How to DOUBLE recovery time after Exercise

I was chit chatting to a body builder today. He explained how he had a KICK ASS workout about 2 weeks ago and had worked his muscles so thorughly that it took him a whopping 48 hours to recover from!... i paused and replied.. "Isn't it cooler to take only 24 hours to recover from a workout? or better yet, even less time than that?"

The truth is that if you aim to workout for an hour every day, and you take longer than 23 hours to recover, there will come a time when you have to skip a day of training.. or risk over-training.

RECOVERY- is the missing link to an athlete's success. Speed this factor up, to optimise the frequency and intensity of your training, without any risk of over-training.

So how to increase your recovery time?

When we exercise, glycogen stores become depleted. These must be replenished in order to aid recovery. The consumption of delicious ripe fruit increases blood sugar fairly rapidly, and the conversion from this, to glycogen is not as fast. The exception is after exercise, when the blood is rich with the enzyme glucogenase. This doubles the body's ability to convert sugar to glycogen.

The two most important minerals are potassium and sodium. These are both lost during exercise and can reach dangerously low levels during an intense workout such as a triathlon. This is the reason many athletes are given salt tablets after exercise. However, salt is dangerously dehydrating to the body. A much better source of minerals, such as sodium and potassium is celery.

The third thing we must accomplish to aiid recovery is re-hydration. This is a no-brainer, but did you know that every single food you find in the supermarket dehydrates you to a certain extent? There are two exceptions to this rule: Fruits and vegetables.

So after just finishing a workout we need sugar,salt and water. The ULTIMATE post-workout meal, than is fresh ripe bananas and celery.

This combination gives you the perfect amount of sugar, minerals, and water.

Another factor we need to consider is the free radical damage that occurs to our muscle tissue during exercise. This is the cause of D.O.M.S (Delayed Onset of Muscle Soreness). The only way to reduce this is to increase our consumption of antioxidants. Fruit has the highest number of antioxidants per calorie than any other food group with vegetables coming in second place. Another reeason to choose them after a workout.

Try blended bananas poured over chopped celery with a few chopped dates chucked on top and .. VOILA you have the perfect post-workout food.

Give it a try and drop me an e-mail, letting me know how awesome your speed of recovery was!
mckeownluke0@googlemail.com

To your success,

Lukey boy x x