How to build muscle with sports nutrition?

As you know, sports nutri­tion and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty are the main assis­tants in gain­ing mus­cle mass. How­ev­er, even a spe­cial diet, includ­ing the intake of spe­cial nutri­tion­al sup­ple­ments, with­out a suf­fi­cient amount of nat­ur­al pro­tein foods will be inef­fec­tive. Even fre­quent and intense train­ing will not be able to cor­rect this sit­u­a­tion. What foods help in gain­ing mus­cle mass?

Sports nutrition for muscle growth

There is an erro­neous opin­ion that sports nutri­tion for mus­cle growth is built main­ly on the pre­dom­i­nant amount of pro­tein in the diet. Although pro­teins are an impor­tant part of such a diet, car­bo­hy­drates are just as impor­tant. After all, they are the main source of ener­gy for the human body.

It is also impor­tant to keep the right bal­ance between pro­teins and fats in the diet. Since the increased calo­rie con­tent of the diet will con­tribute to the set of pre­dom­i­nant­ly fat mass.

After an intense work­out, the body espe­cial­ly needs a por­tion of car­bo­hy­drates that can replen­ish the reserves of spent ener­gy. At the same time, in the after­noon (a few hours before bed­time), it is rec­om­mend­ed to reduce the amount of car­bo­hy­drate-con­tain­ing food. This will help to avoid the for­ma­tion of sub­cu­ta­neous adi­pose tis­sue.

Thus, sports nutri­tion dur­ing the peri­od of recov­ery and mus­cle growth should include a suf­fi­cient amount of pro­tein and healthy fats with a mod­er­ate intake of car­bo­hy­drates.

What foods are needed for a protein diet

To answer this ques­tion, it is nec­es­sary to take into account that in order to ensure the nor­mal func­tion­ing of a per­son, his nutri­tion must include a suf­fi­cient amount of use­ful com­po­nents. These include pro­teins, fats, car­bo­hy­drates, as well as vit­a­mins and min­er­als.

Fats in the diet are respon­si­ble for main­tain­ing the hor­mon­al back­ground, the integri­ty of cell mem­branes, as well as for the accu­mu­la­tion of ener­gy reserves (“fat depots”).

Car­bo­hy­drates, although they are less caloric, are the main sources of ener­gy for the human body.

Pro­teins, con­sist­ing of var­i­ous amino acids, are the main build­ing mate­r­i­al for body cells. How­ev­er, the break­down of amino acids requires some effort. There­fore, the use of pro­tein foods is accom­pa­nied by some ener­gy costs. It is thanks to these qual­i­ties that pro­tein prod­ucts make up an impor­tant part of sports nutri­tion, because they are a clean build­ing mate­r­i­al that is not over­loaded with extra calo­ries.

There­fore, the basis of the pro­tein diet for ath­letes should be pro­tein-rich foods. Nutri­tion­ists include the fol­low­ing foods:

• low-fat poul­try meat (chick­en and turkey breast are espe­cial­ly appre­ci­at­ed by ath­letes);

• oth­er vari­eties of dietary meat: rab­bit and veal;

• sea ​​and riv­er fish (they are not only a source of many amino acids, but also polyun­sat­u­rat­ed fat­ty acids);

• egg white;

• low-fat cot­tage cheese (is not only a source of high­ly digestible pro­tein, but also many min­er­als);

• offal (liv­er, heart, etc.);

• soy and soy prod­ucts (such as tofu).

This list can be con­tin­ued for quite some time, but it should be recalled that such diets have a num­ber of lim­i­ta­tions. That is why prop­er sports nutri­tion also includes a large amount of fresh fruits, veg­eta­bles, greens, nuts, cere­als and whole grains.

Athlete Nutrition: Top Protein Recipes

Pro­tein is a vital com­po­nent of nutri­tion. The human body can­not accu­mu­late this ele­ment, so it must be obtained dai­ly from plant or ani­mal foods.

Pro­tein is espe­cial­ly val­ued in sports nutri­tion. After all, this sub­stance is nec­es­sary for ath­letes for the growth of mus­cle mass and its recov­ery after inten­sive train­ing. Its defi­cien­cy, in turn, leads to dis­rup­tion of the func­tion­ing of all body sys­tems, increased fatigue and the risk of devel­op­ing var­i­ous dis­eases.

It is for those who are used to lead­ing an active lifestyle, below are sev­er­al pro­tein recipes that can diver­si­fy their dai­ly diet.

Chick­peas are the leader in pro­tein con­tent in legumes. To increase the nutri­tion­al val­ue of the dish, you can cook it with veg­eta­bles, such as spinach, which is also rich in veg­etable pro­tein. To pre­pare stewed chick­peas, it is nec­es­sary to sauté 1 chopped onion and a few gar­lic cloves in a deep saucepan. When fry­ing, add 1 tsp. corian­der and zira, as well as 0.5 tsp. hot ground pep­per. Pour in 0.3 cups of toma­to paste. And con­tin­ue to sim­mer for 5–7 min­utes. Soak a glass of chick­peas for a day in advance and boil it until ten­der, put it in a saucepan and add 100 g of frozen spinach. Sea­son with salt and pep­per, then sim­mer for 5–7 min­utes. Serve hot, gar­nish with any fresh herbs.

Tofu is a pop­u­lar source of plant-based pro­tein that is high­ly val­ued by veg­e­tar­i­ans. Com­ple­ment­ing it with Chi­nese (egg) noo­dles and nuts, you can get a real pro­tein snack. To pre­pare the dish, you need to boil 150 g of noo­dles until ten­der. Cut into thin strips 1 car­rot and 1 cucum­ber. Fry car­rots in a small amount of veg­etable oil. Tofu (150 g) cut into pieces. Cashew nuts (70 g) are roast­ed in a dry fry­ing pan. Mix all ingre­di­ents in a deep sal­ad bowl. Make a dress­ing with 3 tbsp. l. olive oil and 2 tbsp. l. lime juice. Sea­son, salt, pep­per. Dec­o­rate with lime.

Bean dish­es are a valu­able source of pro­tein in sports nutri­tion. Put the pan on the fire. Mix a glass of almonds with 2 tbsp. l. olive oil and spices: 1 tsp. papri­ka, 1 tsp chili and a pinch of salt. Roast the sea­soned nuts in a skil­let for a few min­utes. Cool down. In a deep sal­ad bowl, mix a glass of let­tuce mix, a glass of quinoa and soy­beans (pre-boiled), a glass of canned beans and a chopped sal­ad onion. Sea­son with salt and pep­per. Add almonds and mix again. Sal­ad ready.