient number of calories right after training. If these post workout calories are deliberately biased towards certain food types, results are further amplified. Steamed green beans or grilled fish are far better calorie sources for muscle-building/fat-oxidizing purposes than ice cream or prime rib. Foods devoid of sugar and saturated fat are less likely to end up compartmentalized as body fat and these same foods are superior for repairing, healing and growing muscle. We all want the same thing from our training and eating efforts: increased muscle mass and a reduced body fat percentile.
What is the sense of going to all the time and trouble of serious training only to undo it all with poor eating habits? Once convinced of why we need to supplement after training, the question then becomes how? What is the optimal nutrient profile for the perfect post-workout feeding and what is the optimal proportion of nutrients? PLUGGING THE GAP: PARRILLO RIDES TO THE RESCUE Most experts agree that roughly equal amounts of potent protein and quality carbohydrate work best. A ‘window of opportunity’ opens at the end of a training session and snaps shut again roughly sixty minutes later. During the period when the window is open, nutrients are absorbed into the system at an accelerated rate. To further accelerate the process, try taking your post-workout protein and carbohydrate in liquid form as liquid is quickly absorbed into the bloodstream and dispersed to the needy muscle tissue.
Food breakdown is lengthier; enzymes and bile have to do their job and many foods cannot be broken down fast enough to take advantage of the window. Liquefied shakes shortcut the digestive process and are ideal for use in post-workout supplementation. Plus you don’t have to cook a shake. The procedure is simple: walk to a water fountain, add cold water to a glass of powder and mix with a spoon, or shake to activate. Every Parrillo nutritional supplements is born out of a need. Normally, supplement manufacturers devise a product and then initiate an advertising campaign designed to convince bodybuilders or fitness enthusiasts of the need for the product. John Parrillo takes the opposite approach; “I determine the nutritional supplement needs of the competitive athlete then devise products to satisfy the requirement: to plug the gaps and fill in the holes.” John has a commonsense approach.
“Supplements are meant to be supplemental; to enhance sound eating habits – not replace or shortcut sound eating habits.” The Parrillo nutritional philosophy is based on a multiple meal eating schedule. Balanced meals, each with a protein portion, a fiber portion and starchy carbohydrate portion, are consumed five to seven times a day. Fat is kept to less than 10% of total daily calories and sugar and refined carbohydrates are virtually eliminated. Supplements are not meant to replace balanced meals made with food. “Eating the correct foods in the correct amounts at the correct times consistently will get you 90% of the way to the goal.” John said. “Used with precision and accuracy, nutritional supplements will provide the remaining 10%.” John designed 50-50 Plus to provide an optimal balanced combination of protein and carbohydrate for immediate use after a workout. “I set out to devise a post-workout supplement that would satisfy all the requirements.
As I saw it, what was needed was a fast-assimilating drink, loaded with nutrients; a drink that could be made and consumed anywhere, anytime. The nutrients needed to be easily assimilated so as to take advantage of the 60-minute window of opportunity. The window is real and the advantages are obvious.” Research has shown that the ideal workout replenishment fuel would have roughly a 50-50 division between protein and carbohydrate. Serving size would depend upon the body weight of the individual. The perfect post-workout carbohydrate source would be a slowrelease carbohydrate that avoids insulin spikes. John Parrillo concocted his post-workout formulation using high BV whey protein isolate combined with a slowrelease maltodextrin carbohydrate powder. Blended in close to equal amounts this formulation covers every base. To activate 50-50 Plus mix a serving or two with 6-8 ounces of cold water and gently whisk with a spoon, or shake.
This product has been a hit with the bodybuilding public from the beginning. John devised four flavors: chocolate, vanilla, orange crème and the particularly innovative milk flavor. “We’re particularly proud of milk flavor. You would not believe the number of bodybuilders who love milk and are crestfallen when I inform them that the high sugar content of cow’s milk makes it completely unacceptable as a bodybuilding food. I devised 50-50 Plus milk flavor to fill a need. Mixed with an appropriate amount of water, 50-50 Plus milk flavor tastes exactly like milk but without a trace of lactose, sugar or fat.” Milk-loving bodybuilders nationwide have let out a collective cheer; now they could have their milk and drink it too! John has a final tip to pump up the volume: “For the ultimate post workout concoction I would recommend adding a serving or two of Parrillo Creatine Monohydrate to a 50-50 Plus shake. Adding a dose of creatine to a 50-50 shake is like flipping the nitrous oxide switch on a race car; you add extra horsepower to an already potent replenishment concoction.”
John thinks sipping the mixture during the final stages of a workout is a good idea. “Let’s face it; if you are training really hard – as hard as you’re supposed
Parrillo 50/50 Plus for workout recovery
to – energy and strength nose dive the deeper into the workout you get. Most of my students drink their 50-50 Plus/creatine combo before commencing the last two exercises of the day. Ingesting predigested carbs shores up flagging energy late in the workout. Pumping carbohydrates into the bloodstream during the final phase of a brutal weight workout forestalls energy nose-dives that typically occur 60-75% of the way through a brutal workout.” The athlete can get a jump on ‘the window’ and the relative lightness of a shake doesn’t upset the stomach or cause discomfort while performing those final critical exercises of the day. A strategically taken shake forestalls energy fade. There is a universal consensus among top bodybuilders that the use of a postworkout feeding amplifies results: so fuel up after (or during) training! Why not pick up the phone right now and call the Parrillo hotline to order a canister of 50- 50 Plus? If you train hard, as hard as you’re supposed to, post-workout supplementation is not an option – it’s a necessity!
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