Training is only part of the process in improving your athletic performance. Training breaks down and damages your body. To achieve any improvement in performance you must do more than train, you must recover.

I’m a firm believer in maximising your diet before ever supplementing. Supplementation, as the name suggests, is the addition of an extra element or amount of something. It should be used when you are deficient in something necessary, or when you cannot meet the additional needs of what you require.

"Supplementation is the addition of an extra element or amount of something."

Optimising your diet will help your body recover from training by providing your body with the nutrients you require. The six essential nutrients are protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins, minerals and water. They give you energy, are used to build and maintain tissues, organs and other structures, and support the functioning of your body.

Your body needs to repair and rebuild from exercise. This is what gets you gains. So consuming the right foods will help your muscles recover.

Best Foods and Supplements for Muscle Recovery

Foods

Optimising your diet and getting your nutrients from real, whole food is important for muscle recovery. Here are the foods you should be prioritising.

Protein. Our muscles are made of protein, and amino acids are molecules that combine to form protein. Amino acids are considered the building blocks of life. An essential amino acid is an amino acid that cannot be synthesised from scratch by the body, and must therefore come from the diet.

Eat lean meats such as beef, lamb, pork and kangaroo; poultry such as eggs, chicken, turkey, duck and goose; seafood such as fish, prawns, crab, oysters and scallops; dairy such as yoghurt (especially Greek yoghurt) and cheese (especially cottage cheese); nuts and seeds such as almonds, pine nuts, walnuts, macadamias and hazelnuts; as well as legumes and beans such as black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, split peas, lentils and chickpeas. 

Veggies. Vegetables play a vital role in muscle building. They contain many vitamins and minerals; some of the most important are calcium, folate (folic acid), vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin E and vitamin A.

Eat a range of different coloured vegetables like broccoli, collard greens, lettuce, kale, spinach, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrots, peas, beans, cucumber, celery, asparagus, cauliflower, eggplant, onion, tomato and capsicum.

Healthy fats. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats help lower your bad cholesterol (LDL) and boost your good cholesterol (HDL). Healthy fats are more satiating, meaning they help to keep you fuller for longer. They lower your risk of developing heart disease, help with blood sugar control, reduce inflammation and have been shown to support gut health.

Eat monounsaturated fats such as avocados, nuts like almonds and pecans, olives and olive oil, as well as seeds like pumpkin and sesame seeds. Eat polyunsaturated fats such as fish like salmon and tuna, nuts like pine nuts and walnuts, as well as seeds like flax and sunflower seeds.

Supplements

If you want to take a supplement and you need to in order to meet your needs, here are some examples of supplements you could consider.

Whey protein. Whey is a component of dairy milk. During the processing of milk, whey is separated from the casein, filtered to remove all non-whey ingredients, purified and dried to create a powder.

Whey protein is a complete protein, meaning it contains all nine essential amino acids, including the three branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs): leucine, isoleucine and valine.

BCAA’s. Branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) are three of the nine essential amino acids. The three BCAAs are renowned for their involvement in muscle protein synthesis and protection from muscle breakdown for energy, known as catabolism.

Fatty acid. Omega-3 fatty acids help all the cells in your body function as they should. They’re a vital part of your cell membranes, providing structure, and supporting interactions between cells. The ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 in your diet should be 1:1; however, in today’s Western diet, it is often 1:15.

Creatine. Creatine is a type of amino acid. It supplies energy to your muscles. About half of your creatine supply comes from your diet and the other half is produced naturally in your liver, kidneys and pancreas. The majority of creatine is delivered to your skeletal muscles, which allows them to contract; the rest goes to your heart, brain and other tissues.   

Magnesium. Magnesium helps to regulate muscle and nerve function, blood sugar levels, and blood pressure. It’s also important for making protein, bone and DNA. Magnesium is responsible for over 300 enzymatic reactions. It’s obtained from green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts and seeds. The body doesn’t store magnesium, so with the vast use of magnesium in the body and the fact that the body doesn’t store it, supplementing magnesium may be necessary.

Don’t forget…

Water. Water acts like a broom through your digestive system. When you are hydrated, your cells swell up and become plump, allowing your cells to function more optimally. Start your day with 0.5-1L of water and continue to drink throughout the day.

Sleep. During sleep, not only does your brain do its filing for the day, cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) increases in the brain and removes waste products from the days activities; not just physical, but mental too. This is a time your body repairs and restores itself. Sleep is the number 1 performance enhancer and should be treated as the most important component of training.

Training damages your body. You need to train in order to maximise your performance but it’s the recovery where improvement comes from as your body adapts to the stimulus you have challenged it with. Hydration and sleep are key factors in muscle recovery, but so to is nutrition. These are the best foods and supplements for muscle recovery.

What foods or supplements do you use for muscle recovery?

Leave your answer to that question in the comments section below.