5 Steps to Recovery

1. Sleep - Now this should go without saying. Your body uses sleep to repair itself and this is also the time when you will see real muscle gains. You may see growth after a workout but this is just down to the muscle pump and is not a real gain.
2. Cool Down - A proper cool down routine will help disperse the lactic acid build-up in the muscles. This cuts down on the muscle burn many people get after training. Try ten minutes slow jog on the treadmill.
3. Glutamine - Glutamine is responsible for much of the body’s immune system functions. Up to 50% of the body’s resources can be used up during training, decreasing the body’s ability to fight infection and repair itself. Taking a quality glutamine supplement will help with this.
4. Recovery Drinks - During training you burn a lot of energy in the form of carbohydrates. You have also depleted some of the body’s stores of protein. Most recovery drinks are formulated to give the optimum quantities of both to help the system recover quickly. For the best effect, these should be consumed within half an hour of finishing your training session.
5. HMB - This is a shortened name for beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate which is certainly a bit of a mouthful. It is closely related to Leucine which has been shown to be the most important amino acid when related to the breakdown of proteins and protein synthesis. This means the protein you add to your system will be used much more effectively.

Published: September 12th, 2007
Author: Steve
Category: Supplement Basics
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Tags: carbohydrates, cool down, depleted, drinks, fight infection, glutamine supplement, immune system functions, jog, lactic acid build up, list products, muscles, muscle gains, muscle pump, sleep now, treadmill, workout