A lot of gyms nowadays have a smoothie bar. Everyone is
figuring out how important it is to get the proper nutrition
right after a muscle building, fat burning workout. But there
are two good reasons not to hit that smoothie bar after your
workout. One is the price. It’s sort of like buying a beer
at a baseball game. You might have to take out a loan.
The second problem is that you can’t control exactly what
is in the smoothie. Even health bar smoothies may contain
lots of hidden calories that are high in fat and sugar, like
sherbert, frozen yogurt and various forms of high-fructose
corn syrup.
Creating your own muscle building smoothie allows you to
control the cost and the ingredients. And that’s a plus,
both to your wallet and your physique.
Your muscles can’t grow witout the proper nutrition and
that nutrition is vitally important right after a hard
weight training session. And that means loading up on
the right protein and the right carbs at the right time –
immediately after your workout. You can prepare your
post-workout shake before you hit the gym, stick it in a
thermos and take it with you to store in your locker.
Here are two versions of my favorite post-workout shake.
The first one involves a specific post-worktout powder
called RecoverX by Muscle Link. It’s designed just for
after your weight lifting session. It includes fast acting
carbohydrates and hydrolized whey protein islolates. This
version of whey is more digestable and faster acting, so it
can start helping your muscles immediately.
The second version will do pretty much the same thing, without
getting RecoverX.
Muscle Building Shake
1 serving RecoverX
1 serving Creatine
1 cup frozen fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries)
Mix in a blender. You can alter how much of the powder and
fruit you use to get the appropriate number of calories you
want.
Or you can try this version of the muscle building post-workout
shake
1 1/2 cups of Orange Juice
40 grams of whey protein isolate (I use vanilla)
1 serving Creatine
1 cup frozen fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries)
You can alter this any number of ways to suit your taste buds.
You could add banana, or even some yogurt, which will also make
the shake a little thicker in its consistency.
One thing I’ve found that has helped my progress is to add a few
more calories than I normally would and then drink part of the
smoothie right before my workout, or even sip some of it during
my workout so my muscles are constantly getting the nutrients
they need, both to power my workout and to recover from it.
Consider creating your own pre and post-workout muscle building
smoothies so you can start adding new muscle mass fast.
Gregg Gillies is the founder of Build Lean Muscle.com [http://www.buildleanmuscle.com] His articles have appeared in Ironman Magazine. He has written two books and is a regular contributor to Body Talk Magazine. He publishes a free fitness newsletter available at his site that includes lots of weight training tips, fat loss, nutrition and exercise program information to help you build your best body as quickly as possible. [http://www.buildleanmuscle.com]
