Glycogen Depletion Affect Your Physical Performance

April 27, 2010.

Although there are many situations that affect good physical performance, especially when viewing an individual’s ability to exercise, but it is just as important to consider the different factors affecting recovery from exercise. Any exercise workout should be designed as a stimulus for change that is going to manifest itself during the periods that take place between exercise sessions.

The body needs to recover from the effects placed upon it during an exercise regimen. How effectively or how quickly the body recovers can be the direct result of many different factors that including exercise participant’s diet, diet supplements, age, stress levels and the amount of neuro-muscular fatigue experienced. What happens to the body during recovery time is important to distinguish since most people only spent about 4 to 10 hours per week exercise, about six percent of available time.

Therefore, more time is spent in rest and recovery than actually working out. This is important to understand the factors affecting one’s good physical performance after exercise sessions are completed.

Muscle glycogen conditions as the reserve for any available group that does use by muscle cells. The glucose energy stored here is for localized use in the muscles and is not shared by other cells. This is different than the glycogen produced by liver cells that can call upon percent of the blood stream fueling the brain and the muscles.

Depletion of glycogen during a particular type of exercise regimen can take a long time to replenish. This could be up to 24 hours for workouts in the gym and even longer, possibly past 48 hours for a prolonged type of exercise such as long runs or cycling. It is important understand for people conducting an exercise program that the first 12 hours after a session are critically important for glycogen level is replacement.

A very popular method for the quick restoration of the body’s glycogen levels is to drink a high protein shake and ingest other foods high in carbohydrates to maintain good physical performance.