Glycogen and glycogen depletion are important topics for anyone who is serious about their fitness, building muscle, and working out.
If you are new to the world of fitness, glycogen depletion may be a mystery.
When my husband and me first started to get serious about the gym, I remember hearing the term “bouted around” and didn’t know what it meant. This is why I decided that this article would be written.
What is Glycogen?
To understand glycogen, it is necessary to first understand carbohydrates.
In a normal person’s diet – i.e. People who don’t eat low-carb diets or ketogenic diets. Carbohydrates are their main source of energy.
Carbohydrate-rich foods are broken down by the body and released into the bloodstream. This provides you with the energy you require to function.
Consuming more carbs than you can break down and use immediately will result in “glucose chains”, which are linked together and then converted into glycogen molecules. These are stored in the liver and muscles.
Glycogen accounts for about 6% of liver weight and about 1-2% of muscle mass.
How’s Glycogen Used?
Normally, there is about four grams of glucose per person.
Insulin levels will stay at the right level as long as blood glucose is maintained.
However, if you are more active, the glucose can be converted to energy and used for fuel. Insulin levels also drop as glucose levels fall.
Your body will then begin to break down your glycogen molecules in order to replenish your blood glucose levels.
Glycogen depletion occurs when you exercise or engage in other strenuous activities, which can cause you to burn more calories than usual.
You can eventually exhaust all your glycogen stores.
The Wall
A severe glycogen depletion could lead to “hitting the walls,” as most people refer it.
When your body uses up its glycogen reserves, you can hit the wall and suffer both mental as well as physical consequences.
Your brain goes into preservation mode when your glycogen levels drop to an extreme level. This can cause negative thoughts and the desire to quit.
Your body feels almost overwhelmed by fatigue and exhaustion.
This is how your body and mind tell you that there is nothing left. The only option is to stop and go home to replenish glycogen. Stop!”
What is the average time it takes to hit the wall?
A balanced, normal diet, which includes the recommended daily carb intake, will allow you to last 12 to 22 hours at normal activity levels.
This is why many people can fast for several days or intermittently. However, by the second day their energy levels had dropped dramatically.
Your glycogen should last for about one hour to two hours if you work out at a steady, normal pace.
Your glycogen stores may be depleted quickly if you are doing intense, high-intensity training.
What does hitting the wall mean for your workout regimes?
Most people think of hitting the wall when they talk about running. But a runner hitting a wall is different than a weightlifter hitting a wall.
A runner who hits the wall can experience fatigue and leg cramps.
It can adversely affect their running performance.
The underlying principles of weightlifting are similar, but the results can be a little different.
These same negative emotions start to creep into your brain and you feel an overwhelming feeling of fatigue and exhaustion.
However, lifters aren’t running. They’re lifting weights so they don’t slow down. You feel so stiff and sore that you can’t move your muscles.
It seems impossible to lift a weight of ten pounds, even though you had just lifted six times as much just a few seconds before hitting the wall.
It is possible to even feel that “noodle arm” feeling (or legs, shoulders etc.). feeling. It’s almost as if you feel stuck.
If you stop every time you reach the wall, it’s going to be difficult to get past this fitness plateau.
It is important to find a way through the pain.
How can you avoid hitting the wall?
The method used to avoid hitting the wall will vary depending on the specific activity.
People who are training to run marathons long distances will have different strategies than those who want to do intense workouts that last only minutes.
There are several things that you can do to prevent glycogen depletion in lifters. You can keep switching between them until one that works best for your needs is found.
Use Carbohydrate Powder
When Dr. San Millan wrote for Training Peaks, he noted that carbohydrate intake can reach as high as 100g per hour in high-intensity training or long marathon-style runs.
Although you could theoretically consume as many carbs as food, it is going to be hard to do so and there will be a high calorie intake factor.
Many athletes and lifters opt to use carbohydrate powder.
Carbohydrate powder simply means that you can mix powdered carbs with water or other sports beverages.
Mix X teaspoons of carb powder with X ounces water. The X amount will vary depending on the brand.
Carbohydrates are designed to be quickly absorbed and digested.
These can provide an immediate energy boost and can be taken after a workout to replenish glycogen stores.
There are many kinds of carb powders.
Some are best consumed prior to workouts while others can be eaten during or after the recovery phase.
They are all used to try to restore glycogen stores or offset glycogen depletion.
This is a great carb powder for those who want to absorb it quickly and not gain any calories.
Adjust Your Diet
You might have a problem with your diet if you notice that you are hitting the wall more often than you think you should.
People who are trying to lose weight often hear that they should avoid carbs whenever possible. Sometimes, we don’t even think about it.
You could be seriously missing out on the gym if you don’t eat enough carb-rich foods.
If you want to keep track of how many carbs you eat each day, you can use a food journal.
You can also find great apps that will help you track your carb intake, as well as your calorie, fat, and vitamin intake.
Many of these apps can be downloaded and used for free.
Do not forget to take time for recovery
It can be tempting to get into a routine of going to the gym after work if you are on a serious fitness kick.
This applies even to your exercise routine. You should schedule downtime to help your recovery. Sometimes, you might need to stay awake for several days.
Your body will tell you to take a break if you continue hitting the wall, even after you have changed your diet or started taking supplements.
Listen to your body’s messages.
Reduce It a Notch
Sometimes, the problem is not how often or for how long you exercise; sometimes it’s how intensely.
It’s not a good idea for anyone to succumb to glycogen depletion fatigue all the time, but it is a good thing to take a step back every now and again.
If you feel like you have done everything possible for your arms, you might try pushing through the pain for three days.
The other days, if you feel like your arms aren’t able to lift another rep due to hitting the wall, you can switch to your legs.
You may also need to alternate low-intensity exercises with high-intensity ones from time to time.
You can also reduce the weight you lift in one rep, while maintaining the heavier weight for the other two to four reps.
Remember that fatigue is not something you should give up on. You will be more stuck than you realize if you do this.
What about Ketogenic Diets (Ketogenic Diets)?
Trainers say ketogenic diets (keto), are the best way to lose weight and gain muscle.
After the initial weeks of slowness and energy loss, your body will begin to burn fat for energy. This will allow you to gain as much, or even more, muscle without the need to ingest extra carbohydrates.
The trainers wouldn’t be half wrong if your goal was weight loss.
Keto is an effective way to quickly lose fat. Your body will also adjust to burning fat for fuel after several weeks. This means that you’ll see your weight drop faster than you can imagine.
Even so, I wouldn’t recommend Keto.
Keto and building muscle are not the best options. You must do regular high-intensity exercise to get the muscle you want.
The short answer is no. Keto won’t work for muscle-building exercises that are intense and high-intensity.
It does have its downfalls, however, when it comes to weight loss. I can attest to this personally.
I lost 40 pounds within six months of my first attempt at the ketogenic diet. This was because I was obese at the time.
Problem was when I tried to gradually add carbs back to my diet in order to tone and build muscle, rather than just lose weight.
When I began adding carbs to my diet, the weight started coming back. It wasn’t coming back in muscles.
It was like I was getting back in weight. It was a quick process that I gained most of the weight back. I then had to lose it all again as I tried to build muscle, endurance, and stamina.
Last Thoughts
High-intensity training several times per week is the best way to increase endurance and build new muscle.
High-intensity training relies on glycogen stores in your body to give you the energy you need. It is imperative that you find a way you can combat glycogen depletion, and to quickly and consistently restore glycogen to you body.
It is easier for many people to use supplements like carbohydrate powder. Others try to absorb carbs through diet alone.
My husband and me have discovered that the best way to “carb up”, and not hit the wall, is to eat a balanced diet. This includes the recommended daily carb intake and carbohydrate powder.
It is important to discover what works for you.
Knowing about glycogen depletion is only half of the battle. Rest is easy.
