Best Muscle recovery snacks/food for post workout
What you put into your body before and after workout is what will make or break your results. Diet and exercise go hand in hand in helping you reach your fitness goals. The post workout food or snack that you intake is essentially important to repairing your muscles and keeping you moving forward for the rest of your day, as well as your workout in the next coming days.
Every time you are lifting weights, your muscles are experiencing microtears, which are eventually going to build into lean muscle mass if supported with the correct foods and nutrients. A very common mistake that people make post workout is indulging in unhealthy foods, thinking they earned it after a hard workout. While it’s better to workout and eat bad than to just eat bad, you are going to stunt a lot of possible progress. It is even possible to stop next day soreness with the right nutrition in your diet. Here are a couple of great snack/food options to fit into your post workout routine.
- Spinach
Spinach is truly one of the healthiest and most effective foods to incorporate into a post workout meal. This green keeps down inflammation and contains wonderful nutrients and vitamins that will also help with energy levels. Spinach is also a high protein green containing nearly 5-6 grams per cup as well as containing vitamins A, B and C
- Chia Seeds
Not many people are aware that Chia seeds contain a ton of complete protein. Although they might be difficult to add into meals, it is best to add these seeds into a yogurt or shake/smoothie. Chia seeds contain a ton of vitamins and minerals such as iron, calcium and magnesium and healthy fats that keep off inflammation.
- Oatmeal
One of the best times to eat oatmeal is post workout due to its healthy carbohydrates which replenish muscles. Oats contain many nutrients including avenanthramides, which have notable anti-inflammatory activity. Intaking the carbs and nutrients that oats contain will certainly keep away soreness and help repair muscles.
- Green Tea
Many might be surprised that Green Tea, which contains little to no calories, actually replenishes worked out muscles post workout. An October 2018 study published in Physiology and Behavior found that men who supplemented with 500mg of green tea extract reduced markers of muscle damage caused by exercise.
- Blue Berries and Raspberries
blueberries and raspberries contain some of the highest amounts of antioxidants for fruits. Both of these berries are a great source of carbohydrates as well as sirtuins. Sirtuins modulate various cellular and organismal functions like cellular death, inflammatory pathways in the body which can lead you to being less sore post workout.
Medical Sources:
healthline.com
cathe.com