Interesting study on glycogen replenishment supplements

[Docd187123]

Post-exercise Glycogen Recovery and Exercise Performance is Not Significantly Different Between Fast Food and Sport Supplements.
Authors
Cramer MJ1, Dumke CL, Hailes WS, Cuddy JS, Ruby BC.
Author information
Journal
Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2015 Mar 26. [Epub ahead of print]

Affiliation
Abstract
A variety of dietary choices are marketed to enhance glycogen recovery after physical activity. Past research informs recommendations regarding the timing, dose, and nutrient compositions to facilitate glycogen recovery. This study examined the effects of isoenergetic sport supplements (SS) vs. fast food (FF) on glycogen recovery and exercise performance. Eleven males completed two experimental trials in a randomized, counterbalanced order. Each trial included a 90-minute glycogen depletion ride followed by a 4-hour recovery period. Absolute amounts of macronutrients (1.54 ± 0.27 g·kg-1 carbohydrate, 0.24 ± 0.04 g·kg fat-1, and 0.18 ± 0.03g·kg protein-1) as either SS or FF were provided at 0 and 2 hours. Muscle biopsies were collected from the vastus lateralis at 0 and 4 hours post exercise. Blood samples were analyzed at 0, 30, 60, 120, 150, 180, and 240 minutes post exercise for insulin and glucose, with blood lipids analyzed at 0 and 240 minutes. A 20k time-trial (TT) was completed following the final muscle biopsy. There were no differences in the blood glucose and insulin responses. Similarly, rates of glycogen recovery were not different across the diets (6.9 ± 1.7 and 7.9 ± 2.4 mmol·kg wet weight- 1·hr-1 for SS and FF, respectively). There was also no difference across the diets for TT performance (34.1 ± 1.8 and 34.3 ± 1.7 minutes for SS and FF, respectively. These data indicate that short-term food options to initiate glycogen resynthesis can include dietary options not typically marketed as sports nutrition products such as fast food menu items.

 

[dredd09]

Interesting study. So is there anything that actually does speed up glycogen recovery faster than carbs and caffeine? I used to go to the gym with a guy who would go directly after hard lifting for an hour and a half and smash 5 Wendy's double stacks and a coke. He was hitting 2 a days at the gym too, huge and lean on tren with no cardio at all.

 

[Docd187123]

Interesting study. So is there anything that actually does speed up glycogen recovery faster than carbs and caffeine? I used to go to the gym with a guy who would go directly after hard lifting for an hour and a half and smash 5 Wendy's double stacks and a coke. He was hitting 2 a days at the gym too, huge and lean on tren with no cardio at all.

I think you need to go one step further. A better question might be: does speed of glycogen replenishment actually matter to you specifically? You might be shocked at the answer.

 

[dredd09]

Well, it's a non-issue if it takes up to 48 hours for full recovery no matter what right? But i read this info and wondered if is indeed valid.

"An athlete should take advantage of the glycogen repletion window that is open in the 4 hours immediately following vigorous exercise. During this time, any carbohydrates you eat will be converted into muscle glycogen at 3 times the normal rate - and some data suggests there is a 50% fall in this super charged repletion rate by 2 hours with a return to a normal repletion rate by 4 hours. (Ivy JL et al,J Appl Physiol 1988 Apr;64(4):1480-5). The slowing rate of glycogen storage occurs even when plasma glucose and insulin levelsremain elevated with oral supplements. It has been suggested that the initial elevated replacement rate is insulin independent, while the slowing at 4 hours is a shift to the normal insulin supported muscle cell absorption rate.

After this initial 4 hours, muscle glycogen stores are replenished at a rate of approximately 5% per hour. And while it may require up to 48 hours for complete muscle glycogen replacement following a 2 hour ride, for all practical purposes glycogen stores are almost completely rebuilt in the first 24 hours post event. But for the athlete who is on a daily training schedule, or is in a multiday event, the glycogen window can be used to get a jump on the normal repletion process and minimize the chance of gradually developing chronic glycogen depletion (and the fatigue that goes along with it)."

 

[Docd187123]

Well, it's a non-issue if it takes up to 48 hours for full recovery no matter what right? But i read this info and wondered if is indeed valid.

"An athlete should take advantage of the glycogen repletion window that is open in the 4 hours immediately following vigorous exercise. During this time, any carbohydrates you eat will be converted into muscle glycogen at 3 times the normal rate - and some data suggests there is a 50% fall in this super charged repletion rate by 2 hours with a return to a normal repletion rate by 4 hours. (Ivy JL et al,J Appl Physiol 1988 Apr;64(4):1480-5). The slowing rate of glycogen storage occurs even when plasma glucose and insulin levelsremain elevated with oral supplements. It has been suggested that the initial elevated replacement rate is insulin independent, while the slowing at 4 hours is a shift to the normal insulin supported muscle cell absorption rate.

After this initial 4 hours, muscle glycogen stores are replenished at a rate of approximately 5% per hour. And while it may require up to 48 hours for complete muscle glycogen replacement following a 2 hour ride, for all practical purposes glycogen stores are almost completely rebuilt in the first 24 hours post event. But for the athlete who is on a daily training schedule, or is in a multiday event, the glycogen window can be used to get a jump on the normal repletion process and minimize the chance of gradually developing chronic glycogen depletion (and the fatigue that goes along with it)."

This is what I mean by does the speed matter to you. If you're doing multi-events per day or something yes it could be helpful to replenish glycogen as quickly as possible. Fortunately a lifting session won't full deplete glycogen stores so there's not even that much glycogen needing to be replenished as if your entire supply had been used.

Despite a sound theoretical basis, the practical signifi- cance of expeditiously repleting glycogen stores remains dubious. Without question, expediting glycogen resynth- esis is important for a narrow subset of endurance sports where the duration between glycogen-depleting events is limited to less than approximately 8 hours [31]. Similar
benefits could potentially be obtained by those who per- form two-a-day split resistance training bouts (i.e. morn- ing and evening) provided the same muscles will be worked during the respective sessions. However, for goals that are not specifically focused on the perform- ance of multiple exercise bouts in the same day, the ur- gency of glycogen resynthesis is greatly diminished. High-intensity resistance training with moderate volume (6-9 sets per muscle group) has only been shown to re- duce glycogen stores by 36-39% [8,32]. Certain athletes are prone to performing significantly more volume than this (i.e., competitive bodybuilders), but increased vol- ume typically accompanies decreased frequency. For ex- ample, training a muscle group with 16-20 sets in a single session is done roughly once per week, whereas routines with 8-10 sets are done twice per week. In sce- narios of higher volume and frequency of resistance training, incomplete resynthesis of pre-training glycogen levels would not be a concern aside from the far-fetched scenario where exhaustive training bouts of the same muscles occur after recovery intervals shorter than 24 hours. However, even in the event of complete glycogen depletion, replenishment to pre-training levels occurs well-within this timeframe, regardless of a significantly delayed post-exercise carbohydrate intake. For example, Parkin et al [33] compared the immediate post-exercise ingestion of 5 high-glycemic carbohydrate meals with a 2-hour wait before beginning the recovery feedings. No significant between-group differences were seen in glycogen levels at 8 hours and 24 hours post-exercise. In further support of this point, Fox et al. [34] saw no sig- nificant reduction in glycogen content 24 hours after de- pletion despite adding 165 g fat collectively to the post- exercise recovery meals and thus removing any potential advantage of high-glycemic conditions.

http://www.jissn.com/content/pdf/1550-2783-10-5.pdf

 

[norfl33t]

Personally, proper glycogen replacement goes a long way in regards to recovery and reducing DOMS / inflammation. With timing, in my opinion, being the more important factor. I used to spend lots of $$ on post workout supplementation. Truth is, I get as good or better recovery / replacement with good old chocolate milk and a scoop of Beverly cookies n creme. Tastes god damn good too. Just my 2 cents. Great post btw.

 

[Docd187123]

Personally, proper glycogen replacement goes a long way in regards to recovery and reducing DOMS / inflammation. With timing, in my opinion, being the more important factor. I used to spend lots of $$ on post workout supplementation. Truth is, I get as good or better recovery / replacement with good old chocolate milk and a scoop of Beverly cookies n creme. Tastes god damn good too. Just my 2 cents. Great post btw.

Alan Aragon has an excellent review of chocolate milk vs Surge (the supplement) if you haven't seen it already. Chocolate milk is a regular part of my diet as well.