How Important is Protein for Recovery?
It was one of my clients that inspired me to tackle the importance of protein for recovery today!
As a 1:1 sports nutrition coach, I work closely with triathletes and runners to help them make improvements in their nutrition and, by consequence, in their races!
The triathlete in question had been struggling specifically with their recovery. They were finding that they felt beat up and sore after training and that it was taking them a long time to feel better again.
Whenever I start working with a new client, I always do a dietary analysis. This involves looking through everything they are eating and calculating calories and macros, so I can spot areas for improvement.
In this case, I noticed that their protein intake was a bit low; they were only consuming 1.4g per kg of bodyweight.
Protein is such an important element of recovery, I felt pretty sure this could be contributing to their problem.
I thought it would be worth explaining the ins and outs of protein for recovery in this blog post, so that everyone can ensure their protein intake isn’t negatively impacting them!
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How does protein help post-workout recovery?
Whenever you exercise, you stress and damage your muscles. If you are doing intense exercise like high intensity training, or participating in races like triathlons, ironman races or marathons, your muscles will be under particularly hard strain.
Your body always tries to repair your damaged muscles after exercise, so that it is prepared for the next time.
Does protein speed up muscle recovery? Yes! One of the primary contributors to muscle recovery is dietary protein!
Protein contains essential amino acids, which are the building blocks of muscles. Your body needs sufficient amino acid supplies in order to be able to generate new muscle tissue to repair the damaged stuff.
So the role of protein during exercise and after exercise is to repair damaged muscle, making it absolutely crucial to the recovery process. Protein doesn’t significantly contribute to energy during exercise itself; that’s from carbs and fats.
However, there is some misinformation out there about when you should consume protein. Whilst it is important to consume protein directly after training sessions, it’s also crucial to space your protein intake out throughout the day.
I definitely recommend having a protein-based snack before and after you workout. This could be something as simple as 500ml of semi-skimmed milk, some greek yogurt and berries, or you could go for a muscle recovery protein shake if that’s more your thing.
But make sure you focus on a good quality protein source in every main meal rather than cramming it all in at once.
Your body needs protein throughout the day. That’s the protein after workout myth debunked! Let’s move on.
How much protein should I consume?
If you look at the UK guidance for daily protein intake you'll see it says 0.8g of protein per kg body weight per day, and obviously this athlete was consuming far more than that.
However, this threshold is set at the minimum amount of protein to stop a protein deficiency and has absolutely no link to athletic performance.
Current advice suggests endurance athletes should aim to consume between about 1.4-2.0g of protein per kg bw per day, as these are the optimal levels to facilitate muscle recovery and growth and support the athlete in their training.
Because this athlete had been finding their recovery more difficult I suggested upping their protein intake closer to 2 gram/kg/bw, especially on harder training days.
Along with this, we made sure that there was a good amount of protein in every main meal as well as immediately after training.
This is also important because spacing protein intake evenly over the day helps ensure ideal rates of muscle protein synthesis, which is the process where new muscle tissue is created.
The result of change to their diet was that they reported significant improvement in how well they recovered, in that they weren’t feeling as fatigued, weren’t feeling as sore and felt like their training overall was going so much better.
Seems like we cracked how to recover muscles faster after workouts!
What is the best protein for muscle recovery?
So, we know that it is super important to eat enough protein for recovery. But which is the best protein for muscle repair?
Honestly, there’s no single protein source which is “best”.
If you can consume between 20-40g of protein with every main meal then you’re already putting yourself in a fantastic position.
This could be from animal sources such as chicken, fish, dairy and eggs, or it could be from plant-based sources like soy (tofu, edamame), lentils, beans and wholegrain carbohydrates.
You can also try protein powders and shakes, particularly for post workout recovery food. These contain big hits of protein, are convenient and are easy to consume after high intensity training - when you might not want to eat much!
So, if you are experiencing issues with your recovery, try upping your protein intake throughout the day and see if that helps.
Of course, there are other reasons why you might have issues with recovery. While protein is a significant factor, it is not the only possible cause.
I would recommend trying protein for recovery first, and if nothing changes, look at other factors such as how much sleep you are getting, how much training you are doing or other aspects of nutrition such as overall calorie intake or carb intake.
Now if you’re interested in more tips like this then you should check out my free newsletter. I send out a newsletter every week with nutrition tips to help you train and race better. You can sign up on the home page.
I also do 1:1 nutrition coaching for a handful of clients, as I mentioned at the start of this article. If you are interested, you can read more about my coaching services here.
I hope you now have a better idea of the importance of protein when it comes to how to recover muscles faster after workouts!
