Products to take before or after training

OHGREAT

I have recently started training for a triathlon at the end of the summer. Things are not going great as I am extremely stiff every day after training. I am looking for peoples advice on what to take before or after training and what products should I carry with me on race day

huskerdu

OHGREAT wrote: »

I have recently started training for a triathlon at the end of the summer. Things are not going great as I am extremely stiff every day after training. I am looking for peoples advice on what to take before or after training and what products should I carry with me on race day

Good luck with the training and the triathlon. I run, and dont do triathlons but I think this advice is the same for both.

It is likely that you are stiff because you are using your muscles more than they are used to being used. The remedy for this is to get fitter. I know this sounds obvious, and I hope it doesn't come across as glib, but it is the simple answer.
Stretching might help, and some people say that protein after training helps muscle recovery, but its not magic.

You haven't given any information about how much training you are doing and how much of a jump this is on your previous lifestyle, so I cant give any specific advice.

If you are not doing so already, get a training plan suitable for your current level of fitness and dont risk injury by overtraining until you are able for it.

As for race day, if you need/want to take gels etc, I think you shouldn't plan for this until the few months before the event, when your training has got more intense and more closely mimics race day. You can try out some products during training as see if they suit you and help.

sconhome

OHGREAT wrote: »

I have recently started training for a triathlon at the end of the summer. Things are not going great as I am extremely stiff every day after training. I am looking for peoples advice on what to take before or after training and what products should I carry with me on race day

When is your race on and what distance is it? How is your general fitness overall at the moment?

I'm hoping that you are not stuck for time and are having to cram a load of training in so that you get fitter, faster. You are big time running the risk of injury and not getting to your race at all.

There are plenty of products available that will help with nutrition and recovery for both training and race day. Unfortunately, they should be considered an aid to training and not a cure all for overtraining.

Let us know some details as huskerdu suggests and it will help.

oedipod

There's a couple of issues here. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is largely caused by eccentric, that is lengthening contractions of large muscles. So you'll be stiffer after running down hill, after doing slow resistance reps etc. The best evidence is that this is due to microscopic haemhorrages within the muscle and a breakdown of fibre integrity - although there's little 'nough biopsy data.

It is normal, adaptive and passes with training. You'll probably get it after most increases in training load.

The posters above are right. If you increase your training load too quick, you run the risk of injury - at this level most likely tendinous or ligmentous injury. IT takes months for tendon and ligament (not to mention bone) to adapt. Muscle adapts much quicker to increased training load. This can result in pretty serious injury if you're not careful.

However, the "overtraining" syndome is something different and which beginners are often frightened off about. Unless you're doing doubles and massively increasing your training load to stupid miles per week, it'sunlikely. However, it is best diagnosed by taking you pulse first thing after you wake up in the morning and documenting it in a little notebook. Any sudden rise in resting pulse is likely to demonstrate overtraining - in which pretty much all body systems are breaking down - from the production of new red blood cells to muscle and bone repair.

There are plenty of drinks and foods on the market that claim to decrease recovery time. Virtually none have any evidence to back up their claims. However, there is reasonable evidence that taking in just carbohydrates in the 1st hour after a session is the best way to replenish glycogen and that muscles' ability to take in glucose after this golden hour is limited. Even better evidence exists to show that this glycogen uptake is better if you use a 1:3 or 1:4 protein : carb mix. Nobody really knows why this works but there's reasonable evidence.

There's an Irish brand called Provon Revive, used to be made by Glanbia, but has just been bought by Optimum Nutrition. It tastes like lemon and lime dishwater on spaghetti bolognese night, but I like it, and I have found it to work.

Hope it helps.

Hanley

oedipod wrote: »

There's a couple of issues here. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is largely caused by eccentric, that is lengthening contractions of large muscles. So you'll be stiffer after running down hill, after doing slow resistance reps etc. The best evidence is that this is due to microscopic haemhorrages within the muscle and a breakdown of fibre integrity - although there's little 'nough biopsy data.

It is normal, adaptive and passes with training. You'll probably get it after most increases in training load.

The posters above are right. If you increase your training load too quick, you run the risk of injury - at this level most likely tendinous or ligmentous injury. IT takes months for tendon and ligament (not to mention bone) to adapt. Muscle adapts much quicker to increased training load. This can result in pretty serious injury if you're not careful.

However, the "overtraining" syndome is something different and which beginners are often frightened off about. Unless you're doing doubles and massively increasing your training load to stupid miles per week, it'sunlikely. However, it is best diagnosed by taking you pulse first thing after you wake up in the morning and documenting it in a little notebook. Any sudden rise in resting pulse is likely to demonstrate overtraining - in which pretty much all body systems are breaking down - from the production of new red blood cells to muscle and bone repair.

There are plenty of drinks and foods on the market that claim to decrease recovery time. Virtually none have any evidence to back up their claims. However, there is reasonable evidence that taking in just carbohydrates in the 1st hour after a session is the best way to replenish glycogen and that muscles' ability to take in glucose after this golden hour is limited. Even better evidence exists to show that this glycogen uptake is better if you use a 1:3 or 1:4 protein : carb mix. Nobody really knows why this works but there's reasonable evidence.

There's an Irish brand called Provon Revive, used to be made by Glanbia, but has just been bought by Optimum Nutrition. It tastes like lemon and lime dishwater on spaghetti bolognese night, but I like it, and I have found it to work.

Hope it helps.

That's a really solid post.

asimonov

oedipod wrote: »

There's a couple of issues here. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is largely caused by eccentric, that is lengthening contractions of large muscles. So you'll be stiffer after running down hill, after doing slow resistance reps etc. The best evidence is that this is due to microscopic haemhorrages within the muscle and a breakdown of fibre integrity - although there's little 'nough biopsy data.

There's an Irish brand called Provon Revive, used to be made by Glanbia, but has just been bought by Optimum Nutrition. It tastes like lemon and lime dishwater on spaghetti bolognese night, but I like it, and I have found it to work.

Hope it helps.

Good post; just to clarify though, Glanbia bought Optimum Nutrition in 2010, the recent change was they just assimilated the Provon Revive product into the ON range. So it is still made by Glanbia.