ginseng yoga



while the essential elements of post-workout recovery apply for all athletes, the demands of endurance sports require emphasis on specific areas compared to strength sports. you may remember in sport nutrition 101 where i talked about the value of recovery, talked about hormonal support, immune function support, replenishing glycogen, and reducing inflammation. they're all essential. but when you're an elite athlete, especially in a sport that requires a huge amount of training, it becomes much more important. so i'm going to talk about when the best time to refuel and rebuild is to help repair and speed that recovery process, and that's going to make the difference.

muscle glycogen replenishment. glycogen is stored carbohydrate in the muscle. when you exercise, you burn that, so you've got to put it back in after a workout to speed recovery. the best way to do that is drink a liquid form that has a 4:1 carbohydrate-to-protein ratio. if you do that within 20 minutes after a workout, you're going to dramatically speed your recovery time. soft tissue repair. what is damaged, and how do you repair it? well, it's not like muscle, so there's no blood circulating within it, which means carbohydrate is not actually going to help it recover.

however, having things like ginger and turmeric will reduce muscle inflammation, which will allow tendons, ligaments, and cartilage—your soft tissue—to rebuild more quickly. also, plant-based glucosamine helps with soft tissue repair as well. if you have that right after a workout within 20 minutes, that's going to get your recovery sped up and will mean that you're going to perform better at your next workout. immune system support. immediately following a workout, your immune system actually dips, which means you're more likely to pick up a cold or flu, anything like that that is related to immune function. so what you want to make sure you do is have some nutritional support immediately following a workout within 20 minutes after.

good nutrition in general is going to help here, but specifically astragalus, as well as american ginseng, can help boost your immune system again after it dips post-workout, and that's going to reduce your odds of getting sick. inflammation reduction is huge. immediately following a workout, you've got a bunch of micro tears in your muscles. if you don't get those to repair quickly, the next workout you do is not going to be as good, which means your progress is going to slow. so you've got to reduce inflammation to allow those to speed up, and you do that by having things such as ginger and turmeric and greens.

these bring down inflammation, that speeds recovery, and that makes you a better athlete in less time. in addition to nutrition, there are other ways to help speed recovery. massage, walking, stretching, and yoga are good options. to expand on what you've just learned about post-workout recovery for endurance sports, check out the supplemental material on this page. subtitles by the amara.org community