What you eat is important. However, when you eat it can be just as critical. Post-workout nutrition is essential to energy recovery and repairing damaged muscle tissue. The basic principle works like this:

 The body deals with nutrients differently at different times, depending on activity. What you consume before, during, and especially after your workout is important. By consuming particular nutrients after your workouts, you improve your body composition, performance, and overall recovery. These benefits can work for everyone, regardless of gender or age.

       Generally, post-workout nutrition has three specific purposes:

• Replenish glycogen
• Decrease protein breakdown
• Increase protein synthesis

In other words, gym members want to:

• replenish their energy stores
• increase muscle size
• repair any damage to muscle tissue caused by the workout

Post-workout nutrition requires two things:

1. Complete protein source to aid in protein synthesis and recovery.
2. Carbohydrates to help replace muscle glycogen (energy).

 You could certainly eat a whole food meal that meets these requirements after exercise. However, whole food meals aren’t always practical.

• Some people aren’t hungry immediately after exercise.
• Whole food digests slowly, and we want nutrients to be available quickly.

Consuming a liquid form of nutrition (protein shake) that contains rapidly digesting carbohydrates and proteins will go to work faster (rapid absorption) and will help to accelerate muscle recovery and replenish energy stores.