This summer’s World Cup showed us how hot and humid conditions add to the demanding nature of competition. In order to survive each match, athletes, coaches and trainers need to commit to tried-and-true hydration practices. But what athletes do to recover between matches is important too.
No doubt sports drinks work to prevent dehydration when athletes are hot and sweaty. Their magic ingredient, electrolytes, is the cost of entry for any new, innovative product in the sports drink category. Milk and high-quality milk proteins are becoming synonymous with recovery nutrition for sports, much like electrolytes are for rehydration.
Recovery can mean different things to athletes and those responsible for their care. I like to define recovery as achieving a state of equal or enhanced readiness for the next training session or competition. Nutrition has a big part to play in accomplishing readiness, and developing sports science literature in healthy young men indicates the consumption of milk shortly after resistance exercise helps ready muscles by facilitating rebuilding and growth.
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