How To Saturate Muscle Glycogen Stores

Video Transcript:

Here’s everything you need to know about how much glycogen an endurance athlete’s muscles can store….simply explained

Glycogen! Man, I love this stuff! Yeah, it sounds fancy, but it’s really just the energy from carbohydrates your muscles stash away, kind of like a secret candy bar in your fanny pack.

So, here’s the deal: the average endurance athlete can store about 15 grams of glycogen per kilogram of muscle mass while an elite endurance athlete can store about 25 grams or more of glycogen per kilogram of muscle mass. So if you take a 160 pound, or 72 kilogram, athlete that equates to 1080 to 1800 grams of stored glycogen…..that’s a whole lot of stored energy!

When your glycogen tank is full though a high carb diet or carb loading in the days leading up to a race, you can go faster and longer without getting tired. It's like turning on turbo mode! But if you run out of glycogen, that’s when you might hit the dreaded wall. No bueno!

To really saturate and keep your muscle glycogen stores elevated you should eat 8 to 10 grams of carbs per kilogram body weight daily. If you’re getting ready for a big race bump that number up to 10-12 grams of carbs per kilogram body weight daily the three days leading up to the event.

And here's the cool science behind it! A study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology showed that athletes who carb-loaded before endurance events could boost their glycogen stores by up to 50%! That’s like upgrading from a regular gas tank to a super-sized one.

The study also found that these athletes were able to improve their endurance by as much as 20%

So, remember, keep those glycogen stores full, load up on carbs before the big day, and you'll be unstoppable!