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You can't expect wonders from protein supplements... no matter, when you take them, by the way. But I wouldn't mark them down as useless - even for rookies - based on the study at hand.

When I look at the 14 year old kids who need an written permission from their mum to train at the gym buying protein tons o powders and dozens of bars from the vending machines at the gym, even I have to shake my head. Not necessarily, because they're buying those products, but rather about what they tell each other about the effects: "Yo,... recently I ate this protein bar right after my workout and I felt swole for day..."

Now, you know that I am into supplement psychology and have no doubt about the fact that said kiddo felt swole all day, but we all know that protein is in no way a supplement the muscle-building and strength advantages of which will show within hours. And with that, I have a perfect transition to today's topic: The recent study from University of Central Florida in Orlando (Boone. 2015).
You will probably remember the most striking result of this study in which Carleigh H. Boone and colleagues "examine[d] the short-term effect of resistance training with and without protein supplementation on changes in muscle morphology and strength in untrained young men" (Boone. 2015).

Some of you may now be wondering: Why on earth do they even test that? We have ample evidence that protein supplements are powerful muscle builders! And you are right, but as it is the case for (almost) every research question in exercise science, even the highly acclaimed benefits of pre- or post-workout protein supplementation are somewhat contested. There's the evidence that supports the benefits of peri-workout protein supplementation on exercise induced muscle gains. Unfortunately, many of these studies may have been over-interpreted. Why?

FSR ≠ more muscle. Just because the post-exercise fractional protein synthesis increases this does not mean that you will gain more muscle in the long term. Check out this SV Classic to learn why!

Well, many of the often-cited studies in rookies, like Biolo et al. (1995), Phillips et al. (1997), or Tipton et al. (1999), measured increases in acute muscle protein synthesis and markers of anabolism. Due to their short design, however, increased long-term gains could only be predict, but not detect. In my 2014 article "Study Confirms: Acute Post-Exercise Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis Is Not Correlated with Resistance Training-Induced Muscle Hypertrophy in Young Men" (read more) you have learned, though, that the assumption that significant increases in post-workout muscle protein synthesis will necessary lead to significant augmented increases in muscle size in the long run is logical. but futile.

There are studies where this is the case, e.g. Coburn et al. (2006); Hulmi et al. (2010); Walker et al. (2009); Willoughby et al. (2007) - in both, trained and untrained individuals, but as Boone et al. rightly point out, there are also studies by Antonio et al. (2000) or Hoffman et al. (2009) in which protein or amino acid supplements had no beneficial effects on muscle or strength gains in either or trained and untrained individuals. The randomized, double-blinded study Boone et al. (2015) conducted is thus by no means superfluous. It is yet no perfect either, because with a length of only our week, the scientists picked exactly the time-frame in which things, or I should say "gains" happen faster than you can measure them. Furthermore, the use o a lower body unilateral resistance training makes it very difficult to infer the effects of protein supplementation on (a) muscle morphology [cross-sectional area, muscle thickness, pennation angle], (b) lower body power output, (c) maximal dynamic strength, and (d) maximal isometric strength in other muscle groups and in response to an overall metabolically more demanding workout.

As a waredownloadsoft reader you already know of the post-workout creatine advantage.

I am sure you will remember Jose Antonio's 2013 study on the effect of creatine timing in 19 male recreational bodybuilders (reread the waredownloadsoft article). The results indicated quite conclusively that taking creatine after the workout is a bit more effective than taking the same amount immediately before the workout.

In view of the fact that the effect did not reach statistical significance and an advantage was only "possible" or "likely", though, the debate about the importance or non-significance of creatine timing is far from being settled.
The latest evidence that creatine timing counts comes from the University of Regina, where Darren Candow, Emelie Vogt, Sarah Johannsmeyer, Scott Forbes, and Jonathan P. Farthing conducted a
double-blind study that involved older adults (50-71 yrs) who were randomized to one of three groups:

• Creatine-Before (CR-B: n=15; creatine [0.1g/kg] immediately before resistance training and placebo [0.1g∙kg-1 corn-starch maltodextrin] immediately after resistance training), 
• Creatine-After (CR-A: n=12; placebo immediately before resistance training and creatine immediately after resistance training) or 
• Placebo (PLA: n=12; placebo immediately before and immediately after resistance training)

The subjects remained on the respective protocol for 32 weeks. Prior to and following the study, body composition (lean tissue, fat mass; dual energy x-ray absorptiometry) and muscle strength (1-repetition maximum leg press and chest press) were assessed. The habitual dietary intake was evaluated by the means of 3-day dietary records during the first and final week of resistance training and supplementation, but significant and potentially relevant differences were not obeserved.

If you haven't already done so, review the results of J. Antonio's previous creatine timing study in "Creatine Before or After the Workout? Finally the Answer is Here! Study Says: Better Take it After for Mass & Strength" | read more

"Participants followed the same supervised whole-body resistance training program for 32 weeks in the same private laboratory. Training sessions were supervised as previous research has demonstrated greater gains compared to unsupervised training (Mazzetti et al. 2000). Prior to training sessions, but after the supplement was consumed, each participant performed a 5-minute stationary cycling warm-up at a self- selected intensity. Participants completed 3 sets of 10 repetitions to muscle fatigue with 1-2 minutes rest between sets for each exercise at an intensity corresponding to their 10- repetition maximum for each exercise. 

[...The machine-based program included the following exercises] leg press, chest press, lat pull-down, shoulder press, leg extension, leg curl, triceps extension, biceps curl, calf press, back extension and abdominal curl [all were performed in the given order]" (Candow. 2015). 

The participants had to maintain daily training logs where the load, number of sets and repetitions
were recorded. Resistance was increased by 2-10 kg once a participant could complete 3 sets of 10 repetitions to muscle fatigue for an exercise. Once the resistance was increased, participants maintained this load until a subsequent 3 sets of 10 repetitions to fatigue were completed.
References:

• Antonio J, Ciccone V. The effects of pre versus post workout supplementation of creatine monohydrate on body composition and strength. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2013 Aug 6;10(1):36. [Epub ahead of print]
• Candow, Darren, et al. "Strategic ingestion of creatine supplementation and resistance training in healthy older adults." Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism ja.

Yes, I do suggest that it may be beneficial to drink these two and another two cups of coffee w/ lots of sugar after your workout - if you are an athlete, at least.

A delicious and refreshing pre-workout coffee or just plain caffeine from pre-workouts are probably on the supplement list of most of the waredownloadsoft readers. Whether the same is the case for a post-workout coffee, let alone caffeine tablets, though, is questionable. Just as questionable, as the common belief that you better stay away from coffee at any time after your workouts, by the way.

If you look at the existing literature, the effects of post-workout caffeine ingestion are not exactly an intensely researched area. And still, the evidence does more or less strongly support the notion that a post-workout coffee could be as beneficial as its pre-workout analog - in a different area.
Initial evidence that the post-workout ingestion of caffeine may have beneficial effects on post-workout gylcogen resynthesis and thus an important part of the recovery process comes from a 2004 study by Battram et al. (2004). Back in the day, Battram assumed - just like you probably did - that the ingestion of caffeine after prolonged exercise would impede the resynthesis of proglycogen and macroglycogen carbohydrate supplementation in humans.

Figure 1: Total glycogen [proglycogen (PG) macroglycogen (MG)] glycogen concentrations during 5 h of recovery in the placebo trial (A) and caffeine trial (B | Battram. 2004).

As you can easily see if you compare the data in Figure 1 (A) for the placebo trial with the data in Figure 1 (B), which was generated in the trial in which the healthy young men who participated in Battram's study received a whopping dose of 6mg/kg of caffeine, there is no ill effect on post-workout gylcogen resynthesis even with high dose caffeine supplementation.

"In conclusion, Caf ingestion does not impede the resynthesis of PG or MG after an extensive depletion of muscle glycogen and with the provision of exogenous dietary carbohydrate" (Battram. 2004).

As surprising as this may be in view of the inhibitory effect of caffeine on full-body glucose uptake (in Battram's study there was also a significantly higher blood glucose concentration in the caffeine
trial), Battram's results are still no outliers. Rather than that, a follow up study by Pedderson et al. found that, in trained subjects, coingestion of large amounts of Caff (8 mg/kg BM) with CHO has an additive effect on rates of postexercise muscle glycogen accumulation compared with consumption of CHO alone" (Pedderson. 2008).
In that, it is important to point out that the increased glycogen resynthesis in Pedderson's randomized, double-blind crossover study, in which the young well-trained subjects performed intermittent exhaustive cycling and then consumed a low-CHO meal before they rode until volitional fatigue and consumed either

• CHO [4 g/kg body mass (BM)] alone or
• CHO [4 g/kg body mass (BM)] with Caff (8 mg/kg BM)

at the beginning of the 4 h of passive recovery phase, did not occur at the expense of the restoration of the high energy substrates ATP and PCr (see Figure 2) - since the latter two are especially relevant for people who lift weight, sprint and do other high intensity stuff, there's no reason to believe that the caffeine + sugar post-load was something only endurance athletes could use.

Figure 2: High dose caffeine (8mg/kg) increases glycogen resynthesis after exhausting workouts without having ill effects on the resynthesis of ATP and PCr (Pedderson. 2008).

Apropos "using" this strategy: Another three years later, Taylor et al. (2011) expanded on the results of Battram (2004) and Pedderson (2008) in a study in which they went beyond testing the mere amount of glycogen that was transported into the muscle and evaluated its effect on the subjects' performance in a post-recovery high-intensity interval-running capacity test.

Figure 3: Exercise capacity during the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test for the carbohydrate (CHO), CHO plus caffeine (CHO+CAFF), and water (WAT) trials. Lines represent individual subject responses (Taylor. 2011).

As you can easily see in Figure 3, the HIIT advantage, which was tested 4h after the glycogen-depleting exercise protocol and the ingestion of 1.2g/kg carbohydrate +/- 8mg/kg caffeine via an Intermittent Shuttle Test (LIST) to volitional exhaustion, was about as pronounced as the glycogen-advantage Pedderson et al. observed three years before (albeit with some inter-individual differences).
References:

• Battram, Danielle S., et al. "Caffeine ingestion does not impede the resynthesis of proglycogen and macroglycogen after prolonged exercise and carbohydrate supplementation in humans." Journal of Applied Physiology 96.3 (2004): 943-950.
• Beelen, Milou, et al. "Impact of caffeine and protein on postexercise muscle glycogen synthesis." Med Sci Sports Exerc 44.4 (2012): 692-700.
• Pedersen, David J., et al. "High rates of muscle glycogen resynthesis after exhaustive exercise when carbohydrate is coingested with caffeine." Journal of Applied Physiology 105.1 (2008): 7-13.
• Taylor, Conor, et al. "The effect of adding caffeine to postexercise carbohydrate feeding on subsequent high-intensity interval-running capacity compared with carbohydrate alone." International Journal of Sport Nutrition andExercise Metabolism 21.5 (2011): 410.
• Thong, Farah SL, and Terry E. Graham. "Caffeine-induced impairment of glucose tolerance is abolished by β-adrenergic receptor blockade in humans." Journal of applied physiology 92.6 (2002): 2347-2352.
• Van Nieuwenhoven, M. A., R-JM Brummer, and F. Brouns. "Gastrointestinal function during exercise: comparison of water, sports drink, and sports drink with caffeine." Journal of applied physiology 89.3 (2000): 1079-1085.