The Ultimate Protein Powder Guide: Optimize Your Workouts and Overall Health
Whether you love high intensity workouts, spinning or even low impact workouts like Pilates, it’s important to make sure your body gets the right recovery. Even if you’ve got your workout and nutrition regime firing on all cylinders, it’s important to make sure that you’re taking advantage of high-performance products to really help with your recovery process.
And since there is literally an endless product list on the market right now, I put together my list of go-to’s to help cut through the clutter.
How to choose the right protein? The cleaner, the better.
My DM’s are loaded with the same types of questions asking what kind of protein powder should they take, why is collagen good, what the hell are BCAA’s and is there anything else I should be taking for recovery other then just protein?
If any of that sounds familiar – don’t worry, we’ll get to all those in this post.
Protein, collagen and BCAA’s help our bodies get the nutrients to rebuild and enhance muscles in the best way, (not the bodybuilder way, unless you’re into that – no judgement here!)
Let’s start with the most popular way to get recovery – PROTEIN POWDER! You can put them in your shakes, pancakes, oatmeal, muffins, literally anywhere. When choosing the right protein, I like to find products that use very minimal ingredients and aim for the cleaner the better. Natural fruit sweeteners are great like stevia; but when it gets to ingredients that you can’t even pronounce, then steer clear.
There are different types of protein powders: Let’s go through each of them with my top picks from the following categories!
Whey + Vegan
Hands down, no questions asked – Tattle is the winner of the cleanest protein I have found to date. I get bombarded by supplement companies all the time reaching out to me, but when I looked at the ingredients at Tattle, I was blown away by their products.
NON-GMO Project Verified, 95.8% grass-fed certified, hormone-free, naturally flavoured and sweetened and they have a cold brew coffee flavour that is to die for!!! Although I am more of BCAA drinker, I like this shake in the morning with some banana, almond milk & cinnamon. Also, they fully disclose the source, quantity, country of origin, and key characteristics of every single ingredient.
Use code “ Karina15”
Tattle- Whey Protein Powder Vanilla Cold Brew
Whey Protein
By naked, they mean clean! The dairy cows have a 100% grass-fed diet, it’s cold processed and has some BCCA’s included in the protein! No growth hormones, no artificial sweeteners and is GMO-free!
Grass Fed Whey Protein Powder | Naked Whey – 5lb
Vegan
These are two of my besties for a few years now for how super clean and tasty they are!
Genuine Health is an incredible protein boost with their highly absorbable, fully-fermented proteins that take less processing with very few added ingredients. They have a popular list of products where you virtually cannot go wrong.
VEGA is just a household staple for me with its wide variety of clean vegan protein powder. They have all-in-one delicious shakes made with a variety of certified organic ingredients and have everything from bars, snacks and smoothies that act as a power energizer.
Collagen Protein
Collagen protein helps with glowing skin, good for your bones and muscles and even better for your joints and tendons. I add the collagen protein to my coffee every morning! (Read about it here)
Vital is my collagen selection of choice! I’m not sure if I’m just in love with their branding, but they really nailed it – and I want everything they’re selling on their website. You really can’t go wrong with either the bovine or marine Vital proteins, or their beauty collagen (Hyaluronic acid, probiotics!)
Alaya Naturals: MSM /glucosamine & chondroitin
I discovered this thanks to Queen Jillian Michaels, and I like to alternate between both. This product contains collagen, MSM, glucosamine, and chondroitin which help supplement acclaimed for its ability to alleviate joint point, ease inflammation and boost the immune system.
Plant-based collagen –
Plant-based collagen- for my plant-based readers. Since most collagen is NOT vegan, they all come from bovine, chicken, or marine source. Check out Sunwarrior Plant-Based Collagen (https://sunwarrior.com/collections/all/products/collagen)
5. BCAA’S: What exactly are they anyway?
In the shortest way to explain this, BCAA stands for Branched Chain Amino Acid.
There are 20 different amino acids that makeup thousands of different proteins in the human body. Nine of the 20 are essential and cannot be made by your body so the only way to get them is through your diet – with one of the nine is BCAA. Having BCAA in your diet helps increase muscle growth, decrease muscle soreness, reduce exercise fatigue and prevents muscle wasting.
Pro Tip: Ensure your BCAA’s are fermented instead of sourced from duck feathers. (Anything vegan certified will verify this.)
Unfortunately, a lot of products on the market are filled with crap, so here’s some of my approved clean fave’s.
I like this particular product because it’s clean, contains BCAA and glutamine, and contains electrolytes from organic coconut water, marine algae, and pink Himalayan sea salt, which help to hydrate and replenish the muscles. (Also the pineapple passion fruit is magical! – and only natural flavours and sweeteners of course)
BCAA Pineapple Passion Fruit Product
As the name suggests, it is very transparent with the ingredients which are all-natural and include leucine, isoleucine, valine, glutamine, and extracts of coconut water.
https://www.transparentlabs.com
When should you use your protein shake?
Take your protein shakes after a workout, (right after your workout ideally, but within the hour works),
Use them as a meal supplement for when you won’t be able to eat for the next two hours but you need something for muscle recovery,
They’re great fill-ins as a healthy snack between meals,
Pro Tip: Add Alaya Naturals multi collagen or Vital beauty collagen powder into your shakes for an extra boost.
What about taking BCAA’s?
I tend to drink BCAA’s for my recovery more because I’m not a huge lover of protein shakes and I prefer something light mixed in water with my meal. I’ll usually mix my BCAA’s with Alyah naturals powder right after I leave the gym.
They’re also good for a pre-workout to boost energy and help with your recovery process.
Pro Tip: If you are looking to bulk up, then taking a BCA + creatine is also optimal.
If this is still a little overwhelming and you need my step by step daily routine!
Morning – drink coffee with Vital Proteins Collagen Protein (you can substitute with the other collagen here as well)
AM post-workout- BCAA with water from Tattle + Alaya Naturals Multi Collagen (you can substitute with the other collagen here as well) /Option to insert protein shake here
Mid-afternoon or late afternoon snack OR I’m starving but can’t eat for another hour after my AM/ PM workout: Protein Shake + Multi Collagen
Hope my guide helped :)
What is your fave recovery drink?
Always from the heart
Karina