Smart Recovery: Nutrition Strategies to Maximise Your Performance

As a sports dietitian, I’m often talking with my athletes about recovery nutrition… and it’s not just about protein within 30 minutes! 

Training and exercise breaks you down—recovery builds you up. So whilst it may not feel like it at the time, recovery is where the magic happens! And nutrition is one of the most powerful tools for optimising and speeding it up - for both muscle glycogen repletion and muscle protein synthesis; along with immunity support and energy availability. 

A recent 2025 review in Sports Medicine brings together the latest science on how carbohydrates, protein, fluids, and other strategies can help you recover smarter—not just harder.

According to A. Naderi et al. (2025), "Post-exercise recovery strategies influence the body’s ability to restore physiological homeostasis, replenish energy stores, repair muscle damage, and promote desired adaptations, which improve exercise performance"

And this becomes even more important when you’ve got another training session within 8-12 hours. 

Let’s break it down. 

THE GOAL OF RECOVERY NUTRITION ? The 4 R’s:

1. Refuel = carbohydrates

2. Repair = protein 

3. Rehydrate = fluids

4. Revitalise = colour & fats

First things first - refuelling = carbohydrates. 

🥖 1. Carbohydrates: Refuelling 

Why it matters: Muscle glycogen is the main fuel used during moderate-to-high intensity exercise. Depletion leads to fatigue, and inadequate replenishment between sessions can impair performance, and also immunity, overall health & injury prevention if you’re not managing your energy availability adequately. 

Top Tips:

• Eat 1.0–1.2 g/kg/hour of carbohydrate during the first 4 hours post-exercise.

• This window is critical—your muscles are more insulin-sensitive and glucose uptake is at its peak. Especially important for peri and post menopausal women.

• Delaying carb intake by even 2 hours slows down glycogen re-synthesis and compromises next-day performance (Naderi et al., 2025)

🍳2. Protein: Repair and Recovery

Carbohydrates refuel; protein repairs.

Benefits of protein post-exercise:

• Stimulates muscle protein synthesis, aiding muscle repair and adaptation.

• Helps reduce muscle soreness and supports lean mass maintenance during heavy training blocks.

• Supports satiety, carbohydrate co-ingestion, and hunger throughout the day

Tips:

• Aim for 20–30 g of high-quality protein (or ~0.3 g/kg) within 2 hours post-exercise. More may be appropriate for some athletes - such as peri and post menopause athletes should aim for 30-40g around exercise (this includes beforehand too)

• Spread total protein intake evenly across the day (every 3–4 hours). Eating regularly across the day with carbs and protein (plus fats and colours at times) will help refuel and maintain energy availability - especially when you have high energy needs, are doing double or triple session days, or are training each day (Plus living a busy life!)

• You can absorb more than 30g of protein at a time, so it’s okay for some athletes to eat more than this in meals or snacks

💧 3. Fluids: The Often-Overlooked Recovery Pillar = Rehydration 

Post-exercise rehydration is essential—particularly in hot or humid conditions or after long-duration training.

Your rehydration goals:

• Aim to replace ~150% of fluid losses (sweat + urine) within 2–4 hours post-exercise. You can do this by weighing yourself before and after (plus taking into account any fluid drunk during) or predict ahead of time using the sweat loss prediction calculator: https://sweatratecalculator.com/ 

• Eat food with your fluids - this will naturally provide you electrolytes to optimise your hydration. 

• If you’re a heavy sweater, or have exercised for more than 2 hours, you may benefit from including an electrolyte drink

Best choices:

• Milk: naturally contains carbs, protein, fluid, and electrolytes.

• Oral rehydration solutions or electrolyte-rich sports drinks can help in more endurance / hot conditions 

• Avoid alcohol immediately post-exercise—it slows rehydration and glycogen storage. Wait until you are rehydrated - looking for pale yellow urine - not clear, and not dark yelloq

🥗4. Revitise with colour: Athletes still need fruit and vegetables

Benefits of fruits and vegetables

• Reduce inflammation by providing antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds 

• Supports muscle repair and replenishing glycogen stores

• Can help hydrate and provide electrolytes (such as potassium in bananas) 

Top tips:

• Blitz a smoothie up with fruit, milk, protein powder and oats to nail your 4 Rs

• Add berries to cereal or yoghurt

• Eat a banana with protein shake 

• Fill a ⅓ of ½ your plate with salad, steamed veg or roasted vegetables if you’re eating a meal 

Fats also play a part in revitalising after exercise - especially those that contain Omega-3s and anti-inflammatory properties like:

• Extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, macadamia oil

• Nuts and seeds

• Oily fish 

• Avocados

WHAT DOES THIS LOOK LIKE FOOD WISE?

Your Nutrition Foundations for health and performance

Other Strategies Highlighted in the Research

Caffeine

• May enhance post-exercise glycogen repletion when co-ingested with carbs.

• Dose: ~3–6 mg/kg body weight.

• Be mindful of sleep disruption and individual sensitivity—not for everyone.

Post-Exercise Cooling

• Cold-water immersion (CWI) may reduce inflammation and muscle soreness.

• Limited evidence suggests it might impair muscle adaptation with chronic use, so use strategically (e.g., tournament settings).

  
  

Napping and Sleep

• Adequate sleep is crucial for recovery, immune function, and hormonal balance.

• Short naps (20–30 mins) after training can improve alertness and reduce fatigue, especially in multi-session days.

Remember, recovery is more than just what you eat—it’s when and how you eat it. Whether you’re a triathlete, team sport athlete, or weekend warrior, prioritising early carbohydrate intake, combining it with protein, rehydrating effectively, and adding fruits and vegetables can have a meaningful impact on how you feel and perform in your next session.

So next time you finish training, don’t just head home for the couch. Get your recovery food in first, then chill out. 

EASY WAYS TO REFUEL STRESS FREE:

• Meal prep Overnight Oats for a post training breakfast or snack

• Keep protein powder and shaker in the car / training bag, along with some muesli bars or bananas

• Have meals ready to eat or frozen for after big training sessions - either weekends or at night 

• Take a water bottle with you everywhere

• Set reminders on your phone or calendar to eat or drink regularly across the day

• Have snacks (either homemade or packaged) ready to eat throughout the week to help meet your needs

Need help personalising your recovery nutrition?

As a sports dietitian, I work with athletes of all levels to optimise recovery strategies tailored to their goals, training loads, and real-life routines. If you’d like some extra support or ideas, let’s chat!