Carbohydrate supplementation before, during, or after strenuous exercise has been shown to increase muscle glycogen stores, promote protein synthesis, and improve exercise performance. Serious athletes who are looking to add lean muscle mass, recover from strenuous training sessions, and improve their muscle growth should focus on increasing their muscle glycogen. Glycogen is a vital part of any athlete's training regime as it can help improve their performance and overall results.
What is Muscle Glycogen?
In other words, muscle glycogen is the main energy source for muscle tissue during intense physical activity that lasts for a long time. One of the key physiological factors that contributes to increased perceived rates of fatigue and increased rate of exhaustion during strenuous exercise is low levels of muscle glycogen. This also plays a role in one’s ability to maintain rigors levels of anaerobic capacity.
More simply, muscle glycogen is seen as the best energy source for all our muscles, and not having it might stop us from performing at our best.
However, the effects of low glycogen levels will vary from person to person. Recreational athletes who consume a consistent, balanced diet don't need to worry about carbohydrate supplementation for glycogen replenishment.
Who Should Be Concerned About Muscle Glycogen?
For strength athletes, not having enough muscle glycogen can be a big problem. It can affect how well they perform during exercise and how quickly they recover afterwards. However, most individuals will find consuming a balanced diet with enough calories from fats, proteins, and carbohydrates will suffice for maintaining optimal muscle glycogen levels.
We go into more detail about different athletes, their training levels, and what they want to achieve with their training, and how glycogen affects them. We explain how much glycogen the muscles need and how to replenish it.
Beginners
For most beginners, muscle glycogen is not a high concern when discussing exercise performance and/or dietary modifications. If you're a beginner or intermediate lifter/athlete, you should focus on establishing a balanced diet and making sure you're getting enough calories. You should also make sure you're staying hydrated, getting enough sleep, and training effectively.
If a beginner can find ways to eat a balanced diet of proteins, fats and carbohydrates, they will often have enough glycogen to fuel their muscles.
Additionally, most beginners don't train very hard or very often, so they may not deplete their muscle glycogen in the first place. If you are a beginner and experiencing low levels of energy, stalled performance, or poor recovery, it may be due to inadequate caloric consumption, poor food quality, irregular or insufficient sleep, stress, adverse responses to training, and/or lack of motivation—none of which necessarily reflect glycogen levels.
Strength and Power Athletes
If athletes are consuming enough calories and carbohydrates, they shouldn't have any problems with glycogen depletion/repletion, even if they are true beginners or at a beginner or intermediate level. Fatigue is often caused by poor recovery, lack of sleep, stress, or inability to deal with training stressors. If you seem to always be tired, one potential solution is to adjust your schedule to include more rest or to change up the intensity of your workouts.
Serious athletes who train with high volumes, intensities, and frequencies often deplete their muscle glycogen stores if they don't prioritize consuming enough calories, or if they are trying to lose weight to meet a weight class goal. Some athletes may find that they perform and recover better when they eat more carbohydrates around their workouts.
Fitness and CrossFit Competitors
often relies on carbohydrate sources to fuel muscle contractions. However, for athletes who are performing larger volumes of training (>5 hours per day), carbohydrate requirements may increase to 6-10 g/kg/day. Athletes who train for more than 5 hours per day may need to consume 6-10 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight per day to maintain adequate muscle glycogen levels.
The below strategies for replenishing muscle glycogen may improve recovery and performance for athletes who train multiple times per day, have extended sessions, or train at high volumes and frequencies.
Endurance Athletes
Aerobic and anaerobic processes are used to produce energy to fuel endurance athletes. Aerobic processes use oxygen to produce energy, while anaerobic processes do not. The ventilatory threshold is the point at which carbohydrate utilization as a fuel source dramatically increases when training intensity is around 75-80% of VO2 max.
For athletes who want to improve their endurance, or for people who just enjoy running, training at a pace that is slower than their VT will help them develop their aerobic abilities so that they can oxidize fats to fuel their training. Endurance athletes and runners who consume enough calories and train for less than 60 minutes per session typically don't have to worry about carbohydrate availability.
While more advanced aerobic endurance athletes may benefit from carbohydrate ingestion during prolonged training sessions, slightly different guidelines exist for them. When you eat foods that are high in carbohydrates, your body can use them for energy more quickly, which helps to preserve your muscle glycogen stores.
Endurance athletes who regularly train at a level above the ventilatory threshold may find that consuming carbohydrates can help improve their overall performance. Endurance athletes who train at a high intensity can often benefit from replenishing their muscle glycogen stores regularly during training blocks that involve more sessions at a higher intensity.
Bodybuilders
If beginners and intermediate bodybuilders consume enough calories, they usually don't have to worry about running out of muscle glycogen. You need to eat a lot of carbohydrates to have enough energy to train hard and recover afterwards.
Color enthusiasts may find that they are more drawn to the colors that they are missing in their diet. Bodybuilders who are competing and training with high intensities may find that their recovery can be supported by focusing on pre, intra, and post-training nutrition strategies that emphasize carbohydrate ingestion/replenishment.
General Fitness and Health
Most beginner and intermediate lifters, athletes, and individuals have adequate muscle glycogen availability. Assuming that you have a well-balanced diet, you will not have any issues with performance due to a lack of muscle glycogen
Performance issues in this group typically come from inadequate nutrition and training, such as poor sleep, stress, dehydration, poor quality food, lack of motivation, and malnutrition (too much or too little food). It is important to have a strong foundation of nutrition and training behaviors for general fitness and overall health improvements.
Dietary Recommendations for Increasing Muscle Glycogen
For people who are working out intensely and trying to compete at a high level, having enough glycogen in their muscles can make a big difference in how well they perform and how much muscle they gain. Athletes who are just starting out or lifting for recreation don't need to worry about meal timing as long as they are eating enough calories from carbohydrates, fats, and proteins.
Some dietary recommendations for optimizing muscle glycogen are listed below, divided into those for beginners and those for more advanced athletes.
Beginners and Recreations Lifters
As mentioned before, lack of muscle glycogen is not often a problem for novice, intermediate, and even highly active amateur weightlifters. An average person will consume enough calories and carbs to restore their muscle glycogen levels.
Highly Competitive Athletes
Research suggests that consuming more carbohydrates and proteins after a strenuous training session or event can improve your muscles' function and your aerobic performance in future sessions. In some studies, this improvement occurred only a few hours after the original trainin Studies have shown that consuming 0.8 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body mass after exercise can help replenish glycogen stores. More strenuous exercise may require additional carbohydrates every 30 minutes. It is suggested that in order to maximize glycogen and protein synthesis, around 0.4g of protein per kilogram of body mass should be ingested after strenuous training sessions.
Muscle Glycogen for Serious Athletes
The muscles in strength athletes need glycogen to help them do things like deadlifts and squats. If you don't have enough glycogen stored in your muscles, you might not have enough energy to train at the level you want to.
When you consume fast-digesting carbohydrate sources like simple carbs that lack fats and fiber after working out, it has been shown to significantly increase plasma insulin levels and in turn increase protein synthesis by 36% when compared to exercise alone. Urinary nitrogen levels were significantly lower following carbohydrate supplementation after strenuous exercise, which suggests an increase in muscle growth.
Refueling Your Efforts
The main reason to consume carbs after a workout is to replenish the muscle glycogen that was used during the workout. Glycogen from the muscles provides the main fuel source during the workout. Glycogen is the storage form of glucose. It is composed of glucose molecules held together by numerous linkages with branches. Glycogen is broken down into glucose to generate ATP as needed. Research has shown that the best way to Glycogen levels in muscles after a workout, is to eat high-glycemic carbohydrates as soon as possible after the workout.
There are some people who think that you don't need to replace the glycogen that you use when you are lifting weights. If you use up any of your muscle glycogen stores, you should be aiming to replace them. This is especially important if you're trying to build more muscle. If someone tells you that you don't need to worry about replenishing glycogen, they are either uninformed or their workouts are not very strenuous.
Research indicates that glycogen levels in muscles are depleted by about 30-40% during weight-training workouts consisting of 6 to 20 sets and lasting 15-30 minutes. Since my workouts last a long time and I use high-intensity techniques, most of my workouts will use up 60-75% of my muscle glycogen. If you want your muscles to recover quickly after a workout, you need to make sure you're replenishing your glycogen stores.
A study has shown that consuming high-glycemic carbs after a workout is the best way to replenish muscle glycogen stores. A study found that consuming carbohydrates immediately after a workout can help replenish glycogen stores. Delaying your carbohydrate intake by just two hours can result in a fifty percent decrease in glycogen replenishment.
The Insulin Debate
Insulin is a hormone that helps control the level of sugar in your blood. High-glycemic carbs can cause an insulin spike, which can help control the level of sugar in your blood. The role of insulin in muscle growth is a hot topic of debate among experts. It was once believed that leucine was a critical factor in muscle growth, but some evidence now suggests that it is not as critical as previously thought. More important than the amount of protein is the delivery of adequate amino acids to muscle cells.
There has only been recently research comparing the consumption of protein by itself after a workout to the consumption of protein plus carbs. This research suggests that adding carbohydrates to a protein shake does not have a significant impact on protein synthesis or breakdown.
Leucine seems to be especially important in causing muscle protein synthesis. Plus, leucine has been shown to increase insulin levels. Although not as effective as when carbohydrates are consumed with a leucine-rich protein source, consuming carbohydrates alone will still encourage muscle growth to a certain extent.
Although there is still debate on whether insulin has a direct influence on muscle growth, it is still important after workouts. Insulin attaches to specific receptors on muscle cells. This reaction enables glucose and amino acids, as well as creatine and carnitine, to be transported into muscle cells. Both creatine and carnitine need insulin to get into muscle cells and work effectively. You should take these supplements post workout to maximize insulin levels and build muscle mass. Although you may have to cut back on carbs when you are dieting, you can still have a protein shake and BCAAs after working out. This will help to get the supplements into your muscles.
Dextrose: Your Best Bet
This means that the body can almost immediately start repairing any damage that was done to the muscles during the workout. consuming pure glucose after a workout means the body can digest it and absorb it into the bloodstream almost immediately. This means the body can almost immediately start repairing any damage that was done to the muscles during the workout. This replenishes muscle glycogen as quickly as possible for the most complete recovery. This will ensure that your muscles have enough glycogen for your next workout. Glycogen prevents water from leaving muscle cells, which keeps them fuller and bigger. If you want to keep your muscles looking their biggest, you should consume lots of high-GI carbs after your workout to replenish your glycogen levels.
Fructose Facts
Fructose, which is 50% of the sugar in most fruits, honey, and sucrose or table sugar, is a low-glycemic carbohydrate.
Fructose is a sugar that the body cannot use effectively. Fructose cannot be turned into muscle glycogen directly, because of its structure. Fructose is directed to the liver, where it interferes with a process that regulates how much glucose is in the liver and bloodstream. The amount of glucose in your liver and bloodstream is regulated by a process that is interfered with when you consume fructose. Instead of most of the glucose going to the muscles, it must travel to the liver where it is converted into glucose and stored as glycogen. The liver releases the stored glycogen as glucose into the blood to maintain blood glucose levels.
Fructose is not a good choice to consume after working out because it won't help replenish muscle glycogen. I recommend gummy bears and Pixy Stix over fruit and other candy. The main sweetener in most candy is either high-fructose corn syrup or sugar. Table sugar contains 50% fructose and 50% glucose, while high-fructose corn syrup contains 55% fructose or more. Wonka Pixy Stix are only sweetened with dextrose and contain no other sweetener. The vast majority of gummy bears contain dextrose and corn syrup, with popular brands such as Haribo using these ingredients. Corn syrup is made up of glucose and is not the same as the high-fructose corn syrup that has been mixed with other substances.
Why Risk It?!
Why would you take the risk of not eating carbs after a workout, only to eat them hours later? It's foolish to think that consuming high-glycemic carbs after a workout is the best way to restock your spent muscle glycogen. People are often concerned that consuming carbohydrates quickly after working out will cause them to gain weight. The one time of day when you are almost guaranteed that carbs will not be converted into body fat is when you exercise. If you are dieting to lose body fat, you do not want to omit the post-workout carbs, but have them at a different time of day. Instead of reducing carbs after a workout, it's advised to reduce carbs at other times during the day.
Maybe you're worried about post workout carbs because some expert claimed that eating carbs right after a workout can lower growth hormone (GH) and testosterone levels. A better option, according to the expert, is to wait a few hours after the workout to have carbs. It is well-documented that eating a meal, especially a carb-rich meal, lowers growth hormone levels. A recent study has found that consuming high-glycemic carbs can reduce testosterone levels. The suggestion to not eat carbohydrates after a workout in order to maintain growth hormone and testosterone levels is inaccurate. Why? Growth hormone and testosterone levels peak during the workout and quickly drop afterwards. No matter what you do, growth hormone and testosterone levels will fall after a workout. After workouts, eat and don't worry about your hormone levels, which are falling.
