The period after your workout is the most important time span for you to take advantage of nutrition for muscle gain.

You’ve got a window of 3 hours after you complete an intense workout. Here’s why—this is the time period when your body most craves nutrients and your muscles will literally soak them up, making this a time prime to use nutrition for muscle gain.

If you get in there and use the best nutrition for muscle gain by supplying your body with whole food and supplements, you will maximize muscle gains and improve your recovery time.

Let’s go through the things that need to be done after an intense workout:.

1) It’s your job to minimize muscle breakdown, while putting your body back into an anabolic muscle-building state.

2) Your glycogen and blood sugar levels need to come back to normal.

3) Neutralize free radicals.

4) Feed your muscles with the right nutrition for muscle gain to ensure growth and recovery.

There are 2 special “post-workout meals” that I highly recommend.

Your first meal should be in a liquid form. Since your body is stressed out and desperate for nutrients, you need to replenish it quickly. By opting for a liquid meal, your body can get the nutrients it requires faster and start the rebuilding process immediately.

Since you require nutrition for muscle gain, include the following ingredients in your post-workout shake:.

1) Add 30 to 40 grams of protein (whey) to your shake.
2) Simple sugars such as dextrose: 70 to 80 grams. (Dextrose is a great sugar to use)
3) Creatine: 5 grams.
4) Consider adding 5 to 10 grams of glutamine. (Optional)

Within a half hour, mix up these ingredients with water and consume. I highly recommend taking a high-potency multivitamin as well. If you want to accelerate muscle growth and have a faster recovery, this simple shake will do the trick.

For your second post-workout meal, you should eat whole foods; this should be 45 minutes to an hour after you drink your shake. For the best nutrition for muscle gain you want a meal made of protein and high glycemic carbohydrates to maximize your recovery potential.

The great thing about high glycemic carbohydrates is that they are broken down quickly into your bloodstream. Some examples are white rice, rice cakes, or potatoes. Check out the following suggestions for your second post-workout meal:.

1) 1 glass of orange juice along with a 6 oz steak and a potato.
2) Eat a can of tuna, 100 g rice cakes, and wash it down with a glass of grapefruit juice.

The point is to supply your starved muscles with nutrients to develop muscle tissue and restore glycogen levels, and this meal does just that.

In the beginning of this article, we talked about a 3-hour window for nutrition; this means that you have 2 hours left to absorb some more top nutrition for muscle gain. Your body wants high quality protein and glycemic carbohydrates after a powerful workout, and your job is to deliver them during this 3-hour window.

Unfortunately, there are too many lifters that do not realize the importance of nutrition for muscle gain during this post-workout period, and as a result, they limit their gains. You will really limit your gains if you slack off on your protein and carb-intake during this timeframe.

Follow these tips to maximize post-workout nutrition, and you will experience noticeable strength and muscle gains.

About the author
Sean is a lifetime natural bodybuilder, has written articles for dozens of the top muscle-building and fat loss websites across the Internet and is recognized as an expert authority on the subjects of building muscle and burning fat fast.Click Here to go to his site.

1 comments

  1. vanom  

    June 8, 2010 at 8:34 AM

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