Carbs or fasting PWO.

For the past 6-7 months, I've been sticking to a mainly fasted post-workout scheme. As in, waiting at least an hour after a workout to eat anything. I stuck to this because of an interesting post over at Fitness Blackbook. I shifted from the mainstay of whey protein and about 30g sugar/fast digesting carbs immediately after a workout. I fell victim to the bodybuilding theory of this necessity. Which, now, seems stupid if you look at it physiologically.

After more research on what Rusty Moore over at FitnessBlackbook had to say about increased HGH production after exercise in a fasted state, I decided that muscle growth and recovery wasn't exactly compromised by not downing that post-workout shake with carbs and protein. And, energy during workout wasn't compromised. After these past 6-7 months, I'd have to say that fasted workouts are much more intense, recovery is the same, and growth and strength gain ultimately continued to rise. PR's were broken, especially in the back exercise and short term high intensity sprints department. It's simple, if you look at it holistically; insulin and growth hormone are antagonistic--a very Caveman way to look at nutrition. Why boost insulin to ultimately compromise fat-loss in lieu of higher production of glycogen.Cavemen hunted primarily on an empty stomach, due to necessity and expended resources because of limited preservation of food. Growth hormone increase due to fasts actually spares muscle wasting, i.e. catabolism.




At an evolutionary standpoint, and sticking to what distant ancestors were required to do, this method of post-workout nutrition really has given me the best results of any other method of exercise-related nutrition.