Why your muscles are still empty after a big carb load

We’ve all been told: smash the carbs after a hard ride and you’ll be ready to go again. Turns out that’s only half true. A new study shows your liver bounces back fast with enough carbs, but your muscles don’t. Even with massive carb intake, muscle glycogen is still far from full 12 hours later.

What the study found

• Who: 12 trained male cyclists (VO₂peak ~67 ml/kg/min).
• What: After a glycogen-depleting ride, they recovered for 12 h with either only water or 10 g/kg carbs (sucrose + meals).
• Liver: Fully replenished within 6 h when carbs were taken.
• Muscles: Still only ~70% restored after 12 h — even with huge carb intake.

Takeaway for cyclists: Carbs refill the liver quickly, but muscles lag behind. Don’t expect to be fully topped up the next day, even if you eat perfectly.

Think of carbs after a hard ride as topping up the tank, not resetting it your muscles will still be running partly on empty tomorrow.

Reference

Fuchs, C. J., Veeraiah, P., Hermans, W. J. H., et al. (2025). Carbohydrate intake of 10 g/kg body mass rapidly replenishes liver, but not muscle glycogen contents, during 12 h of post-exercise recovery in well-trained cyclists. The Journal of Physiology. https://doi.org/10.1113/JP2891...

On my mindThe Failure Paradox

I used to think success was about lining up perfect shots. One arrow, one bullseye. But cycling and life have shown me it doesn’t work like that. Most days, the darts miss. Some fall short, others hit the outer rings.

It’s the same in training. You try new intervals, experiment with nutrition, test different strategies. Plenty of those attempts don’t land. But every miss sharpens your aim for the next one.

The paradox is this: if you want to succeed, you have to fail more. Each failure is feedback, not defeat. Over time, those scattered arrows start clustering closer to the target.

That’s how you grow stronger legs, a smarter engine, and maybe even a stronger jaw for the punches along the way.

Damian