How a Protein Shake Helps to Build Muscle

Muscle Milk High Protein Shake Mix in 6 Great Flavors - Big Discount
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If you’ve been working out a lot lately but aren’t sure how to build muscle quickly, you should take a look at your diet. Are you getting enough protein? Is the timing of your consumption correct? If you aren’t already doing so, you should strongly consider starting to take a post-workout protein shake on a regular basis.

Especially when taken right after working out, protein supplements can be an incredible boost to your system and help your body to build muscles much more quickly than it would have otherwise. This is because right after working out, you have 40 to 60 minutes to take in as much protein as is safely possible to get the maximum benefit for your muscles.

If you’ve been working out regularly already but haven’t seen the gains you’d hoped for, protein shakes are probably the missing ingredient to your overall fitness plans. Even if you’re getting enough protein in your normal diet (experts recommend about 1.6 grams of it per kilogram of body weight for active adults), you should restructure the timing of your protein intake to take advantage of the “magic window” of time that immediately follows high-intensity workouts.

This is because resistance training and endurance training both prime your muscles to take in carbohydrates, water, and protein much more rapidly than they do at any other time in the day. In other words, the timing of your protein consumption is just as important as the amount of that consumption.

If you aren’t sure whether you should add additional protein to your diet in the form of supplements like shakes or bars, you should use the above formula to calculate how much protein you should be taking in, and if you’re already getting enough or too much, scale back your intake from your main diet so that you can still add protein supplements for right after working out. Your muscles will thank you.

Guest Post By HumanBodyKnowledge.com

August 4, 2010 | Filed Under Muscle Building