Who has never dreamed of being like Popeye: by eating only canned spinach, he is able to send a bowling ball into the stratosphere. Do the same and you can hardly lift more than the can. “No specific food will make you faster or stronger,” In fact, whatever your goal, muscle development, endurance or weight loss, you have to think long term: “Sports nutrition is above all a question of time”. It’s a marathon, not a sprint. However, even if no food can make you an athlete in the snap of a finger, an adequate diet can help you go further in the effort and keep fit. Appropriate nutrition is the basis of effective training, and optimal training derives all the benefits of good nutrition. We have collected the latest nutrition news to help you nourish and shape your body the way you want.
1) Improve your endurance
A medium-sized man has enough fat to feed him for days, even weeks or months. Why then is it difficult to train for more than a few hours? One word: glycogen. It is the most easily accessible source of energy in the body, glucose. You can spend the day working, sleeping or surfing the Internet without touching the glycogen in your muscles and liver. But at the slightest effort, your energy reserve is counted. “Most adults have enough glycogen for 1-3 hours of physical activity. As soon as you train, moderately or intensely, your glycogen level drops quickly, “says Marie Spano, a sports nutrition researcher who works with professional athletes and academics in Atlanta. The body never uses all of its glycogen stock (there is always some left), but performance decreases as soon as the needle approaches zero. To train seriously, you have to delay that time.
Reserves to last
Research indicates that eating enough starchy food, several hours before a run or a long workout, can optimize glycogen storage, and therefore increase endurance. To improve your reserves, you must depend on your weight, swallow between 1 and 2g of starchy foods per kg before your workout, according to Marie Spano. For an 80kg man, count 350 to 700 kilocalories from starchy foods (i.e. 100 to 200 g of raw pasta). How do you fall within this range? It depends on the digestion time. The more you delay your session, the more you can eat.
Drink for endurance
Dehydration following physical exercise slows motor neurons. It’s like asking Alain Bernard to swim in a jelly pool. Not only is fatigue felt faster, but performance decreases. Skipping the drink is giving up a system of rapid absorption of nutrients that your body needs during and after exercise. It’s not easy to figure out how much fluid you need to replace. The level of perspiration varies from 500ml per hour to four times more, and this level fluctuates according to the weather. Above all, do not rely on your feeling of thirst. When you feel like drinking, you’re already dehydrated. There is one way to tell if you are drinking enough: weigh yourself before and after a long run or workout. The difference corresponds almost exclusively to the water of perspiration. Make up for 500g lost with three glasses of liquid. Urine is an additional indicator of your degree of dehydration. If you last more than 3 hours without going to the toilet, you probably don’t drink enough, according to Marie Spano. Color is another clue: your urine shouldn’t be darker than a lager.
Salt for resistance
Salt has a bad reputation, but you would be unwise to neglect it during your intense workouts, especially in times of heat and humidity. If you lose 2 or 3% of your weight by sweating (1.5 to 3kg for most of us), you will need extra sodium. If you want to make a recovery drink “house” dilute 1g of salt in 1L of a fruit juice-water mixture (50/50).
Short sessions
If your training lasts 1 hour or less, no need to plan a special menu. But you need reservations to hold on. Lonnie Lowery recommends a simple meal with at least 200 kilocalories, 20g of protein and 30g of starchy foods 1 or 2 hours before your session. A simple grilled chicken sandwich is perfect.
In-flight refueling
Sports drinks not only provide water and carbohydrates but also replace some of the mineral salts that you lose when you sweat. Three of these minerals, potassium, magnesium, and chloride, are said to be “electrolytes” for one simple reason: the body needs them to transmit electrical signals from the brain to the muscles. These signals travel through the body in body fluids, which are themselves regulated by another electrolyte, sodium. If you intend to run or pedal for more than 1 hour without stopping, refuel with carbohydrates and electrolytes after 30 min, then every 15 minutes, recommends Marie Spano. Count 30 to 60 g of carbohydrates per hour of effort. If you take 110ml of sports drink, about 7g of carbohydrates, every quarter of an hour, you’re at the bottom of the range. By doubling the amount, you are at the top.
Caffeinated training
Caffeine doesn’t just keep you awake. If you’re an enduring athlete, it can boost your performance, help you get the energy you need from your fats (saving precious glycogen), and reduce post-workout pain. Ironically, you can get almost no benefit from common sources of caffeine. “A component of coffee seems to limit the virtues of caffeine,” says Jay Hoffman, a sports and health professor at the University of Central Florida. This is why participants in studies demonstrating the benefits of caffeine consumed caffeine dissolved in water rather than coffee. Another source of caffeine in energy drinks. But they are also packed with calories. Prefer a caffeine tablet: you at least know what you are consuming. According to studies, it takes 3 to 5.5 mg of caffeine per kg depending on your weight, or about 252 mg for a man of 80 kg. If your area heavy drinkers of coffee or soda, a lower dose will probably suffice.
Full body juice
Have the red fruit reflex to protect your muscles during intensive sessions. According to a recent study by Oregon Health & Science University, runners who drink tangy cherry juice for a week before an ultra-endurance race experience less pain afterward. the sour cherries, black grapes, and pomegranates are all filled with anthocyanins, an antioxidant that helps decrease inflammation and muscle damage caused by intensive exercise.
2) Nourish your muscles
Imagine living in a house in perpetual construction. This is what your body looks like, where three teams of molecular workers are struggling to demolish and then build muscle tissue by chaining the three-eights. After your strength training, the workers in your body are ready to work overtime, but they need the right materials, professor of kinesiology at McMaster University Ontario. If you don’t eat anything, your muscle development will be seriously compromised. You could even lose muscle!
Whey for volume
As for muscle development, a source of protein stands out. It digests faster than any other protein and thus reaches the muscles faster. Thanks to its high concentration of leucine (amino acid), it has a muscle-building power superior to any other product in the supermarket. Stuart Phillips recommends 25g of whey protein after the session. Taking more will not hurt you, but expect no additional benefit.
Protein / Carbohydrate Mixture
Combined, they are more beneficial than alone. Carbohydrates can help proteins reach muscles faster. Research also suggests that proteins accelerate the formation of glycogen. Even if you are on a low-carbohydrate diet, it is advisable to add it to your post-workout protein shake. Choose a protein supplement that contains carbohydrates or add it yourself with whole fruit mixed in the blender with water and ice. You can also replace the protein supplement with skim milk: 700g (3 cups) provides 25g of protein, 35g of carbohydrates and a good dose of leucine.
Find the right proportions
For those who run, lift weights or exercise a few hours a week, nothing is more effective than the post-workout carbohydrate and protein blend. But if you are a regular athlete who trains more than 1 hour per day, the ideal proportion for optimal results is two doses of carbohydrates for one of protein.
Vitaminized muscles
Weight room enthusiasts have long believed in the benefits of sunlight. In the 1920s, Charles Atlas, the inventor of bodybuilding, incorporated daily tanning sessions into his program. Today, science is beginning to perceive what he intuitively understood: vitamin D, produced by our own body through exposure to the sun, plays an essential role in the health and functioning of muscles. No one can say that vitamin D boosts the performance of healthy and fit individuals. the most in-depth research concerns only the very young or the very old. But supplementing with vitamin D (from supplements and/or the sun) can’t do any harm and could even build strength and reduce injuries. According to researchers at the University of Wyoming, most people should take 1,000 to 2,000 IU of vitamin D a day.
Boost your results
If your goal is to increase your strength and your training capacity by 10% while developing your muscle volume, opt for the supplement which, according to numerous studies, fulfills these two objectives: creatine monohydrate. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends a daily dose of 5g. And avoid nitric oxide supplements (known as “NO precursors”). It’s money thrown out the window, ”says Stuart Phillips.
Fight fatigue
Is beta-alanine also a scientifically proven supplement? It is an amino acid used by the body to make a compound called carnosine. “Carnosine is present in the skeletal striated muscles and delays fatigue,” says Jay Hoffman. Initial studies suggest that it may improve strength and endurance. There is no specific dosage recommended to date, however, researchers from the University of Oklahoma recommend 6.4g per day divided into four doses. However, you will need to be patient before you see the results. It takes two to four weeks to build up enough carnosine in the muscles and perceive the effects. Good news: the level remains high for several weeks after stopping taking supplements.
Mix and match
Combining creatine with beta-alanine may be a good idea. According to a study by the College of New Jersey, footballers who take the two supplements (5g of creatine and 3.2g of beta-alanine per day) have more productive sessions with less fatigue and develop more muscles than those who is content with creatine.
Effort and hydration
Lifting weights does not cause dehydration. Besides, the weight rooms are generally air-conditioned. But if you’re dehydrated before a workout, you may be doing yourself more harm than good. According to a study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, dehydrated athletes produce more stress hormones, including cortisol, and less testosterone, the hormone most capable of building muscle. If you have a weight training session in the morning, imperatively drink a glass of water before.
3) burn fat
Some men eat and train to become stronger, faster or better in their discipline, and the physical consequences are incidental. By attaching too much importance to their appearance, they could even spoil their chances of victory, by reducing the calories necessary for their training, for example. But for the majority of us, better performance is above all a bonus. What we want above all is to get rid of our fat without losing muscle.
The volume effect
You can increase the satiating effect of a whey shaker by shaking it until it lathers. When researchers at Penn State asked men to drink shakers of different amounts, they found that those who drank the largest shakers reduced the amount of food by 12% the next meal. The volume effect gives the impression of drinking more.
Measure out the carbohydrates
It is essential to eliminate fat to adapt the number of carbohydrates absorbed to your activity level. Alan Aragon, the weight-loss consultant, has a simple method for calculating the number of carbohydrates needed. Multiply your weight goal by 2.2 if you work while sitting at a desk, if you exercise 1 hour (or less) several times a week and if your goal is weight loss. Multiply by 4.4 if you are an amateur sportsman who trains more than 1 hour per day. And multiply by 6.6 if you are a seasoned sportsman who trains several hours a day, or if with the body of a Mini associated with the metabolism of a Corvette, you are trying to gain weight. The result obtained tells you the number of grams of carbohydrates recommended per day (for example, for a sedentary 1.80m, 65kg: 143g of carbohydrates).
Eat to lose weight
Don’t forget protein. About 25% of calories from protein are burned during digestion or internal chemical processes: therefore the caloric impact of proteins is lower. And perhaps their greatest virtue is their ability to defend your muscle tissue while you are trying to eliminate fat. A recent study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise reveals that a diet including 35% of calories from proteins preserves the muscle mass of athletes, while a diet where only 15% of calories come from proteins causes an average loss of 1.6 kg of muscle in two weeks. If you want to lose fat, set a daily dose of protein equivalent to about 2g of protein per kg of your weight goal.
Fight fat with fat
A dry body is an oiled machine. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition revealed that those who swallowed 1.9g of omega 3 a day and did a little more than 2h of cardio per week reduced their fat mass, lowered their triglyceride levels and increased their HDL cholesterol. Conversely, another group following the same physical program, but consuming sunflower oil (consisting essentially of omega 6), lost almost no fat. In their own way, omega 3s sculpt the body. Repairing the omega imbalance is a two-step process. First, advises Alan Aragon, take three to six capsules of fish oil per day, which represents a total of 1 or 2g of DHA and EPA. Then reduce the omega 6 / Avoid soybean oil in the prepared products, it is the greatest source of omega 6. Prefer the extra virgin olive oil (rich in monounsaturated lipids,
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