Post Workout Shake

Why is it that everytime I drink my postworkout shake I fall asleep within 30 min ? or I’m stuck in class and I cant keep my eyes open If my life depended on it. Does anybody else have this problem. I usualy have 50 g of Protein and 50 g of maltodextrin or dextrose.

You’ll probably receive more scientific responses but in case you don’t, here is my two cents worth. I have no choice but to keep it in simple terms. What you’re experiencing is a sudden crash in your blood sugar (after the sudden increase in your blood sugar) brought on by consuming so many simple carbs in your high glycemic index post work-out drink. The same thing happens to me. I hope this helps.

basically you are getting a strong insulin response which is what you want when taking a post workout shake especially if you are mixing in creatine.

I think you should try a different carb source. I have read that maltodextrin or maltodextrose are very high GI. I’m not sure if they are somewhat related, but maltose has much higher glycemic index than glucose itself. Maybe you could try sucrose (glucos and fructose) or fructose. You won’t get as big an insulin spike, but at least you’ll be awake.

Dont change your carb source! It’s not the fact that you are getting an insulin response that is making you tired. After the workout, both insulin stimulated and non-insulin stimulated glucose uptake into the liver and the muscle is really high. This lowers blood glucose pretty substantially. And low blood glucose can make you tired feeling (if it gets too low you will start to shake and get hyper though as your body will try to compensate for the low glucose levels). The way to “get the best of both worlds” in terms of muscle growth and alertness would be to continue your postworkout drink as is, then just snack on low GI carbs and protein while in class. That may help to maintain your glucose. Remember too that part of the fatigue is central nervous fatigue. Youd be pretty tired no matter what you ate. This means much of the fatigue is not meal related but training related.

COFFEE! Coffee gooooood…sleep baaaaaaaaaaaaad!

Interesting… I have the opposite problem… I am jittery and shakey after my workout… I always have to take some kava to help me chill out… can’t wait for E to come out…

You may want to check out Charles Poliquin’s “customized post-workout recipe.” It’s based on the notion that, to quote Charles, “the total carb content of your drink should be a reflection of the training volume for the training session—the greater the number of reps per training unit, the greater the carbohydrate intake.” Here’s the link Strength Training, Bodybuilding & Online Supplement Store - T NATION Good training! Midnight

Hey, John, I’ll considered my wrists properly slapped! I seem to recall a recent article on T-mag you wrote, called “Knowledge from the North.” It had something about how high insulin levels and high carb intake did not seem to restore protein synthesis after a workout. It was the amino acid leucine that was the bottleneck. Of course it later said that leucine and high insulin restored protein synthesis faster. Isn’t there be a limit to how much or high a GI carb you want to ingest after a workout?

I sware its meal related because I did an experiment when I used low gi carbs and fat and solid protein and I maintained my mental alterness.

Hyok-sorry if I sounded like I was “slapping wrists”. That’s never my intention. I just typed that up in a hurry earlier and was straight to the point.


Couple of thoughts:
Midnight-I think charles’ notions on this are excellent. Eating for recovery from activity should be dependent on the activity just as eating for upcoming activity should as well.

Hyok-You are right about the postworkout synthesis thing. Actually since then, Ive discovered a couple other facts that will even enhance synthesis more than leucine and carbs (insulin response) alone. But remember, after training, you want to also inhibit protein degradation and increase glycogen synthesis. The protein degradation prevention comes from high insulin levels coupled with high blood amino acids and the glycogen repletion comes from the carbs. As per your comment, of course there is a limit to the amount of high GI carbs to consume postworkout, but basically within an hour after the workout, I think you can get away with much more than 50g without any detriment to bodycomp (and actually much benefit). The new supplement that Ive designed with Biotest in my lab is a combo of ingredients that does all three mentioned above in the most efficient manner possible. Amino Acid-you may be right, you may have a very big inulin response coupled with a very good clearance of glucose after your workout with high GI carbs. That may be what is making you tired. But these things (except the fatigue) are exactly what you want since this means that if you have high insulin (plus the aminos in the blood) you will have the best protein synthetic response, the best inhibition of breakdown, and the best recovery of glycogen storage. Eating fat and low gi carbs will make you feel more alert but will not do much for maximizing your post workout "window" of recovery.

Hey Boogabrain - are you sure you’re not frying your nervous system too much in the workout? That might be causing the shaking. Usually you have to take a few days off and then not train so hard, so you might want to ignore it. Heh heh.