Exercising activates the fight or flight system of your body where your body reallocates resources from homeostasis to systems dealing with stress (fighting, running, hypoxia, trauma, etc.), activating the sympathetic systems. The results include production of viscous (as opposed to watery) saliva, pilal erection, increased heart rate, increased sweat secretions, etc..
Regarding eating, sympathetic stimulation to the GI tract decreases GI motility; constricts sphincters, blood vessels, and some musculature; and also inhibits secretory activities (Berne and Levy, Physiology 4th ed, Section VI).
Therefore, if you eat a heavy meal right after you exercise, these effects may still be active and could lead to indigestion and cramps. That’s why lifeguards tell you never to eat before you swim and swim right after you eat…
As for drinking fluids and eating lightly, that should be okay. Gatorade works great.
I don’t think anyone suggested eating heavy before or after workout. Eating before workout should be light and well before…30-60 minutes before. So the quick digesting food will be giving you the fuel you need for a good workout. After you workout your body requires nutrients…again quick digesting food is best…more to get the nutrients to your cells quickest…then you can eat when you are hungry or an hour later.
Originally posted by Repulsive Monkey
If anyone has advised you to eat directly after training, then it doesn’t matter what food stuff they have mentioned, they have given you bad advice. Eating directly after training just like just before can upset the Spleen and Stomach functions and lay down the foundations to poor health.
Please post some evidence or sane reasoning behind this, as I’ve never heard of this from anyone but you.
Well, there are a few days a week where I train at morning, with no breakfast - with empty stomach, and there are other days where I train afternoon or at night, usually after 3 or 4 hours after a light meal.
I noticed that my “performance” at the morning trainings is slightly better, I feel my body “lighter” and more responsive.
I do not know if this feeling is due to the fact that I just woke up at morning, or if it’s because I didn’t ate anything, but I enjoy the morning trainings much more
Paul’s earlier post is pretty accurate. Research has been done that shows carbohydrates ingested within 15 minutes of excersice replenish glycogen in the muscles very quickly. This is done more by performance atheletes where you are really burning up the muscle stores and energy at a high rate.
I don’t think it is harmful to eat a small amount of carbohydrates shortly after excersicing. I have a very good classic Xingyi text that states not to use the bathroom or take a shower after practice. Well…I don’t buy in completely on that like it was the Gospel or anything, but a shower after a workout is not harmful I don’t think. Also, if ya gotta go, man, ya gotta go!
Aside:
Professional level theatre and musical performers normally do not drink cold water (ice cold). This is been linked to damaging the vocal cords, causing undue stress, etc.
Just thought I would link this with Prana’s statement…no cold water directly after (body hot…water cold).
Prana (I always think of a fish…maybe I’m not saying it right).
Anyone want to give some foods they eat after working out (30 or 30+ minutes after working out). I like bananas, apples, fruit in general…veggies, something light.
From a Chinese medicine point of view cold water is is less preferable to warm fluids as its the equivalent of just heating up an engine in an old steam engine of a train to an optimum and then dowsing it in cold water so as to drop the temperature. One can do a lot daamge but mainly just undo the good work, so in CM the Lower Burner containing the Dan Tien is warmed up and stoked, and then suddenly someone puts it out with water.
About eating from a wetsern point of view eating alomost anything after a workout will pull away readily needed oxygenated blood from the tissues of organs that have built up Oxygen debt due to Anaerobic exercise, and send it to the Stomach to aids its fucntion of digestion. Whener the eating reflex is in incurred even through chewing gum, its starts with the Saliva being produced in the mouth, perstalsis to swallow it and the realse of Peptic acids, Renin, Hydrochloric acid and the whole gamut of Intestinal juices to go to work (except there is no food to digest). However this all needs oxygenated blood, which sis so needed elsewhere after exercise therefore, prudence and wisdom would suggest not to eat directly after exercissing. I hope this gets a better response from you ElPietro as I’ve bothered to use information from the other area of study that is close to my heart apart from Chinese Medicine i.e. Western Medicine!!!
its interesting that you use the terms both Yin and Yang in reference to the macrobiotic diet system, whereas the system which quantifies Yin and Yang foods i.e. TCM says that we ought to eat meats. Eating fruits in TCM is to be restricted with some people as it is damp forming, espically bananas and oranges, however pears are one of the only damp resolving fruits. In TCM however they will mostly andvise veggie to reconsider eating meat because a fair quantity of them can suffer with blood deficiency and all the symptoms that go along with it. I do not mean to aggressive, in all this merely informational. And of course I do not preach merely state add to this debate from a particular angle.
Blood and circulation are primarily transport mechanisms…your body after a workout needs a heck of a lot more than just oxygen, if you are trying to maximize any type of gain from your workout. That is why i’d suggest something “quick digesting” such as a shake, or something with a high GI carb…whey protein is popular because it is quick digesting, which then allows quick transport to your cells where it is needed. Just having blood flowing around in your muscle tissue isn’t very effective if you are depleted and there are no nutrients for it to bring. Why would your body be at it’s peak efficiency for digestion post workout if you weren’t intended to consume something…it’s simple this is the time your body requires nutrients the most…so why would withold those nutrients.
Of course when I was redominantly refering to the role of oxygenated Blood I was merely just refering to the oxygen debt inccurred by anaerobic respoiration of the muscles. The build up of Lactic acid experienced by the “burn” people experience, does require mostly the need to re-oxygented the blood quickly and for it to be transported to the muscles for them to recover. Yep, you are totally correct about the transportative functions of the blood, I just should of made it clear that I was focussing on the the oxtgen debt mechanism alone.
