Exercise and recovery.

[El_Machinae]

I recommend 6g of Salmon Oil per day. As well, when I mention carbohydrates, I mean something like oatmeal or the like - something that digests rather slowly.

 

[thetrooper]

During or after exercise? Fortunately it's pretty easy to eat while cycling.

 

[thetrooper]

Another question: what is the most efficient way to burn fat? I've already dropped 6 kg since I started, but I could easily drop a few more. Experience tells me that high intensity workout is not the best way to do it...

 

[El_Machinae]

The salmon oil can just be taken daily. It is merely a biological effect of getting proper types of fats. With regards to the oatmeal, I recommend it shortly after the workout.

 

[Kozmos]

Muscle pain is good, it makes the experience much more gratifying.

 

[thetrooper]

Muscle pain is good, it makes the experience much more gratifying.

Aye, but i doesn't get you faster back in the saddle.

 

[Brighteye]

Another question: what is the most efficient way to burn fat? I've already dropped 6 kg since I started, but I could easily drop a few more. Experience tells me that high intensity workout is not the best way to do it...

Of course. Exhausting yourself so that you can't continue doesn't help. But if you're cycling for 2 hours that's long enough. Burning fat is about continuous energy burning: long periods of time, slightly less to eat.

 

[thetrooper]

Update:

Thursday and Friday: 30 min warming up, 2 hour ride (hard). Raspberry juice and water during exercise. Carbohydrates afterwards. No stretching.

Saturday: 30 min slow to medium intensity. No stretching.

It worked very well!

Thanks everyone!

 

[Xanikk999]

I need to get back into shape. Ive been working out for 3 years but i stopped 2 months ago because of my schedule.

 

[Syterion]

The "cool down" is supposed to reduce the effect lactic acid buildup has on your muscles. Lactic acid(built up over the anaerobic parts), will tear down muscle tissue(causing pain) if you don't cool down (light exercise at the end of workout). Cool down is supposed to cause the lactic acid to drain more effectively than simply stopping and letting it affect your muscle more.

 

[Brighteye]

I'm not sure that lactic acid causes tissue damage. However, cool-down exercise might keep blood vessels open by the same mechanisms by which this happens in normal exercise. Last I heard no-one was quite sure what the mechanisms were, but were favouring the idea that the blood vessels are directly responsive to metabolites of exercise; H+ ions, heat and hypoxia might all contribute too.

With blood vessels still dilated in the exercised muscle lactic acid can drain more easily, rather than remain and slowly disperse.

Since no-one knows how blood vessels remain open in exercising muscles despite increased sympathetic nervous stimulation, it's a plausible idea but no more than that.

 

[willemvanoranje]

I rarely do anything else than resting.. that is, a normal day without sports (the 10km biking I have to do every day is of course transport and not sport)

If I have sore muscles and I have a game or training, I put some muscle-warmers as mentioned above by other posters.

I think the type of food could help preventing it. What exactly I do not know though.

Just, if you want to have more energy, have some pasta about 2 hours before the activity.

 

[newfangle]

I don't like what I've been reading so far, so I won't read all of it.

There are a few misconceptions that need clearing:
1) Stretching before exercise does nothing. In fact, recent reports have shown it actually decreases performance, but does not decrease the risk of injury.
2) Warm ups are very important, but only 5-10 minutes is needed. It shouldn't take your heart longer than that to cross into the aerobic zone (70% MHR, or about 140bps).

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the anaerobic threshold.
This is the point (usually about 80-88% MHR) when your body is expending energy faster than your lungs can supply your mitochondria with oxygen. This means glucose begins to break down without oxygen, resulting in lactic acid and CO2 (net energy gain is far less than aerobic respiration). If you continue to exercise at this rate, lactic acid concentration in your blood will increase, resulting in apparent fatigue and nausea (the latter is because blood is diverting away from your GI tract into your legs/arms).

But here's the clincher. Lactic acid is NOT causing physical damage to your body. It's effect is psychological. Obviously, it is impossible to maintain an exercise rate above lactic threshold for too long (for me, I can do it for about 45 minutes), but you are not causing tremendous damage to your body. In fact, lactic acid is a fuel just like anything else. The point of threshold training is to allow you the psychological benefit of a high tolerance for lactic acid (as well as increasing your body's ability to circulate and metabolize it).

So, how do we recover?
1) First, cool down. If you are doing hard training, it is important to get your heart rate back down to aerobic and below following a high stress session. This will allow your body some time to circulate waste products (though the affect this actually has on fatigue is negligible).
2) Stress waaaay after long endurance activity. Do things in this order: drink, eat, shower, stretch before you go to bed that night. Stretching directly after exercise won't do anything. Again, the actual affect this has on recovery is negligible.
3) Most importantly, is eat and drink. For drink, you should be consuming water or sports drink (preferably the later) during any endurance session longer than 90 minutes. Afterwards, you should be nursing at least a liter or 2 of water. Biking is notorious for making you more dehydrated than you think, since moisture is being wicked away rapidly. These things will go a long way in recovery.
MOST IMPORTANTLY: Post-training food. Look for a 3:1 ratio of carbs to protein. Yogurt, fortified cereal with milk, eggs and a bagel, a regular dinner meal, are all sufficient to this end. Go for complex carbs and whole foods. Stay away from candies and other crap, obviously. Make sure you get this food in WITHIN AN HOUR of exercise. It is during this time that your body is more primed to store glycogen (muscle localized energy storage- long chains of glucose). If you wait longer than an hour, the window will close significantly, leaving your muscles with a glycogen deficiency. This will cause fatigue and lethargy the next day.
Final, stock up on electrolytes (sodium and potassium) from sweat loss (especially potassium), B-vitamins for recovery. Even anti-oxidants have been shown to have a slight effect on recovery (I always down a pot of green tea after a long run).

Hope that helps!

 

[newfangle]

Another question: what is the most efficient way to burn fat? I've already dropped 6 kg since I started, but I could easily drop a few more. Experience tells me that high intensity workout is not the best way to do it...

Interval training (30 second to 2 minute bursts of 95% Max heart rate, followed by cooldown, repeat 5-10 times) has a good fat burning effect. Total calorie loss can't rival 2 hour runs or cycles, but the fat burning effect is well documented (since high heart rate activity tends to suppress appetite, and evalates metabolism for a few hours afterwards).

Weight training is the best though. Lean muscle mass decreases total fact and decreases injury risk.

 

[newfangle]

I'm not sure that lactic acid causes tissue damage. However, cool-down exercise might keep blood vessels open by the same mechanisms by which this happens in normal exercise. Last I heard no-one was quite sure what the mechanisms were, but were favouring the idea that the blood vessels are directly responsive to metabolites of exercise; H+ ions, heat and hypoxia might all contribute too.

I've read a similar article. It seems to make sense.

 

[Atlas14]

But Newfangle, stretching before warm-up loosens your muscles and for most people allows them to perform better. And as far as it decreasing performance , there is no way that is true. I do 4 sports, and stretching is necessary for all of them.

 

[newfangle]

Warm ups losen muscles. Stretching does not. Stretching tends to put muscles in a relaxed state, leading to decreased performance.

(there is ONE exception, which is explosive activity like 100m dash. in that case having more relaxed muscles is preferably since the risk of injury is so great).

 

[Brighteye]

1) Stretching before exercise does nothing. In fact, recent reports have shown it actually decreases performance, but does not decrease the risk of injury.

Ok, now that that's out of the way, let's talk about the anaerobic threshold.
This is the point (usually about 80-88% MHR) when your body is expending energy faster than your lungs can supply your mitochondria with oxygen. This means glucose begins to break down without oxygen, resulting in lactic acid and CO2 (net energy gain is far less than aerobic respiration). If you continue to exercise at this rate, lactic acid concentration in your blood will increase, resulting in apparent fatigue and nausea (the latter is because blood is diverting away from your GI tract into your legs/arms).


Make sure you get this food in WITHIN AN HOUR of exercise. It is during this time that your body is more primed to store glycogen (muscle localized energy storage- long chains of glucose). If you wait longer than an hour, the window will close significantly, leaving your muscles with a glycogen deficiency. This will cause fatigue and lethargy the next day.
Final, stock up on electrolytes (sodium and potassium) from sweat loss (especially potassium), B-vitamins for recovery.

Just to mention: point 1 is true. It doesn't matter how much easier the exercise feels, careful tests have shown if anything a slight decrease in performance.

I'm not sure that the lungs are really the limiting factor in oxygen delivery. It's more like diffusion from the blood except in highly trained people.
Lactic acid conentrations in your blood will rise, but the pain comes because it builds up specifically in the muscle.

Getting food within an hour can actually give you stomach cramps if you've been working very hard indeed. You shouldn't feel obliged to follow this rule absolutely.

I also don't see that there's any particular need for any sort of energy drinks at all during exercise, particularly training.

 

[thetrooper]

MOST IMPORTANTLY: Post-training food. Look for a 3:1 ratio of carbs to protein. Yogurt, fortified cereal with milk, eggs and a bagel, a regular dinner meal, are all sufficient to this end. Go for complex carbs and whole foods. Stay away from candies and other crap, obviously. Make sure you get this food in WITHIN AN HOUR of exercise. It is during this time that your body is more primed to store glycogen (muscle localized energy storage- long chains of glucose). If you wait longer than an hour, the window will close significantly, leaving your muscles with a glycogen deficiency. This will cause fatigue and lethargy the next day.

Oops! There you go (the bolded part above). I've been sloppy with food. That's it.

Thanks for a great contribution here newfangle!

I knew you would spot this thread at last.

 

[newfangle]

Getting food within an hour can actually give you stomach cramps if you've been working very hard indeed. You shouldn't feel obliged to follow this rule absolutely.

Every source I've come across has stated that forcing at least some nutrition down is essential within the first hour, in order to get the muscles recovering and restock glycogen.

I also don't see that there's any particular need for any sort of energy drinks at all during exercise, particularly training.

It depends what you're doing. Its not the energy that's so important in energy drinks, so much as the elctrolytes. When I go out on a 3-hour training run in the summer sun, I'd be in big trouble without the electrolytes.

However, as you get more fit the need for energy supplements decreases. I only ever use them (usually in the form of Power Gel) on 35km training runs. For races, however, I bring along 4, plus I drink gatorade at every aid station.

When you are getting dangerously close to complete depletion of stored glycogen, it certainly helps to have some nutrition on the go.

I hope to start ultramarathoning soon, so consequently the need for energy supplmenets becomes paramount.

EDIT: For wussy activities, like "sports" p), there is really no need, of course.