When you finish a hard session, your body starts negotiating with itself. Muscles ask for fuel. Your blood asks for fluid. Your brain, meanwhile, asks one question: “Will this come up in the exam?” In IB SEHS, nutrition for recovery after exercise is exactly that moment translated into marks -- because recovery is where training becomes adaptation.
Good recovery nutrition helps you restore energy, repair tissue, and turn fatigue into progress. Poor recovery nutrition doesn’t just make you sore; it can quietly reduce training quality and, in exam terms, break the cause-and-effect chain the mark scheme wants.
IB SEHS recovery nutrition: the 3-part checklist
Use this simple recovery checklist to structure your IB SEHS answers:
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Carbohydrates to restore glycogen (energy availability for the next session)
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Protein to support muscle repair and adaptation
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Fluids + electrolytes to restore hydration, blood volume, and thermoregulation
If you want the syllabus wording close to hand, build around the notes in Hydration and Nutrition and the HL recovery detail in Hydration and nutritional strategies for exercise recovery.
Carbohydrates after exercise: glycogen first, fatigue later
In IB SEHS, carbohydrates are your cleanest link to performance recovery because they replenish . After endurance work or high-intensity intervals, glycogen stores drop and your ability to repeat quality work drops with them.
