Topic 3. Nutritional aspects of post-exercise recovery: a gender difference

Performing elevated training workloads is susceptible to yield deleterious effects if the organism is unable to recuperate completely between training sessions. In this context, the recovery phase must be considered as an inherent component of the training process and must therefore be granted the same degree of attention, in its programming and management, as the exercise sessions themselves. Given the effects of gender upon the physiological responses to exercise and during the post-exercise recovery period, it appears essential to customize nutritional recovery methods according to gender in order to optimize the processes of physiological recovery and super-compensation of glycogen, while minimizing the risks of injury (i.e. stress fracture) in the female athlete