Part One. Cortisol is Good!
Well, friends! The need has arisen to talk about yet another old and very persistent myth, a myth that practically everyone believes in—from amateurs to professionals. We'll be talking about the famous carbohydrate window, or protein window, or, for special aesthetes, the protein-carbohydrate window, which absolutely must be "closed," otherwise some serious Hitler-kaput will happen. Getting ahead of events, I want to say that this is only partially a myth, and there is still some truth in this sacred ritual of anti-catabolism, but only partially.
Let's first try to understand what this very "window" represents.
Practically all people believe that after intense training, a period of time occurs, usually equal to about an hour, during which not only enhanced absorption of nutrients by the body takes place, but another, more important event occurs that an athlete wishing to achieve decent results must fight against. We're talking about the great and terrible catabolism. Naturally, to "come out dry," the "window" must be "closed."
But let's take things in order.
Catabolism is the breakdown of tissues into simpler structures, with the further goal of obtaining energy from them.
It's no secret that a good workout is also good stress for the body. And what does stress lead to? That's right—to raising cortisol levels and, as a consequence, to catabolism.
Cortisol is the main catabolic glucocorticoid hormone of steroid nature, synthesized by the outer layer of the adrenal glands. Cortisol should be classified as so-called stress hormones, that is, hormones whose levels increase at the moment of greatest tension in the work of certain organs and systems. The nature of stress varies—emotional, psychological, physical, etc. In this article, we're exclusively interested in the nature and mechanism of physical stress; stress that arises as a result of active physical activity.
At first glance, it might seem that cortisol is simply some universal evil capable of destroying all our bodybuilding efforts in an instant, but in reality, everything is far from that simple. Moderate stress, and along with it moderate cortisol releases into the blood, not only allow training at the limits of possibilities, giving us strength, but also subsequently make us even stronger and more enduring (naturally, indirectly).
Why is cortisol good?
Everything is very simple. A moderate cortisol release in response to adequate, non-excessive loads doesn't do anything bad. It simply helps break down energy substrates like creatine phosphate, glycogen, and fat to the ATP level, at least as a consequence of its own activity. And it's precisely ATP that is the energy that makes our body move, not to mention serious training in the gym. Without good old cortisol, we'd be lying flat on the couch, not finding the strength even for a light jog.
Now I should write a popular continuation in the style of "the dark side of the Moon (sorry, cortisol)," but everything won't be like that.
Why is cortisol good even when it's bad?
Cortisol is better known as the destroyer of everything that's so dear to us. In particular, we're talking about muscle tissue. But why does it commit this great villainy, and who incites it to this? Gracious sirs—it's you! Yes, yes, it's precisely you who become the reason that your cortisol ruins your own, so difficultly gained muscle volumes. The breakdown of functional tissue occurs only when obtaining energy for further work or recovery from titanic loads through usual energy substrates becomes simply impossible.
If we try to systematize, we can identify two threshold conditions under which cortisol begins to behave like a great destroyer:
- Energy demand exceeds supply from energy substrates (the needed amount of energy simply doesn't have time to synthesize through breakdown of creatine phosphate, glycogen, and fats);
- The body is in such an exhausted state that its recovery would require an entire eternity, and this under the condition of lying on the couch and eating the most beneficial products.
Because of all this, the body simply has nothing left but to help itself, converting into energy those tissues that in its opinion seem least necessary. And primarily this is muscle tissue, since fat is regarded as the last barrier of resistance before breakdown of internal organs (fat is prioritized because it contains many calories and practically requires none for its maintenance, unlike muscles).
The eternal question—who's to blame? As I said above—it's undoubtedly you yourself. It's precisely you who force cortisol to save your own "house," your body, from complete collapse and ruin, from the breakdown of all the body's compensatory systems. With your unreasonable, frenzied training on cycle and off it, you make cortisol jump like a circus horse, driving yourself into a state of overtraining and depression. And even in this case, it's not the cause of your poor well-being, but the exhaustion itself, which is a consequence of your own overconfidence. Cortisol is nothing other than your savior in hard times, which, as is known, require hard measures.
A frequent mistake of many is the wild conviction that on cycle you need to not just work hard, but tear iron with bare hands, supposedly steroids accelerate recovery. But somehow everyone forgets that just yesterday they were simply lying on the couch or first pressed their cherished 100kg. If you're one of them, then forget even thinking about such an approach. Yes, steroids accelerate recovery, but these aren't some absolute values covering everything in sight. You're not a professional athlete and the body isn't capable of fully recovering from such monstrous loads. Its compensatory systems aren't established, recovery resources are small, and the efficiency of all processes in aggregate is insufficient. By the way, this is like trying to drive off-road at full speed while sitting behind the wheel of a hunchbacked Zaporozhets, hastily screwing several wheels from a Hummer onto it. The outcome is one—everything will fall apart to hell.
Drawing a line, we conclude—learn to rest, don't pretend to be Cutler at peak form and you'll never have to worry about catabolism. As Lee Haney once said: "Muscles need to be stimulated, not destroyed." Agree, an eight-time Olympia champion definitely knew something, didn't he?
Part Two. Preliminary-Theoretical
Quite a lot of time has passed since the publication of the first part of my article, titled "The Protein-Carbohydrate Window, or Another Stupidity. Part 1. Cortisol is Good." For someone it became a revelation, for someone an uncomfortable truth, well, and someone, naturally, already "knew it all." Indeed, by its essence the material from the first part of the article is a kind of more or less accessible and understandable for the average gym visitor, but only for the insignificant reason that it's not such a problem for experienced marketers working for the largest sports nutrition corporations. The main emphasis on speculations about taking all sorts of magic powders during the "protein-carbohydrate" window is made not so much for the sake of fighting the disgusting villain cortisol, as for the chance to build incredible muscles already in the first hour after training, since the whole body becomes extremely receptive to "proper nutrition" (creatine, BCAA, isolate and protein hydrolysate, glutamine and other dust, without which the average gym-goer simply can't imagine his life). But is all this really true? Is it really necessary to close this window? What mechanisms are embedded in the physiology of the mysterious "first hour after training"? And most interestingly, for whom can another lie from marketers become truth? Let's figure it out.
So, appealing to the conclusions made from the first part, we understood a simple fact—if loads during training are measured and a person doesn't try to jump higher than their own head, then good old cortisol becomes not a danger to muscle growth, but one of the key factors launching the synthesis of new muscle fibers (naturally exclusively indirectly). Thus, we can conclude that during the "protein-carbohydrate (first hour after training) window" there's no danger to our muscles from cortisol, despite quite strong depletion of muscle glycogen and creatine reserves; accordingly, it's not at all necessary to try to save one's own body from cortisol ruin by urgently stuffing oneself with fast-absorbing dust, which is commonly called sports nutrition.
Unfortunately, as often happens, myths often come in pairs, forming a kind of train of stupidity, making it even easier to get confused in a series of medical questions by their nature. As I said earlier, another persistent myth is the convincing assumption that during the first hour after training, the body becomes incredibly sensitive to racially "correct food," thanks to which not only intensive recovery from loads occurs, but also rapid muscle growth, the degree of which is practically impossible to achieve at any other time of day. It's precisely this speculative scam of sports nutrition marketers that I decided to completely debunk through this work.
Following the tradition of my first articles, before really understanding the subject of conversation, it's necessary to at least remotely familiarize ourselves with the physiological aspects involved in the process of the special post-training state in which our body resides during the first hour after training. On the agenda, I dare to present to you a pair of the most significant hormones in any athlete's life—insulin and growth hormone. We'll give them a brief and understandable characteristic within the framework of this article's problems, and, importantly, slightly lift the veil of mystery of the interaction of these two hormones. Getting ahead of myself, I'll say that the information I'll present very soon (stealthily in this part, and fully in the third) is extremely inconvenient for sports nutrition sellers, which is why it's absolutely always kept silent. So, let's begin!
Growth Hormone. Growth hormone is a peptide hormone produced in the anterior pituitary gland and consisting of a sequential chain of 191 amino acids. I think it's no secret to anyone that its functions are extremely diverse, but in this article we're only interested in some of them—pronounced anti-catabolic properties, enhancement of lipolysis (fat burning), gluconeogenesis, and tissue regeneration (up to bone structures, where growth hormone has no equals, not to mention more "simple patients").
Insulin. Insulin, like growth hormone, has a peptide structure consisting of a sequential chain of 51 amino acid residues. Insulin is produced by beta-cells of the islets of Langerhans located in the pancreas. Insulin's functions are also extremely extensive and its role in carbohydrate metabolism is hard to overestimate, however, within our discussion, we're still interested in only some aspects of its physiological functionality. Insulin extends its action to so-called insulin-dependent tissues—muscle and adipose. It's in them that it manifests its anabolic and anti-catabolic properties by not simply saturating tissues with glucose, but also stopping lipolysis processes (fat burning), as well as protein hydrolysis (breakdown of primary protein structure into free amino acids).
And now something really interesting. The fact is simple and doesn't require spatial explanations by itself, but is no less important for that. The thing is that insulin and growth hormone are natural antagonists of each other, which tells us that under natural conditions it's impossible to maintain high concentrations of both hormones. Accordingly, with an increase in, say, growth hormone, insulin will inevitably begin to fall proportionally to growth hormone increase (such an amusing tautology turns out), and vice versa.
Another fact is the increase in growth hormone secretion during training and the first hour after training, which is due to its pronounced anti-catabolic properties and the impossibility of insulin release due to the absence of food during training.
Thus, the athlete faces a choice—eat nothing and maintain a high level of growth hormone, becoming subject to its effects, or drink/eat at least something and kill growth hormone secretion through automatic insulin rise in response to food entering the body. We'll talk in extreme detail about the pros and cons of these states in the third part of our article.
We'll retain this new knowledge about antagonism in our heads, as very soon it will help us understand all the impracticality of "closing protein-scam-carbohydrate windows."
P.S. For the curious.
I'm sure many of you have heard about the possibility of developing diabetes in individuals who take non-childish doses of exogenous growth hormone for exclusively long and stubborn periods. In reality, achieving true diabetes, type 1 diabetes, under such conditions is practically impossible, but reducing natural production even after growth hormone withdrawal, due to atrophy of endocrine secretion areas of the pancreas, is quite real. Fortunately, this effect is reversible, but requires involving an experienced endocrinologist's hand in the question of "pancreas resurrection." Be careful.
Part Three. Practical
So, we've finally gotten to the main theme of our article.
After a good, but properly dosed workout, our body is in an exhausted state. The central nervous system is fatigued (it generated powerful electrical impulses throughout the workout), a peculiar state of glucose deficiency in nerve tissue cells begins; muscle glycogen is also depleted, which accordingly becomes the cause of deep muscular fatigue. People not accustomed to long fasting begin to feel pronounced appetite, especially those inclined to this are athletes with "fast" nervous systems (sanguines and cholerics). Phlegmatics and melancholics, due to greater CNS inertia, may still not experience hunger for some time, mentally remaining in the training process, during which the body has no time for food intake, since blood flow to the stomach reduces work efficiency—this isn't profitable for the body.
We trained, and this means the fateful time of the great and terrible "window" has arrived!
View through the eyes of a hustler
Regardless of who you are—sanguine, phlegmatic, fat person, skinny person, or even the Pope—you need a post-workout complex, or at worst buckwheat with eggs, carefully prepared right before leaving for the gym; although of course a shake with cocktail is immeasurably more useful and convenient (this is exactly what any sports nutrition seller subtly hints to us). If you ask why you need to take anything right after training from a representative of any company, I assure you, you'll be showered with a barrage of "irrefutable arguments" convincing you that without a post-trainer, or at worst a banana (but post-trainer is still better), all your efforts will not only go to waste, but obviously you'll also become smaller than an atom due to brutal catabolism. It's completely clear that the body is exhausted and starving, and if you don't urgently give it food, then the fall of the Roman Empire will seem no more than a provincial rebellion of unwashed peasants.
But this isn't even the most important thing, because what's even more significant is the desire to increase muscle mass. And it's precisely at this moment, the moment of the first hour after training, that the body, due to hunger and exhaustion, becomes incredibly receptive to food; it's ready to build new muscles with enthusiasm and industriousness greater than that of the entire Chinese people!!!
Familiar expression of conviction, isn't it? I'm sure it is, but now it's time to expose the fact jugglers.
View through the eyes of a normal person on the carbohydrate window, or why carbohydrates right after training are useless
I want to say right away that if you're not naturally a 40-kilogram Buchenwald strongman, at 180+ height, with perfect definition of all muscles that can compete in volume and density perhaps only with toilet paper, then closing the "window" will not only not benefit you, but will bring harm. Everything I'm about to write applies to all people who don't fall into this category of super-super lightweight world champions.
First of all, it's necessary to understand that carbohydrates, in any form or manifestation, aren't absorbed by the body in complex compounds (complex carbohydrates). Any complex carbohydrate first breaks down to the state of individual glucose molecules, and only then is absorbed by the body at the cellular level (of course, interesting varieties exist, like fructose, but we're talking about simpler and more pressing questions now).
Perhaps it's worth starting with a simple truth—right after training, when cortisol is elevated and reserves are depleted—the body doesn't care about muscle growth at all. Think for yourself, in our body something like a small energy catastrophe is about to happen, and you're still trying to force yourself to believe in these conditions that something will "grow" now. Without doubt, autotraining is an effective thing, but not in bodybuilding, where no one has become a champion from the words "I'm the biggest and strongest."
This slippery and extremely speculative myth takes its origin from the fact that when muscle tissue is filled with glycogen, cells begin to experience overflow and to accommodate even greater amounts—their quantity needs to be increased. This aspect of physiology is just one of the trigger mechanisms of muscle tissue growth, which is achieved of course not simply through nutrition, but through systematic training that creates a precedent, in other words necessity, for storing greater amounts of glycogen, and therefore muscle satellite cell growth (including increasing the volume of old ones). This myth also includes the aspect of supercompensation, in which due to critical conditions, the rate of glycogen synthesis can be increased more than usual, taking on the likeness of a supercompensation mechanism (unfortunately, only likeness).
Thanks to this second fact, flowing from the first, a complex conspiracy theory of the necessity of closing the carbohydrate window continues to be built. After all, we thus stretch cells, stretch fascia and create excellent conditions for further growth. Simply ideal! If not for one thing... The supercompensation process of glycogen takes several days. As you understand, for marketing just the first two facts will be enough, which of course are pure truth. As a result, all our efforts come down to a variation of an old joke:
- Did I drink gainer to restore glycogen?
- Drank.
- During the "window" is the rate of glycogen synthesis fast?
- Fast.
- Does glycogen stretch muscle cells?
- Stretches.
- Where are my muscles?
- What muscles?
It's precisely on this rotten foundation that the lion's share of sports supplement marketing is built—gainers, isolates and hydrolysates of whey protein, BCAA, as well as all sorts of varieties and combinations of post-workout complexes.
View through the eyes of a normal person on the protein window, or why protein right after training is useless
We just analyzed with you all the uselessness of closing the carbohydrate window, which of course can't make us bigger and stronger as if by magic wand.
But what about protein intake, and particularly protein shakes during the still mysterious "window"? After all, there's an opinion that after training, muscle structure integrity is disrupted and to help the body restore it, you need to do the most obvious thing—give the body protein, because muscles are precisely made of protein! I want to say "not everything is so simple," but unfortunately everything is even simpler.If you read the previous parts of the article, then you should already know that with bone-crushing training in Ronnie Coleman style with screams "Light weight, baby!" (and this despite the fact that you've been going to the gym for the second month), cortisol is so high and exhaustion so strong that absolutely everything that gets into the body during this period will be destroyed to the state of pure ATP energy. It doesn't matter what it will be—proteins, carbohydrates, or even fats. Until the energy pit you've driven yourself into is compensated, there can be no talk of any muscle building, or even their regeneration. This makes the very concept of "protein window" feverish delirium of a seriously ill person (actually a smart and calculating businessman). For those who didn't understand—your expensive Hydro Whey from ON (protein hydrolysate) for 4000 rubles will turn in the liver into a pile of sugar at the price of 35 rubles per kilogram. This is fiasco, bro.
*Let's say "thank you" for this to gluconeogenesis—glucose synthesis from non-carbohydrate compounds..
But what about those who train thoughtfully and proportionately to their strength, not trying to pretend to be Mr. Olympia? Yes, everything is the same in essence. Yes, of course, cortisol isn't off the charts, and muscle structures aren't trying to turn into glucose, but after all, there's practically no glucose in the form of functional glycogen anyway, since after a good workout its reserves, one way or another, tend toward zero. The body is exhausted, it needs to restore energy, and if you give it protein, be ready for it to make the same sugar from it.
So what should be done in the end?
The answer to this question is 100% not the most obvious—absolutely nothing needs to be done. Man sometimes forgets that Mother Nature has already thought of everything and millions of years of evolution (for believers—divine providence) weren't an empty sound, and no one sat idle (again, neither evolution, nor all the Gods of all cultures). Before us is that rare case when we can simply relax and do nothing.
And now in more detail.
As you already know, during training and some time after, a huge amount of growth hormone is produced, and this doesn't happen just like that. The body understands that since our muscles are exploited to the fullest (but within normal limits), destroying them for the sake of momentary coverage of energy debt simply isn't reasonable, because they might still be useful to us. It's precisely thanks to this simplest logic that the strongest anti-catabolic properties of growth hormone are revealed, thanks to which muscles can't just take and self-destruct. Therefore, be calm—after training your muscles are 100% fine, because old GH takes care of them tenderly, like a nanny. But it wouldn't be such an odious hormone if not for another property—fat-burning. The fact is that it's also needed not just like that. It's precisely after training that our muscle and nerve tissues need nutrition for strength restoration more than ever before. GH simply begins to break down adipose tissue, providing nutrition to both muscles and the same nerve tissue. Few know, but the priority nutrition source for muscle tissue isn't glucose, but fatty acids, that is, fats, which thanks to L-carnitine and mitochondria miraculously transform inside the muscle cell into ATP, directly, bypassing the stage of conversion to glucose in the liver, covering all muscle tissue needs for ATP (glycogen storage occurs thanks to glucose conversion into it, but as we already know this takes several days, and the appetite of muscle cells themselves can be satisfied more efficiently precisely by fats, and particularly fatty acids).
Regarding nerve tissue nutrition, which is also exhausted, there's no problem here either. Part of the fatty acids that actively form as a result of fat breakdown under growth hormone influence convert to glucose in the liver through gluconeogenesis. Someone might ask: "How to make this small amount of synthesized glucose be absorbed by nerve tissue, because a powerful insulin surge obviously isn't foreseen, and without insulin, as we all know, tissues remain unreceptive to glucose itself." All this is true, but only if we're not talking about nerve tissue. Another little-known fact is that nerve tissue doesn't need insulin at all to absorb glucose. Yes, exactly so, this guy is superfluous here and simply doesn't participate in the scheme. This happens because glucose absorption by nerve tissue occurs through "facilitated diffusion," based on the difference in glucose concentration gradient in blood plasma and the nerve tissue itself. In other words, when the percentage of glucose concentration in nerve tissue is noticeably less than in blood, then "balancing" of gradients occurs by simple "flowing" of glucose from where there's a lot of it (blood) to where there's little (nerve tissue). Do we need a gainer in this case, or at worst a couple of bananas? The answer is simple—no, no, and no again.
I didn't accidentally emphasize at the beginning of the article that everything I'm about to write applies to ordinary people who don't suffer from anorexia, have a normal supply of adipose tissue or even excess, and of course don't complain about health in general. It's precisely such a majority that can eat absolutely nothing for an hour after training and only become better from this. Growth hormone will take care of everything—it won't just prevent your muscles from being destroyed, but will also feed them (as well as nerve tissue through gluconeogenesis) with your own fat deposits, making you more defined and beautiful.
Yes, of course, if you drink your favorite gainer, it will also cope with all tasks of covering energy debt, but be ready for the fact that you won't just become more defined, but might take another step closer to pig-mass if you drink even a gram more than necessary. Ultimately, risking paying with your own money for your own fat face.
In an attempt to save marketers from Lynch's court, I can identify one single category of people who really need to close the "carbohydrate window"—these are true "hardgainers," popularly simply "stringbeans," whose weight before training rarely exceeds 50kg. These people are typically hostages of too fast metabolism, if we're not talking about serious diseases like GI ulcers, cancer, anemias, and so on. This category of people simply has critically low subcutaneous fat levels, thanks to which many of them have "abs" even before going to the gym, presenting themselves as an anatomical human model. For them, growth hormone after training is a kind of evil that tries to destroy fat that's practically nonexistent anyway, which can lead to pronounced atrophy, not to mention that fat is also an endocrine organ. It's not hard to understand that all this is very bad and the only salvation for such people is, who would have thought—good old gainer. Which by sharply raising insulin also sharply lowers GH, beginning to actively absorb glucose entering the blood, preventing further body exhaustion.
But, as I said, if you don't belong to this category of people—don't engage in nonsense, don't force down bananas/buckwheat/chicken/gainers and proteins, stuffing all this into yourself by force right after training directly in the locker room of the local gym, irritating everyone around you. Don't complicate your life and don't believe the sweet speeches of marketers. Be above this, be smarter.
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