Post on 30-May-2018
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The Religion of Pre and Post Workout
Nutrition
By William D. Brink
www.BrinkZone.com
Pre- and post-workout nutrition is all the rage these days, and for
good reason. For some, however, it’s become more than a science
—it’s become their religion, or perhaps just a place to focus their
OCD-like tendencies. Regardless, people have taken the topic of
pre- and post-workout nutrition to a level that is not justified by the
research, or at least not confirmed by the research that currently
exists.
Readers should realize I may have my membership card to the
Bodybuilding Nutrition Guru Society torn up and thrown at me for
what I am about to share in this article…
As expected, supplement companies—and self–proclaimed ‘netguru types—have used what does exist for research to convince
everyone that that if they don’t take in exactly 98.7 grams of
carbohydrates and 37.2 grams of protein within 28 seconds after
they leave the gym, their muscles will be attacked by every
muscle-hating hormone they possess in their body by second 29;
with the prior year of hard work in the gym totally wasted by
second 30!
People are fixated on this particular topic like nothing else, andwhen you throw in the other possible ingredients that can be added
to the post-workout drink, such as creatine, glutamine, and many
others, it’s taken to the level of psychosis!
Of course supplement companies have come out with their own
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“techno-functional ultra-repartitioning multi-dimensional”* post-
workout drink formulas that are claimed to be the latest
breakthrough. Besides the carbs and protein in these formulas,
many of the additional compounds are either under dosed (ergo the
‘label decoration’ syndrome), have no particular justification for being in the formula in the first place, or both (ergo, the ‘shot gun’
approach)…but I digress.
Now I have to take at least some blame—or credit—for this
predicament, depending on how you want to view it. I have written
extensively about the importance of post-workout nutrition in all
manner of articles, and give the topic extensive focus in my
Bodybuilding Revealed e-book.
Unlike many of the supplement companies and ‘net experts’ out
there, however, I never claimed you would shrivel up into Pee Wee
Herman in a matter of minutes if you didn’t get your ultra high-
tech post-workout drink 29 seconds after your last set of squats. I
have always taken a balanced view on the topic, by pointing out
that food is still more important in the overall equation of muscle
growth.
Thus, what I can say is that research—and common sense—tells us
it’s advantageous to get some fast-acting carbs and protein after a
hard workout to optimize the time we put in the gym. From there,
however, people have relied more on wishful thinking than science
for their pre- and post-workout nutrition. People who have poor
diets and poorly thought-out training routines, but focus on the
latest magic pre- and post-workout elixirs are missing the point.
Their approach is like trying to hold up a three-legged stool with
one support leg and the other two missing.
General Considerations of Research vs. the “Real World”
As we all know, a great deal of research is performed that—
although interesting—has very little “real world” application to
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bodybuilders and other athletes.
This is because scientists do everything in their power to study
their chosen topic in isolation. In other words, they go to great
lengths and trouble to control variables that will impact theoutcomes of their studies. For example, in a study looking at the
effects of a drug or supplement, a placebo group is matched to the
“active” group. The scientists want to make sure the effect they get
—or don’t get—is due to the drug/supplement and not the placebo
effect. Making the study double-blind is another way of attempting
to prevent the bias of the scientists from influencing the study.
The point is that, when they attempt to isolate an effect of
something being tested, scientists often end up with results that
may not always be directly applicable to the “real world” of Joe
Schmoe gym goer.
When study designs don’t reflect “real world” conditions, they
need to be taken with a grain of salt. Were the study participants
fasted? What type of exercise did they perform? What effects did
the researchers actually look at and how does that apply to the
“real world” or athlete in question? Were the study participantsnew to the form of exercise being utilized in the study or were they
experienced athletes? How many people were in the study? Who
do the results apply to: endurance or strength athletes? Both?
Neither?!
Those are just a few of the essential questions that have to be asked
and answered before you can even begin to draw any useful “real
world” conclusions from the studies that come out. Yet this doesn’t
stop people and supplement companies from jumping on the lateststudies as the last word in nutrition and start making
recommendations from them. They also tend to ignore the studies
that contradict or fail to replicate the advice they are giving out.
Let’s look at some examples…
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The Fast vs. Slow Protein Craze…
The use of fasted subjects in nutrition studies illustrates how
researchers can end up with results that may not apply well to the
real world. As the name implies, the study subjects are a group of people who have not eaten for an extended period of time. In many
cases, they haven’t eaten for 8 – 10 hours or more, which of course
does not reflect how the average person eats, at let alone how the
average athlete eats—especially bodybuilders looking to add
muscle mass.
Enter stage right, the “fast vs. slow” protein craze. The study that
got this craze rolling was called “Slow and fast dietary proteins
differently modulate postprandial protein accretion” and was
responsible for causing a resurgence of interest in casein. The basic
premise of this much-touted study was that the speed of absorption
of dietary amino acids (from ingested proteins) varies according to
the type of dietary protein a person eats.
The researchers wanted to see if the type of protein eaten would
affect postprandial (e.g., after a meal) protein synthesis,
breakdown, and deposition. To test the hypothesis, they fed casein(CAS) and whey protein (WP) to a group of healthy adults, a
single meal of casein (CAS) or whey WP following an overnight
fast (10 h). Using this specific study design, they found:
•WP induced a dramatic but short increase of plasma amino acids.
•CAS induced a prolonged plateau of a moderate increase in amino
acids (hyperaminoacidemia)
•Whole body protein breakdown was inhibited by 34% after CAS
ingestion but not after WP ingestion.•Postprandial protein synthesis was stimulated by 68% with the
WP meal and to a lesser extent (+31%) with the CAS meal.
The basic non-science summary is: the study found that CAS was
good at preventing protein breakdown (proteolysis), but was not so
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good for increasing protein synthesis. WP had basically the
opposite effects: it increased protein synthesis but didn’t prevent
protein breakdown. The problem is that they were using fasted
subjects for a single meal.
Keep that in mind as we move along here…
So far so good right? So what can we conclude from this study and
how useful are the results? Like so many studies, the results were
interesting—and of little use to people in the real world. Do these
results hold up under more “real world” conditions where people
are eating every few hours and/or mixing the proteins with other
macronutrients (i.e., carbs and fats)? The answer is probably not,
which is exactly what the researchers found when they attempted
to mimic a more realistic eating pattern of multiple meals and or
the addition of other macronutrients. The follow up study was
called “The digestion rate of protein is an independent regulating
factor of postprandial protein retention.” Four groups of five to six
healthy young men received:
• a single meal of slowly digested casein (CAS).
• a single meal of free amino acids mimicking the composition of casein (AA).
• a single meal of rapidly digested whey proteins (WP).
• repeated meals of whey proteins (RPT-WP) mimicking slow
digestion rate of casein (i.e., reflecting how people really eat).
So what did they find? In a nut shell, giving people multiple doses
of whey—which more closely mimics how people really eat-—had
basically the same effects as a single dose of casein, and mixing
either with fats and proteins pretty much nullified any bigdifferences between the two proteins.
Even that’s not the end of the story, however, as multiple follow up
studies done by the same group and others found these effects
could also be different in older versus younger people and male
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versus female! How messed up is that?! So how much press did
these follow up studies get? Little or none, as I recall.
Now, a later study did attempt to examine the actual net amino
acid uptake after resistance training with whey vs. casein, andfound both proteins had essentially the same effects on net muscle
protein synthesis after exercise despite different patterns of blood
amino acid responses.
Does that put to rest the issue or debate of one protein vs. the other
post-workout? No, as there are yet more conflicting studies out
there and my bet is still on whey as the superior post-workout
protein, but it’s important to realize the answer is far from
established at this time.
Got Milk?
Milk: nature’s original MRP. Despite all the fancy proteins out
there all claiming to be the next step in the evolution of proteins
that “will blast you past your plateaus in the gym,” good old milk
seems to be competing—and winning—against some “high tech”
products on the market. We have various studies finding increased protein synthesis and other positive effects when a purified protein
supplement (e.g., whey, soy, casein, etc.) ingested right after or
before a workout—usually in conjunction with carbohydrates—but
what about good old milk, a “real” food?
One recent study found good old milk to be an effective post-
workout drink that increased net muscle protein synthesis after
resistance training. Yet another recent study compared 2 cups of
skim milk as a post workout drink compared to a soy drink and a“sports drink.”
In this study, the milk and soy drinks were matched for basic
macronutrient ratios and calories and all three were matched for
total calories. 56 male volunteers were split into three groups, with
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all put on a resistance training program for 12 weeks. The
volunteers were then randomly assigned one of the three drinks to
consume as a post workout drink and again one hour after the
workouts.
Although no major differences were found in strength between the
3 groups, the group getting the milk had the greatest increase in
muscle mass (via increases in Type I and II fibers) with researchers
concluding
“…chronic postexercise consumption of milk promotes greater
hypertrophy during the early stages of resistance training in novice
weightlifters when compared with isoenergetic soy or carbohydrate
consumption.”
But it gets better: how about our favorite childhood drink,
chocolate milk? How about chocolate milk vs. two commercial
energy/fluid replacement drinks, such as Gatorade and Endurox
R4?
One recent study—albeit a small one—found chocolate milk as
effective as Gatorade, and more effective than Endurox, as arecovery drink for trained cyclists between exhaustive bouts of
endurance exercise.
Now is this a condemnation of sports drinks and an endorsement
for milk/chocolate milk as the last word on post-workout drinks?
Not at all: remember those essential questions I mentioned above?
You have to look at such a study in context—in other words, at the
experimental design and how that applies to the “real world.” The
subjects fasted for 10 – 12 h prior to the chocolate milk experiment, and these drinks were the only food these guys had for
14 – 16 hours. The results may have been quite different had they
been following their normal eating patterns.
They also measured effects on endurance vs.—say—strength or
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increased protein synthesis, etc.
So, in the context of this particular study design, look at it this
way: chocolate milk has casein (a “slow” protein), and whey (a
“fast” protein) as well as calcium, some vitamins and a bunch of carbohydrates—so it makes a pretty good, cheap MRP, if that’s all
you are going to get all day long. It’s not a half-bad post-workout
drink either. It’s not the best MRP—or post workout drink—I
could design, but it’s cheap and easy to find. The reality is that
there are some inexpensive foods out there can be used, and most
of your old school bodybuilders and strong men used milk as the
original post workout drink/MRP.
The study that looked at milk vs. soy and sports drink, was done in
novice weight lifters, so that too needs to be taken into
consideration. Regardless, milk, in particular chocolate milk,
should make a perfectly acceptable and inexpensive post workout
drink and people who think it’s too “old school” or not “high tech”
enough to be if any use are clearly misinformed and the victim of
marketing.
Now the study we need to see that does not exist, of course, is milk or chocolate milk vs. a well thought out post-workout drink of—
say—whey and maltodextrin (high GI carb source), in experienced
weight lifters who are not fasted—but don’t hold your breath on
that one. Studies like that get expensive quickly and also pose
practical issues. For example, if you wanted to match the protein
content of—say—2 scoops of whey isolate to chocolate milk (so
the groups were getting an equivalent amount of protein), the
subjects would need to drink a large volume of milk (remember,
milk is mostly water).
My hunch is that a correctly designed post-workout drink would be
superior to chocolate milk, but it would be nice to see the two
compared, no?
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The Pre-Workout Drink
The pre-workout drink craze followed the post-workout craze after
a study found pre-workout nutrition may be more effective than
post-workout nutrition.
The study that got this craze going was called “Timing of amino
acid-carbohydrate ingestion alters anabolic response of muscle to
resistance exercise” which found that drinking a mixture of
essential amino acids and carbohydrates induced a greater anabolic
response (i.e., a net increase in muscle protein balance) when taken
right before weight training vs. right after.
This study had everyone taking in a pre-workout drink as well as a
post-workout drink in an attempt to cover all the bases. It should
be noted, however, that—once again—they were using fasted
subjects. Think of it like this: you have not eaten in 8-10 or more
hours, then you are made to work out on a (very) empty stomach.
Under those particular circumstances, does it not make sense
getting something to eat before the workout would be superior toafter the workout? We all know hitting the weights on an empty
stomach is not an optimal method to preserve—or build—muscle
mass. Nor is it reflective of real world eating patterns where the
vast majority of people have eaten a full meal at least a few hours
before they hit the gym.
After this study, everyone started drinking a protein drink before
they hit the gym. Interestingly, however, a recent study done by thesame group who did the pre-drink study mentioned above, found
whey taken before hitting the gym did not result in an improved
net protein balance vs. taking it after the gym.
“Well wait a dang minute Will, now I am really confused!” you are
saying angrily to your comp screen! Does this new study show pre-
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workout nutrition is no more effective than post workout nutrition?
No, and here’s why. It’s an apples vs. oranges study. The first
study used free amino acids plus carbohydrates, and the follow up
study used whey alone without carbohydrates—which is very oddif they were truly trying to see if free aminos were superior to a
whole protein such as whey.
Unfortunately this latter study really didn’t do much to confirm or
deny the first study’s findings. And, don’t forget my comments
regarding using fasted subjects, which adds yet another wrinkle to
all this.
So does that essentially disprove the pre-workout drink vs. the post-workout drink studies? Nope. One recent study did look
specifically at the issue of timing and does support the idea that the
pre- and post-workout window is the most effective period for
ingesting some fast-acting protein and carbs.
This study, titled “Effects of supplement timing and resistance
exercise on skeletal muscle hypertrophy,” has gotten a fair amount
of attention in the bodybuilding/sports nutrition oriented publications. The researchers examined the effects of a drink of
whey, glucose and creatine given to two groups of experienced
weight lifters, either morning and evening (M/E) or pre- and post-
workout (PP), to see if the actual timing of the drink had an effect
on muscle hypertrophy or strength development.
The study found that the group getting the drink PP had an increase
in lean body mass and 1RM strength in two of three assessments
that were tested. The group getting the drink PP also experiencedgreater creatine retention and glycogen resynthesis, which means
timing of specific nutrients is an important strategy for optimizing
the adaptations desired (e.g., increased muscle mass and strength)
from your hard work in the gym.
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So does this study finally put to rest the issue of pre- vs. post-
workout nutrition? No, it did not compare one strategy to the other
per se, but did confirm that nutrient timing is an important aspect.
One obvious issue is that this study used a drink that containedcreatine throughout, so technically it’s not a pro + carb study, but a
pro + carb + creatine study. On the plus side, it was done in
experienced weight lifters and they were not fasted, so it does at
least represent the metabolic realties of “real world” people
looking to get the most of their nutrition. Either way, it supports
the idea of taking in the right nutrients both pre- and post-workout,
but people should not be under the impression that this issue of
timing has been “put to bed,” so to speak, and realize there are still plenty of unanswered questions yet to be explored.
Of course, there are more studies than just the ones mentioned
above, so there are plenty of measurements on indicators of
recovery from exercise, such as effects on glycogen resynthesis,
alterations in hormones, and hormone levels. Nonetheless, I prefer
to look at the actual endpoint that really matters at the end of the
day: did this person gain muscle mass, strength, or performance by
using this product? Without that, everything else—though potentially interesting—is mental masturbation.
Conclusions, and Real World Recommendations.
Now I didn’t write this article to confuse you, but to demonstrate
that the optimal strategy for increasing strength and LBM in
response to resistance training is not as cut and dried as you are
often led to believe. However, it’s also probably simpler than you
are led to believe, as the human body is far more adaptable to thetypes of protein it receives as well as the amounts it receives.
Thus, the people who stress over whether they got 35g of protein
and 60g of carbs in their post workout drinks vs. 32g of protein and
70s of carbs in the drink are probably wasting their time, and
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causing what is known as “paralysis by analysis.” Put more
practically, the amount of cortisol you produce from worrying
about such minutia probably offsets any gains you might make
from one drink vs. another!
I also wanted to dispel some of the hype over one protein vs.
another, and the fact that expensive pre-made high tech drinks that
are all the rage right now are just that: expensive and over hyped.
In the real world, people have used variations of the idea that fast
acting proteins and a good dose of simple carbs can improve the
effects of resistance training for many years. My good friend, the
late Dan Duchaine, used to give people whey mixed in water and
Corn Flakes with skim milk as their post workout meal.
One bodybuilder I knew who went onto be a well known IFBB
pro, used to have a drink of whey after his workouts and several
slices of apple pie at the local Friday’s restaurant next to the gym
for his post-workout meal.
Most of your old time strong men and bodybuilders drank quite a
lot of milk, and as we have seen from the research, it’s not a half bad post workout drink either.
If people want to buy pre-made carb/protein mixtures with other
nutrients added (e.g., creatine, glutamine, various vitamins, etc) out
of convenience and don’t care that they can “roll their own” for
less money, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Just don’t think there’s anything magical about the pre-made post-
workout drinks, no matter what the marketing material or web sitesays to entice you to purchase it.
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