Protein Shakes and Athletic Performance
Many, many athletes all over the world now take a protein shake every day to aid their athletic performance. Protein shakes deliver a powerful punch of nutrition to your body without all those things that can get in the way of speedy digestion in normal foods.
Does that sound unnatural? In truth, it is. But where nature has seen fit to include things like fat and carbohydrates in addition to the all important protein, one of the best things about man made protein supplements is that they don’t include these other nutrients. But why is it important to eliminate these ingredients?
It’s important because when it comes to working out, timing is everything. A big part of what makes protein shakes so effective in helping you to build muscle is that they give your body a fast way to absorb protein as soon as you finish working out. Surely you’re familiar with the muscle repair and growth process that comes from strength training.
As you stress your muscles with exercise, they strain and stress and rip and tear, suffering traumas that will empower them to grow larger later. Because it’s the process of recovery that actually makes your muscles bigger: as your body heals your muscles, that’s when they get bigger and make you look ripped. That’s why they call it that: “ripped.”
Think about it. You work hard to rip your muscles, then they are repaired and get better. And taking a protein shake after working out, especially right after, will help your own body make the repairs that will result in the biggest muscle growth down the line. Non-protein nutrients like fat and carbs actually slow down the body’s process of digesting protein by getting in the way, processing these other nutrients ahead of time, ahead in line, if you will. And that’s the last thing you want.
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