Insulin sensitivity and your Post Workout Shake

So yesterday I talked about cortisol, today let’s talk about insulin.  While cortisol as a rule breaks down muscle (as it relates to our discussion here), insulin builds it up.  You may have read about spiking your insulin levels—that’s what we’re looking at here. 

To get the most out of your workouts you need to invoke the power of insulin to help you to build your muscle back up.   Post workout you need to have something to repair your muscles quickly so make sure you’re getting a good serving of whey protein.  I usually get between 40-50 grams, whey is a quickly absorbed protein and something you should absolutely consider supplementing your diet if you don’t already.  So to make sure all this whey gets packed onto your muscle you need to spike your insulin levels.  To do this you need some sort of carbohydrate and studies have shown that dextrose has the best effect on your body.  Generally you want 2 grams of dextrose for every 1 gram of protein. 

Remember you only spend about an hour in the gym but the results you get occur when your body is repairing itself—make sure you give it the right tools to do so.