What is the Best Post-Workout Shake?
If you have a few free moments at some point over the coming weeks, I'd appreciate if you could take a look at a few links to information regarding post-workout nutrition, as well as some information from Alan Aragon. I'd be especially interested in getting your take on those claiming that chocolate milk is as good as or better than a whey hydrolysate and dextrose or maltodextrin and BCAA mixture.
There seems to be a lot of debate and cloudiness regarding post-workout nutrition, specifically with regard to recommendations regarding:
1. Protein speed of digestion (i.e. should it be fast, slow, or a fast-slow mix).
2. Whether or not rapid glycogen re-synthesis is even necessary if one is consuming carbs throughout the day and is not engaged in heavy endurance activities.
3. The importance of nutrient density in the post-workout shake.
4. Fat, specifically whether some hurts or helps in the post-workout shake.
5. Choice – solid vs. liquid meals, and whether liquid is even necessary, or if it confers any additional advantage over solid depending on when the workout is and what that day's food intake has looked like up to that point.
6. BCAA intake (are doses of upwards of 0.2g/lb [0.44g/kg] a major benefit in the PW window or merely wasted money if daily protein intake is already quite high and rich in BCAAs from whole-food sources)
Any light that you can shed on this issue is appreciated. Sincerely, TG
TG, you have several questions that need to be answered in several parts. Part I is about the piece that Alan Aragon did on bodyrecomposition.com. Part II comprises the numbered parts above.
The Aragon article was rather funny, but I do not think that it was written to be a treatise on ideal post-workout nutrition; it was meant as a vehicle for Alan to express an opinion and discredit a product – which he was not allowed to do on the t-nation forum. I do not have a single problem with what he said – he quoted existing research and made good points. Beyond that, I really do not see the point in the debate. Chocolate milk as an ideal source of post-workout nutrition? That’s like saying that 50 calories from Trix cereal is the same as 50 calories from broccoli because they’re both carbs.
