American Running Association
September 19, 2005

You wouldn't take your car on a road trip with an empty tank of gas;
nor should you take your body to the gym without fuel.

Distance runners who want to tone up, increase power and
explosiveness, or alleviate impact force on joints are encouraged to
weight train, usually in higher repetitions with lower weights than
their strictly body-building friends. What are the optimal nutrients
to keep things running smoothly, then, and how does when you eat them
influence your results?

Fuel up before your workout

For starters, don't go to the gym famished. While consuming a three
course meal 10 minutes before weight training is clearly not
advisable, eating a protein and carbohydrate snack will provide fuel
for a stronger workout.

As you begin to digest the protein into amino acids, your muscles will
appreciate and put to work these protein building blocks as you weight
train and afterward.

And as every marathoner knows, consuming carbohydrate will increase
your glycogen stores. This is important for endurance events, but also
in high-repetition weight training that relies on breaking down sugars
for fuel. Nancy Clark, M.S., R.D., recommends a fruit yogurt or a
small bowl of Cheerios and skim milk for a pre-exercise snack.

Refuel post-workout

After a hard gym (or track) workout, your muscles are in what can be
termed a state of breakdown: their glycogen stores are reduced;
cortisol and other hormones that break down muscle are high; the
muscle damage that occurred during exercise causes inflammation; the
amino acid glutamine that provides fuel for the immune system is
diminished.

It's important to feed your muscles a carb-protein combination as soon
as you can tolerate it. If you just drink water after your workout and
dash to work, you'll miss the 45-minute post-exercise window of
opportunity to optimally nourish, repair and build muscles.

In a 12-week training study, the elderly subjects who took a
supplement composed of 10 g protein, 7 g carbohydrate and 3 g fat
immediately after each exercise session achieved an eight-percent
increase in muscle size and a 15-percent increase in strength, as
compared to the control group who took the supplement two hours later
-- they saw no change in muscle size or strength.

Optimal protein intake

In addition to replenishing glycogen stores, the carbohydrate is
important in this first refueling session as it also stimulates the
release of insulin, a hormone that helps build muscles. The protein in
combination with this will repair muscle tissue and reduce cortisol.
But how much protein should you eat to build muscles?

The recommended protein intake for sedentary people is about 0.45 g
per pound of body weight daily. Runners should aim for 0.6 to 0.7 g.
Unless you're on a restricted eating regimen such as a vegan diet,
this is not hard to achieve -- most carnivores don't need to go
looking for protein. Look instead for less fatty meats like chicken
breast (see right).

For example, a 150-pound runner aiming for 0.7 g of protein per pound
of body weight would need to find 105 g of protein in his/her daily
diet. Two three-ounce servings of boneless, skinless chicken breast --
i.e., two chicken breast halves -- total around 54 g of protein,
depending on how close each cutlet is to three ounces and the type of
chicken.

A cup of chick peas (which are great on salads) has 12 g. Two cups of
skim milk will give you 20 g. Add two hard-boiled eggs and a serving
of whole cashews -- about one handful -- for another 17 g, and you've
met your protein needs for the day. Alternately, three servings of
chicken breast, the cashews, plus two cups of low-fat milk daily
yields the equivalent protein.

Tofu is a versatile food and can be substituted for meat in most
recipes, though to get the same amount of protein you will need to
consume more. Chicken breast contains about four times the protein
found in tofu. A three-ounce serving contains 6.4 g, the equivalent of
one hard-boiled egg. (A good rule of thumb with boneless chicken is
that approximately one-third of the total weight equals the amount of
protein it contains. A three-ounce serving weighs 86 g and delivers
approximately 27 g of protein.)

As always, but certainly in periods of heavy training, it's important
to rely on overall eating habits and not merely pre-exercise loading
to keep muscle glycogen high and protein available during workouts. By
keeping several small meals balanced with carbs, protein and healthy
fats throughout the day, you will optimize weight training and running
performance.

(USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory, www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp; J.
Physiol., 2001, Vol. 535 (Pt 1), pp. 301-311; The Athlete's Kitchen,
Nancy Clark, MS, RD, July 2005;
www.metric-conversions.org/weight/grams-to-ounces.htm)

American Running Association, empowering adults to get America's youth
moving. For more information or to join ARA, please visit
www.americanrunning.org.