For really busy active adults, working both strength and cardio conditioning into the same gym session is a time-saving solution for staying in shape. A study published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise suggests post-workout whey protein might help you get more out of those concurrent training workouts.

Researchers had 8 healthy male subjects perform 8 sets of leg extensions for 5 reps using 80% of their one rep max before cycling for half an hour at 70% of capacity. Some got 25 grams of whey protein after this workout while the rest received a placebo. Tests taken an hour and 4 hours later showed that whey protein enhanced protein synthesis to a greater degree than exercise alone while helping to reduce blood markers of muscle breakdown.

True Strength Moment: Similar to what you might expect from traditional resistance training, it appears that whey protein can be an effective nutritional strategy for enhancing adaptations from combined resistance and cardio training.