Marie Spano

Tired of Feeling Sore and Tired?

Try Adding the Five Best Recovery Foods and Supplements to Your Nutrition Arsenal

By Marie Spano, MS, RD

Sometimes there isn't enough ibuprofen or ice in the world to combat sore muscles. And while periodization is key to enhancing strength gains and preventing boredom, sometimes our zeal for taking our gains to the next level makes us overdo it.

Exercise, whether it's from a "spinning" cardio session or weight training, induces varying levels of delayed onset muscle soreness.

I had one of these days last week. After taking a 50-minute spin class full of standing climbs (high resistance while our butts are off the seat, and we are hunched over the handlebars), I hit the Smith machine for some squats and followed that up with lunges and dead-lifts. It seemed like a brilliant idea at the time, but I woke up the next morning wondering if I could skip work in favor of a deep tissue massage, muscle relaxers, and a hot tub. Two days later, I still couldn't run or get back on a bike.

Feeling a little sore isn't so bad—you know you've worked that muscle group. Extreme soreness and inflammation, however, is counterproductive since you'll be sidelined for days.

The majority of soreness and damage results from muscle contractions when the muscle is forcibly lengthening, as in an eccentric contraction. For example, when the weight is being lowered or your elbow is straightening during biceps curls. Instead of merely going through your normal routine of bicep curls, try doing negatives, and you'll really feel sore about eccentric contractions.

Though there are measures you can take to enhance recovery and attenuate the soreness and inflammation that comes with overdoing it, if you go out like gangbusters after you've taken some time off, you will pay a price regardless. But the price will likely be much worse if your nutrition and supplement plan doesn't jive with your training.

Fortunately, there are things you can do to stay in the game—as you'll discover in this article.

Calories Count

According to Dr. Chad Kerksick, CSCS*D, ATC, calories should be your first consideration. Since you're reading Real SOLUTIONS, you should already know this. "Without sufficient calories, recovery will be slower. And, without enough carbohydrates, your body will break down protein," says Kerksick. Fewer calories taken in means more time to rebuild after a hard session tearing down muscle.

Here's how Dr. Kerksick breaks down the numbers:

• Consume approximately 40 to 50 calories for every kilogram of bodyweight (one pound equals 2.2 kg) with slight changes in either direction for those who may want to gain or lose weight, respectively. An active 175-lb male would therefore need approximately 3,200 to 4,000 calories per day. Whereas an active 130-lb woman would need approximately 2,400 to 3,000 calories a day.
  
  
• Aim for 1.2 to 1.5 grams of protein for every kilogram of bodyweight. For our 175-lb male example, that equates to 96 to 120 grams of protein. And for our 130-lb woman, that's 72 to 90 grams of protein.
  
  
• Carbohydrate intake—aim for five to eight grams per kg per day depending on your goals. That's 400 to 640 per day for our 175-lb male and 300 to 480 for our 130-lb female. Again, depending on his or her personal goals.

Nutrient Timing

A quality protein shake like Eat-Smart® with some added fruit will minimize muscle damage while promoting greater muscle recovery.

The two-hour post-exercise window is characterized by an increased rate of substrate incorporation into the cellular structure. That is, your cells are more open to receiving proper nutrition and take in all you can provide—for greater growth and recovery. In fact, the window immediately after exercise, within about 30 minutes, shows the greatest increases. The literature shows that providing carbohydrate and protein in at least a 3:1 to 4:1 ratio favoring carbohydrate stimulates the greatest adaptations to promote muscle recovery and growth.

Recent studies have also suggested this combination will help to prevent markers in the blood which are reflective of muscle damage. Two very similar well-conducted studies required young, healthy males to complete exercise exhaustion trials on a cycle ergometer (a type of bicycle found in exercise laboratories) followed by time to exhaustion trials at a standard workload before supplementing with isocaloric carbohydrate-protein beverages in a 4:1 ratio.

Performance was not improved; however, circulating levels of CK and LDH were improved, suggesting that supplementing with carbohydrate and protein in a 4:1 ratio may help minimize muscle damage associated with exhaustive exercise in addition to promoting greater restoration of muscle recovery. A quality protein shake like Eat-Smart® with some added fruit will do the trick.

BCAA's and HMB

Amino acids do more than just increase muscle protein synthesis. BCAA's (or branch chain amino acids) might help facilitate recovery by mediating muscle damage and soreness.

In an endurance cycling study, subjects were given either a placebo or 12 grams per day of BCAA's. Peak levels of enzymes reflective of muscle damage (lactate dehydrogenase [LDH] and creatine kinase [CK]) were delayed from two hours to five days for LDH and from four hours to five days post-test for CK, which led the researchers to conclude that BCAA supplementation may help reduce muscle damage associated with endurance exercise.

Two other studies used eccentric muscle contractions to invoke much higher levels of muscle damage while supplementing with HMB, a derivative of the amino acid leucine. The first study supplemented subjects with three grams of HMB for 14 days prior to the damage bout and found that: 1) soreness was reduced after 24 hours; 2) CK levels were decreased after 24 hours; and 3) force production and swelling were decreased, all of which are characteristics of muscle damage.

Another study used a similar protocol and suggested a supplementation period of at least 14 days with BCAA or HMB is needed to impart positive alterations in the muscle damage response. Findings from these studies are very important for those interested in muscle recovery and suggest that increasing the circulating levels of amino acids, specifically leucine and the BCAA's may be effective at minimizing the symptoms associated with muscle damage.

Personally, I love Champion Nutrition's Amino Shooters pre-workout. They contain all of the essential amino acids with increased levels of the branched chains.

Beta-Alanine

"Significantly greater improvements in strength, muscle mass, and percent bodyfat were noted in the beta-alanine + creatine supplemented group in comparison to both the creatine only and placebo groups."

iSatori makes it easy to use this combination with their Maximum Growth Stack, which contains the beta-alanine supplement H-Blocker™ and a quality creatine product called 3-XL™.

"In addition to the benefit of chronic beta-alanine supplementation boosting skeletal muscle buffering capacity (by offsetting acid production in the muscle) thus increasing the ability to train at a higher intensity, beta-alanine has also been shown to improve recovery between high-intensity exercise sets or intervals. As a result, beta-alanine will improve exercise training stimulus (intensity and volume), which is essential to reaching your performance goals sooner rather than later (or never)," according to Dr. Jeff Stout, FISSN, President of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (www.theissn.org).

One of the initial studies provided four to six mg of beta-alanine everyday for 10 weeks, resulting in increases in muscle carnosine by 50% and 80% after four and ten weeks, respectively. An exhaustive cycling test was then completed which resulted in a 13% increase in total work after four weeks of supplementation and 3.2% after 10 weeks, with no changes in the placebo group.

The next step researchers took was to combine beta-alanine and creatine. One of these studies supplemented males with 1.6 grams/day of beta-alanine + 5.25 grams/day creatine for four weeks before completing exhaustion tests on a cycle ergometer. The group supplemented with beta-alanine + creatine increased maximal oxygen uptake and power output (i.e.,, they could work harder).

An additional study in collegiate football players over 10 weeks compared beta-alanine + creatine, creatine only, or placebo alone in adaptations to resistance training. Significantly greater improvements in strength, muscle mass, and percent bodyfat were noted in the beta-alanine + creatine supplemented group in comparison to both the creatine only and placebo groups. While intense training increases muscle levels of creatine and carnosine, supplementation even over brief periods can raise the levels even higher. This is great, as it loads the muscle cell with buffers, which allow for greater recovery which keeps athletes coming back for more.

Omega-3 Fats

Scientists at the University of Florida investigated the effects of a supplement containing mixed 300 mg tocopherols, 800 mg flavonoids, and 300 mg docosahexaenoate on exercise-induced markers of cell damage and the inflammatory mediators C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6).

In this randomized study, 40 healthy, untrained males (aged 18 to 35 years) received either the supplement or placebo for 14 days prior to completing an eccentric-only exercise bout. Significant increases in pain, CK, LDH, as well as a decreased range of motion for three days, were found after the exercise with significant group differences in IL-6 and CRP, indicating there is a potential role for this combination of supplements in mitigating the inflammatory response associated with exercise.

Another study found that supplementation with 3.6 g/day fish oil for six weeks had no effect on exercise-induced increases in leucocytes and creatine kinase compared to placebo. A similar study in 22 women found no differences in measures of inflammation (cortisol, CK, IL-6, TNFalpha) after delayed onset muscle soreness caused by maximal isokinetic eccentric contractions.

In addition to the health benefits attributed to fish oil consumption, these studies provide preliminary, though mixed, support that fish oil supplementation may be effective at offsetting the soreness and inflammation that results after intense, damaging exercise.

In Conclusion

Exercise does both mind and body a world of good until you overdo it and end up with your legs propped up and several ice bags covering sore spots. The first measure of prevention for soreness and inflammation should always be proper training and progression. Beyond that, nutrition can play a key role with adequate calorie, carbohydrate, and protein intake being the most important initial considerations. In addition, current clinical research has suggested that BCAA's, HMB, beta-alanine, and omega-3 fats may be helpful at minimizing the pain, inflammation, and damage that occurs after intense exercise.

Editor's Note: For a full list of references, please email us at Editors@RealSOLUTIONSmag.com with the phrase Recovery Nutrition References in the subject line.

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