Okay, it's over. Finally. Time to start recovering.
As soon as your hands are off your knees, and your 'sweat angel' starts to dry, it's time to start preparing for tomorrow. One thing we've always liked about hard training: it FORCES you to eat well. While most workout "routines" will admit that they won't work without proper eating attached, the diet portion is usually added as an afterthought and summarily dismissed by users.
The 20 minutes immediately postworkout presents you with a unique opportunity: a shortcut to recovery. At this point, the muscle is much more sensitive to insulin (and, as such, glycogen replacement.) After 20-30 minutes, though, your body enters a secondary recovery process, which will last around 24 hours. That short time span, called the 'glycemic window,' is critical to recovery and preparation for the NEXT workout.
The priorities of the muscle postworkout:
1) refuel
2) rebuild
3) rewire
…in that order. When it comes to nutrition, and specifically supplementation, the knowledge that the muscle will refill itself with glycogen BEFORE using any protein to rebuild itself will save you a lot of money and guesswork. While the supplement industry promotes IMMEDIATE protein intake following exercise, the truth is that protein ingested immedately postworkout will simply be turned into sugar (gluconeogenesis) until the refuelling needs are met.
Above: some samplings from the Glycemic Index (a higher number denotes a bigger insulin spike. Pick fruits.)
If you can, causing an insulin spike on purpose postworkout will help you recover faster. If your goal is weightloss – especially if you're storing fat around the midsection – ignore this advice and maintain stable blood glucose levels all day.
Triggering an insulin spike means eating, by itself, a high-glycemic carbohydrate; some fruits will fit the bill (a banana,) but so will crackers or dry cereal. This isn't an excuse to eat cookies, but a small insulin spike to bulldoze glucose into the muscle will help avoid extra protein turnover.
Half an hour later, with the recovery process underway, is the time to have a meal containing a protein source with high bioavailability (non-plant-based,) and a little more carbohydrate to stimulate an insulin response. From there, resume normal eating. The types of eatings we prefer – Paleo, Zone, Primal – will all leave enough circulating protein, in the form of nitrogen, in the bloodstream for long-term recovery; adding this small step will give you a metabolic advantage.