How to Improve Muscle Recovery in Cycling?

José Miguel Olivencia 8 min. of reading Cycling Leave a comment

In endurance sports, recovery becomes key so your body can absorb the workload you’ve put it through. That’s why during this time it’s crucial to provide it with the nutrients needed to recover properly. Do you know what your muscles need to recover and absorb training loads? Here we’ll explain what’s known as recovery in cycling and what it’s for.

Index

1 What is rest or recovery?
2 What are the nutritional needs during this period?
3 The metabolic window
4 What are Recovery products in Cycling?
5 How to consume recovery in cycling?
6 References and Studies:
7 You might also like…

What is rest or recovery?

The recovery period is the time between training sessions, and it’s important because it’s the necessary time for your body to absorb the work done, giving you the expected athletic growth.

However, the most important part of this process lies in nutrition. That is, in the nutrients (fuel) we provide our body to help absorb the work and the rebuilding of damaged muscle fibers.

Why is rest/recovery so important for athletes? Because it’s the moment when the work done during training turns into the figurative step up in performance.

The goal, then, in endurance sports like cycling, where the secret is making long training sessions routine, is to shorten that recovery period as much as possible.

Our aim with this article is for you to know which nutrients your body needs to recover in the best way in endurance sports like cycling, and learn how to take them most effectively.

We want you to give your all on the bike in every ride, training, and race!

What are the nutritional needs during this period?

We’re talking training, rest, and training. Got it! All good, but keep in mind you must fully commit to rest/recovery, because there’s a big risk of falling into what’s known as cyclist overtraining if you don’t properly complete recovery periods (nutritionally speaking too).

Do you know what overtraining is and how to avoid it? Don’t miss the article on this topic by Javier Colomer. Access it from this link.

Back to the needs our body has after endurance sports (cycling). Do you know exactly which sports we mean? Yes, cycling is one of them, since we’re talking about sports lasting over 90 minutes continuously.

Regarding the basic needs after these sports, which will help your recovery, they are:

Proteins, to support muscle recovery.
Carbohydrates, to help replenish glycogen (fuel).
Amino acids, to support protein synthesis and recovery.
Vitamins and minerals, to restore optimal levels.

And how can you provide them efficiently? It’s possible! But you also have to keep in mind you need to get them from different foods, so most of the time it’s tricky to combine them all, especially if you’ve just finished a race or training session lasting more than 4-5 hours, which is common in cycling.

Some sources include bread, fruit, cookies, energy bars, rice, potatoes, milk, cheese, ham, yogurt… But, will you be able to eat it all at once and within a short time after physical effort?

The metabolic window

This is the period understood as the perfect time for the best nutrient absorption after physical exercise.

What exact time does it refer to? Various studies on muscle recovery after long and intense exercise highlight the first two hours as fundamental, but the metabolic window could be considered within the first 45 minutes to an hour after finishing training or competition.

Consuming macronutrients, especially carbohydrates, during this time will reduce recovery time as much as possible, focusing more on rebuilding damaged muscle fibers, and thus improving absorption of the physical work done.

These nutrients are the ones mentioned earlier: proteins, carbohydrates, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals.

But do you really know where to find them all quickly, effectively, and in optimal levels for your body? Keep reading because we’ll tell you here.

What are Recovery products in Cycling?

These products have quickly gained importance in long-duration sports like cycling. But do you know exactly what they are, what they contain, and how they improve your recovery, cyclist? Here we’ll try to clear that up.

Recovery products for cycling are sports nutrition products designed to speed up muscle recovery in sports like cycling, which involve long duration and prolonged effort. They provide the necessary and basic nutrients, and should be taken during the metabolic window to recover your muscle fibers and help boost your performance growth.

Their composition includes a combination of:

Carbohydrates + Whey Protein + Vitamins + Minerals + Essential Amino Acids

All at the levels your body needs for optimal recovery so you can hit another tough training session the next day!

What do Recovery products contain?

We’ve already seen most of the nutrients they contain, although it depends on the formula used in their manufacture.

They usually contain a lower amount of protein than carbohydrates (about one third), while also including other nutrients like essential amino acids, glutamine, minerals, and vitamins. The goal is to offer you the best and fastest muscle recovery.

Under these parameters, the HSN R&D department has developed its cycling recovery product, tailored to the optimal nutritional needs for the best recovery in long-duration and prolonged effort sports.

This is the best product for recovery in Cycling!

What nutrients make up Evorecovery?

As with all our products, our priority is the use of the best raw materials for developing and manufacturing our sports supplements and natural dietetic products.

In Evorecovery’s case, the raw materials used include Cluster Dextrin™, a next-gen fast-absorbing carbohydrate to refill glycogen stores in the most optimal way.

Carbohydrate supply is completed with fructose and dextrose for efficient energy recharge.

To promote muscle tissue recovery, Hydrolyzed Clear Protein is included, giving it a very watery texture (similar to juice) that’s pleasant to drink right after physical effort. Also, you’ll find all Essential Amino Acids (EAAs) in every serving of this amazing recovery product.

If you want more info about clear protein, check out this Post.

Added to all this are minerals like calcium, potassium, chloride, and magnesium, which help you restore optimal levels of these nutrients. They also support replenishing fluid losses from training or rehydration.

Developed and manufactured by HSN, Evorecovery contains an ideal post-training formula

It’s aimed at high-intensity sports lasting over 90 minutes: cycling, running, triathlon… but also strength sports, which require fuel and optimal recovery, and often exceed that time.

Evorecovery from SportSeries works to minimize muscle damage after your bike training or races and speed up post-training recovery.