If you’re an athlete or you do any form of recreational exercise, you know how important post-workout nutrition is. Whether you’re lifting weights, playing basketball, or running around a track, your body needs to replenish its stores of carbohydrates and protein to recover from strenuous exercise.
But your body also needs hydration too. While water is essential for keeping your body properly lubricated and preventing dehydration, many athletes consume sports drinks during workouts and afterward to rehydrate. Why? Because they contain electrolytes — minerals such as sodium chloride and potassium that help regulate fluid balance and restore a healthier equilibrium.
When you sweat excessively during exercise (which is common if it’s hot and humid), you lose electrolytes along with water. Sports drinks replace these important nutrients while also supplying carbohydrates for energy replenishment. But you have other options for what to drink after a workout. Let’s look at some beverages that can help your muscles recover after a workout.
Chocolate Milk
One of the best workout recovery beverages might surprise you – it’s chocolate milk! Why chocolate milk? It contains an ideal ratio of carbohydrates to proteins (4:1) for optimizing muscle recovery. Your muscles need carbohydrates, but they also need protein to repair damaged muscle fibers. Chocolate milk provides that. Plus, the chocolate in chocolate milk contains catechins with anti-inflammatory activity. In addition, chocolate milk contains electrolytes like sodium, chloride, potassium, and magnesium that help replace what you lose when you sweat your way through a tough exercise session.
You don’t have to use commercial chocolate milk. You can make your own at home using cacao powder. This offers some advantages over commercial chocolate milk since it will contain more catechins if you add your own cacao powder.
Here’s how to make your own chocolate milk at home:
- Place 12 ounces of milk into a pan or bowl.
- Add a tablespoon of cacao powder. Unsweetened is best.
- Use a whisk or immersion blender to dissolve the cacao powder
- Add sugar or a natural sugar substitute like Stevia to taste.
- Place in the refrigerator to make it cold and delicious.
Beetroot Juice
Beetroot juice contains nitrates, which convert into nitric oxide in your body. Nitric oxide increases blood flow and can improve athletic performance by increasing the oxygen supply to the muscles.
Beetroot juice contains nitrates, which your body converts into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide increases blood flow and can improve athletic performance by boosting the oxygen supply to your hard-working muscles. The natural sugar in beet juice helps with muscle recovery and you also get the benefits of the anti-inflammatory antioxidants in beetroot juice.
A 2016 study found that drinking beetroot juice right after exercise or as long as 48 hours after a workout enhanced muscle recovery.
Tart Cherry Juice
Tart cherries are an antioxidant-rich food that may help prevent inflammation and muscle soreness after exercise. Tart cherries contain anthocyanins — plant pigments that give them their color. These are antioxidants that help reduce inflammation and pain. Studies in athletes show tart cherry juice reduces markers of inflammation after a workout. That’s a positive for muscle recovery and may reduce delayed onset muscle soreness. (DOMs), the soreness you get after physical exertion your muscles aren’t accustomed to.
For example, one study found that athletes who drank tart cherry juice for eight days before participating in an intense run experienced a reduction in delayed onset muscle soreness. One way tart cherry juice may aid in muscle recovery and reduce DOMs is its anti-inflammatory benefits.
In addition to being an anti-inflammatory agent, tart cherries also contain melatonin, which helps regulate your internal biological clock, so you feel sleepy at night and alert during the day. If you have insomnia, drinking tart cherry juice may help you get more restorative slumber. According to the Sleep Foundation, consuming tart cherry juice improves sleep quality and duration. Melatonin also plays a role in immune function and bone health.
Coconut Water
Coconut water is an excellent recovery drink that rivals sports drinks for hydration and muscle recovery. It contains potassium and lesser amounts of sodium. It also has an impressive amount of antioxidants, which can aid in recovery by improving muscle damage repair and reducing inflammation. Coconut water contains less sugar than most fruit juices and sodas, so it won’t spike your blood sugar levels but it contains enough natural sugar to help replenish your glycogen stores.
Coconut water is also a good source of natural sugar, which helps restore glycogen stores (the body’s primary fuel source) after exercise. Coconut water is available in many grocery stores and most convenience stores. To maximize its benefits as a sports beverage, add a pinch of salt to increase the sodium content.
Coffee
Coffee not only improves performance for certain types of exercise, particularly endurance training, it’s an effective recovery beverage too. One small study found that consuming caffeine 60 minutes after a trenuous upper-body workout reduced muscle soreness on days 2 and 3. The amount you need for these benefits is the equivalent of about 3.5 cups of coffee.
Also, not every study shows caffeine reduces delayed onset muscle soreness. Its benefits for exercise performance are better supported. Also, coffee shouldn’t be your only recovery food/beverage. Your body needs carbohydrates and protein too for complete recovery. So, if you drink coffee, make sure you’re eating a meal that contains a ratio of 3-4 to 1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein.
The Bottom Line
Now you know some of the best beverages to drink after a workout. Regardless of which you choose, make sure you’re hydrating properly and supplying your body with carbohydrates, electrolytes, and protein after a sweat session.
References:
- Vitale KC, Hueglin S, Broad E. Tart Cherry Juice in Athletes: A Literature Review and Commentary. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2017 Jul/Aug;16(4):230-239. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0000000000000385. PMID: 28696985.
- Kuehl KS, Perrier ET, Elliot DL, Chesnutt JC. Efficacy of tart cherry juice in reducing muscle pain during running: a randomized controlled trial. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2010 May 7;7:17. doi: 10.1186/1550-2783-7-17. PMID: 20459662; PMCID: PMC2874510.
- Kim J, Lee J. A review of nutritional intervention on delayed onset muscle soreness. Part I. J Exerc Rehabil. 2014 Dec 31;10(6):349-56. doi: 10.12965/jer.140179. PMID: 25610818; PMCID: PMC4294436.
- “Does Tart Cherry Juice Promote Better Sleep? – Sleep Foundation.” 18 Apr. 2022, https://www.sleepfoundation.org/nutrition/tart-cherry-juice.
- Clifford T, Bell O, West DJ, Howatson G, Stevenson EJ. The effects of beetroot juice supplementation on indices of muscle damage following eccentric exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol. 2016 Feb;116(2):353-62. doi: 10.1007/s00421-015-3290-x. Epub 2015 Nov 4. PMID: 26537365.
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