4 Yummy Foods Proven to Help You Recover Faster

4 Yummy Foods Proven to Help You Recover Faster

By Emma Merrill

Most swimmers know that recovery is important after a long practice or multi-day meet. It’s essential to refuel your body with the necessary balance of carbs, protein, and fat to get the most out of every workout and recover faster after multiple races. Protein is especially important to help rebuild the muscles you’ve just broken down during a long set.

But it’s probably safe to say that most swimmers would much rather eat a yummy snack post-workout than force down something “healthy,” but not delicious.

Here are 4 yummy foods that will help facilitate that recovery process:

1. Chocolate milk

Photo Courtesy: Cedar Summit Farm

This delicious drink is the perfect recovery beverage for swimmers. According to USA Swimming’s Chris Rosenbloom, a registered dietician, chocolate milk is both a significant source of whey and casein proteins as well as “the natural sugar lactose that stimulates insulin, a hormone that helps feed the amino acids into the muscle.” He says that two cups of chocolate milk contain the calcium equivalent of 10 cups of spinach and helps maintain bone strength. Plus, chocolate milk is way more delicious than gimmicky protein shakes.

2. Eggs

Photo Courtesy: Julian Burgess

Eggs are easily one of my personal favorite foods of all time. With their versatility—think scrambled, fried, omelet, in a breakfast sandwich, ect.—they are also a great post-workout option. Kris Gunnars, a certified personal trainer and writer on Authority Nutrition, boasts about the nutritional benefits of eggs, noting that one egg contains six grams of protein as well as plenty of healthy nutrients. They are also eggs-cellent at satisfying the post-practice monster of a swimmer’s stomach.

Here are some ideas to spice up your eggs if you feel like branching out from the plain scrambled variety.

3. Peanut Butter

Photo Courtesy: Denise Krebs

Yes. Peanut butter might be the only recovery food that gets me more excited than eggs. According to both Rosenbloom and Chrisine Marquette, a registered dietician from Marquette Nutrition, their high levels of natural protein make nut butters awesome recovery foods. Marquette suggests around 10-20 grams of protein after an intense workout, and PB has 8 grams per serving. Combine a serving of PB with a glass of chocolate milk (8g per serving) and you’ve easily met your protein target.

The possibilities with peanut butter are endless. Of course, a PB&J sandwich always satisfies, but why not branch out? You could make a PB and banana panini, PB energy bites, healthy PB muffins, and more.

Here’s a link to several healthy PB recipes to help jumpstart your recovery.

4. Greek yogurt

Photo Courtesy: Janine, Flickr

This yogurt manages to combine a great recovery option with a semi-dessert! Rosenbloom notes that greek yogurt has more protein than the regular variety and has a thicker (some would say more decadent!) consistency.

As a great source of protein and lower in fat than other dairy options (ice cream, gelato, frozen custard, ice cream, you get it), greek yogurt is a satisfying addition any swimmer’s recovery repertoire.

Plus, you can freeze it into popsicles or even by the tub to create the perfect frozen recovery snack!

32 Comments

Oldest

Newest Most Voted

Inline Feedbacks

View all comments

Marcos Antonio Severo

8 years ago

Joana Severo

John Gatfield

8 years ago

Steve Kent check number 1 hahaha

John Gatfield

8 years ago

Steve Kent check number 1 hahaha

Troy Jobe

8 years ago

I don’t know if it’s my phone or what but every time I click any swimming world link Facebook crashes

Gabriela Badurova

8 years ago

Reply to Troy Jobe

My too.

Jason Marsteller

8 years ago

Reply to Troy Jobe

What type of phone and are you using the FB app?

Fred Mostoufi

8 years ago

Very glad in our time, the girls were not muscular like this….could imagine the beating I would have had on every date !!!!!

7 years ago

Reply to Fred Mostoufi

So you’re saying you did stuff on dates that would make women mad enough to hit you, and only got away with it because they were physically weaker than you?

Yolanda Villalobos

8 years ago

Zephie Villalobos

Sehide

8 years ago

I want to receive new posts with email

Yuly Northcutt

8 years ago

Rhian Purdy

Sammie Lucie-Smith

8 years ago

John Gatfield

Nevein Ibrahim

8 years ago

Mohamedsherif Aly

Ivanna Tellez

8 years ago

Yohan King

Vesna Glavas-Hrustic

8 years ago

Mila Hrustić

Arnab Pal

8 years ago

Ooao

Dana Davis Sheridan

8 years ago

Sliabh Beagh ASC Yum! Chocolate Milk, Peanut butter, Greek Yogurt and Eggs!

Brenda Campbell

8 years ago

✅✅✅✅

Arie Camphens

8 years ago

Jeffrey Camphens,Odette Helsloot,Bido Mohamed,Anouk Nulkes,Hanne Keijzer,Emre Uysal

Odette Helsloot

8 years ago

Reply to Arie Camphens

Ik zat al aan de Griekse yoghurt? nu de rest nog

Hanne Keijzer

8 years ago

Reply to Arie Camphens

Dan is die warme chocolademelk om op te warmen na het trainen lang zo slecht nog niet 😀 De rest zat al in m’n patroon.

Anouk Nulkes

8 years ago

Reply to Arie Camphens

Als ik dan ook zulke spieren krijg???

Stuart Ellicott

8 years ago

Something different for you Craig Magnusson.

Craig Magnusson

8 years ago

Reply to Stuart Ellicott

No dairy for me – my preference would be a sizeable steak and vegetables! Problem with chocolate milk is the sugar content – would you like some milk with that??

Craig Magnusson

8 years ago

Reply to Stuart Ellicott

No dairy for me – my preference would be a sizeable steak and vegetables! Problem with chocolate milk is the sugar content – would you like some milk with that??