protein shakes; worth the money?

ADJD

Are protein supplements worth the money? i am trying to increase my upper body strength and wonder if supps will help if i am doing a fair bit of excercise. i will be going to the gym 3 times a week, doing a lot of rowing ..... Is whey powder the best stuff to take?

Surf-Matt

I went mad on shakes when I was training with little results.

I found finding the "right" routine led my appetite to naturally rocket and I ate stacks of food - mostly healthy stuff.

18 months later I was 3 stone heavier and my bench press maximum (on a machine so less than equivalent free weights) went from 95kg to 150kg.

passout

In terms of recovery drinks chocolate milk shake has been proven as good as many speciaised products.

I'm not into proteinsupplements, balanced diet blah blah....
I do think that having some protein as soon as you finish exercicing is a good idea though.

Surf-Matt

Agree with passout.

One supplement (sort of) I found very useful is those Dunns River Nourishments - pretty much every petrol station sells them and they are a good additional bit of nutrition.

Also found creatine useful - but you MUST increase your water intake.

Daddyking

I swear by whey protein and a great diet, you need a carb and protein balance as you need the carbs for energy for exercise and the protein to feed your guns!
I bust my back in a big crash over some doubles, 5 months off and a jelly belly later led to a serious change in attitude - bike - gym - healthy eating + bike and did i say bike, now i can go up hill as well as down!!

Be visiting Wales soon as i can as i can now deal with going up the routes in Afan as well as lovin the Downhill!

Reflex Instant mass + creatine + loads of water no booze bread no carbs after 3pm unless exercising hard - give up enjoying life as you know it!!

Good luck.

TimesLikeThese

I have years of piles of muscle and fitness and Flex mags.
The accepted wisdom is if you intend to increase muscle mass you need a protein source every 3-4 hours. The amount required daily is 1g per 1lb of lean body mass.

Key times your body needs protein are first thing in the morning, last thing at night and post workout.

If you can get all your protein from food at the right times and dont go overboard with the total daily calories then great - otherwise protein powder helps.

Creatine has some good results but if you want to keep it simple a whey protein isolate/concentrate mix is fine for beginners. Just combine with plenty of sleep as thats when your muscles build up.

The only other useful things for beginners are mutivits and fish oil supplements to help protect your joints with the lifting.

For best results keep a daily log of your progress and the supplementation taken. Then one step at a time add a further supplement or replace an existing one with something else. This way you will be able to work out what works best for you. Be wary that for certain supplements your body builds up a resistance over a period of months and that cycling on-off periods and rotation of supplements may be required.

But for now... keep it simple.

Good luck

weeksy59

i found protein shakes very very good at increasing mass and also stamina.

Sadly i was also trying to lose weight at the time and it was counter productive to this.

So i stopped.

However once i drop some more weight, i'll be back on the case.

Daddyking

The shakes are perfect if you find it difficult to eat the right food throughout the day although should not be relied upon, it's also a bit of trial and error as everyones make up is different.
I went from a fifteen stone chubber to sub fourteen stone bit of grissle, it feels great to attack the trails again and ride all day like when i was a kid!
Difficult to gain any extra size now as i am doing too much cardio but i'm not bothered looking lean and feeling strong is the key to happiness in the hills 8)

Dazzza

I was 18st dropped to 14st whilst biking now back up to 16st after hitting the gym hard, i wouldn't say i feel better lol as im always training but it's nice to have my upper body back once again.

Currently trying to drop fat whilst keeping what i've gained, we'll see if it pans out, so far i appear to be getting leaner, i have a good friend to train with that lets me know if im doing it wrong.

Like times says protein morning, post wo and last thing at night again 1g per lb of lean mass, i use syntrax martix, it's a low carb protein blend that lasts for hours and has a great taste, after the workout i throw 50g of dextrose and my protein into a shaker of water, really helps with the recovery.

Lots of veg and chicken never goes amiss, i like oatcakes with a bit or primula spread or marmite to tide me over if i get peckish or i grab an apple whatever i fancy more.

Trouble is protein shakes don't appear to work, thing is you will find it's the thin people that usually say this, they need to eat LOTS of food before they pack on any decent mass so feel the protein isn't working for them when infact to put on any muscle you always have to be eating more than what you burn in a day, or you're taking gear but that's a totally different thing.

Daddyking

Every shake i tried along my journey in life tasted like S*!T, Myoplex wasn't bad but didn't agree with me, i do add glucosamine to a post workout shake to aid recovery, the Reflex is a 50/50 blend of carb protein as i need the energy to train, also blend bananas to make it taste better, works well after being on the bike for a few hours also. Have you tried the protein/carb bars, now their a waste of time and also taste like S*!T!!

Never tried the gear - the side effects always worried me, makes some parts biogger and other parts smaller
:oops:

deaks101

Try Torq Recovery. Ribbose, HMB and Glutamine plus a 4:1 ratio of Carbs and Protein.
Comes in Chocolate Orange, Strawberry and Cream or Banana and Mango. They also supply Vegan recovery.

The customer service from the Torq online shop is fantastic. I ordered a pack of Torq gels the other weak and they hadn't arrived after about 4 days. I emailed them and got a reply within 10 minutes saying "Sasha was away and so couldn't send them off". I then got the products next day in First Class post which i didn't pay for . 'Sasha' rang me this morning to check if the products had arrived too. A very good customer service with phenomenal products on sale. Worth a try.

jairaj

I find whey protein helps me with recovery and reduces muscle ache the next day. I am vegetarian so can be hard to get lots of protein into my diet. My muscles used to always ache the day after a good workout and it was suggested by a friend to try whey protein. I have a shake after most high intensity workouts. I find that this allows better recovery and my legs hurt less the next day. I feel fresher and more energetic and ready to do it all over again

ps I just use Holland & Barratt own brand choc flavour whey protein with milk.

prawny

Myprotein.co.uk shakes are lovely and cheap too. I found they helped me lose weight because i was dieting too and all it did was stop me aching.

I need to get some more for commuting stop my legs getting sore when i'm sat at my desk

militiacore

Torque charge silly prices for the majority of their stuff and most bulk powder suppliers will be at least 1/2 the price or even more. For example what they charge for 250g of maltodextrin I can get 5kgs for the same price from my bulk supplier.

As said Protein Shakes have their place but they are supplemental to a decent diet and as already mentioned timing is key. Those that say shakes do nothing for them probably have a diet that stinks anyway and probably don't eat enough calories or whole foods.

Jayske

I think it is ideal to supplement a good wholefood diet with whey, during working days it is hard to take 6 wholefood meals to keep ur metabolism in a anabolic state, no?

Klein XC

ADJD wrote:

Are protein supplements worth the money?

In my experience, no. And for what you're doing (rowing), there's no point.

Protein supplements are most useful to body builders doing intensive weight training.

If you want to build up your muscular endurance as opposed to brute force, then you don't need huge bulging Arnie muscules. Do light weight training combined with rower / cross trainer etc, and that'll get you lean and mean in no time. Don't waste your money on the protein, just eat a sensible diet (if you eat lots of fish, chicken and soya products then you'll increase the protein intake anyway).

However...protein shakes can be useful for people wanting to lose weight and body fat, as they are quite filling and protein that is not used doesn't get stored by the body. But if you're already lean and healthy and not wanting to do intensive body building then I'm not so sure of the benefits...

militiacore

Klein XC wrote:

ADJD wrote:

Are protein supplements worth the money?

In my experience, no. And for what you're doing (rowing), there's no point.

Protein supplements are most useful to body builders doing intensive weight training.

If you want to build up your muscular endurance as opposed to brute force, then you don't need huge bulging Arnie muscules. Do light weight training combined with rower / cross trainer etc, and that'll get you lean and mean in no time. Don't waste your money on the protein, just eat a sensible diet (if you eat lots of fish, chicken and soya products then you'll increase the protein intake anyway).

However...protein shakes can be useful for people wanting to lose weight and body fat, as they are quite filling and protein that is not used doesn't get stored by the body. But if you're already lean and healthy and not wanting to do intensive body building then I'm not so sure of the benefits...

Any unused protein will be converted to glucose (sugar) by the body using a process called Glyconeogenesis. The sugar will then turn to body fat if not burned off.

Klein XC

militiacore wrote:

Any unused protein will be converted to glucose (sugar) by the body using a process called Glyconeogenesis. The sugar will then turn to body fat if not burned off.

Even more reason not to use these supplements!

It's also expelled via the urinary cycle, I believe.

Quite a good article about it here:

http://www.cptips.com/protein.htm

militiacore

Klein XC wrote:

Even more reason not to use these supplements!

It's also expelled via the urinary cycle, I believe.

Quite a good article about it here:

http://www.cptips.com/protein.htm

Protein is protein so whether it's from powder or whole foods, the net result of excess will be same, however it's physically a lot harder to consume protein from whole foods in excess compared to drinking it.

A good away around this is by supplementing with Amino Acids as you still get the valuable Amino's (which the body breaks protein down into) with none of the above issues. There's pretty much no calorie content either and they have an effect of increaing metabolism slightly.

Correct on the urinary cycle.

gettricky

It goes without saying that you have to eat a balanced diet and I'm not a massive advocate of supplements, esp. long term.

However, I am training for Mega at the moment and I have protien after sessions and next day and its noticable how much quicker the aches and pains go and for me at least, makes my upper body look more ripped and lean.

Last week I did Whites level and Pen @ Afan on Sunday. 2 hours Kung Fu Tuesday, Press ups and sit ups (lots of) Wednesday. Thursday I did a day of sprint climbing at local MTB centre, not sure what distance but put myself through the paces. Friday rest day. Saturday sprinting on my fav section at local forest. And Sunday Whites level and Pen again.

Today I woke up aching like a bast@rd and had protien shake mixxed with fresh blueberries for breakfast and I fell less achey now.

Also try and get lin / flax seed into your diet, I put it in my daily smoothies.