What type of sports nutrition protein is most commonly used in bodybuilding, crossfit, powerlifting and other types of athleticism? The correct answer is whey protein, which is considered one of the best proteins on the planet. Why is it so effective in strength sports, is it overvalued, and which whey protein is best for CrossFit? You will find detailed answers to these questions in our article.
General profile
How is whey protein different from any other protein? First of all, whey protein is of animal origin, which means it is not suitable for vegetarians. Whey protein is a complex protein that contains essential essential amino acids for muscle growth (leucine, isoleucine, valine). The compounds have a high rate of absorption and tolerance for the athlete.
What is whey protein made from? From the cheapest raw material - whey. Professional firms buy milk spent in the separator for further drying, after which they purify the resulting raw materials and sell it as a professional mixture.
Why whey and not milk? Due to lactose. Since the serum – is a product of secondary processing of milk with the release of casein from it, then a side effect will be a decrease in the level of lactose (as in kefir). This reduces the stress on the digestive system and the risk of diabetes. In addition, it reduces the calorie content of the final product by 20-25%.
Let's take a look at the general whey protein profile.
Protein profile | |
Assimilation rate | Extremely high |
Price policy | One of the cheapest types of protein |
The main task | Closing protein windows after exercise |
Efficiency | When used correctly, high |
Raw material purity | Quite high |
Consumption | About 3 kg per month |
Varieties
Whey protein is the name of a group of products. These are the most common whey proteins on the market:
- Classic protein. The ratio of pure protein is about 70%. The cheapest source. Has no commercial success due to weak advertising.
- Whey prot. The ratio of pure protein is about 85%. It is actively advertised by manufacturers as the coolest, most sophisticated and effective - because of this, it is more expensive than KSB and classic. Sold only in small packaging. Effective but expensive.
- KSB prot. The ratio of pure protein is about 80%. Commercially unsuccessful due to poor advertising.
- Isolate. The ratio of pure protein is about 90%. Unjustified consumption of protein. It is needed only for builders-chemists who accurately calculate fermentation and intake of a pure product, monitoring the calorie content of food up to 1% of consumption.
- In complexes. The ratio of pure protein is about 50%. It is used in gainers, complex proteins. The efficiency is low.
What is it needed for
To figure out what whey protein is needed for, athletes of different strengths will have to delve into biochemistry. The absorption rate of this protein varies from 3 to 10 minutes. Hence, it is taken before, during and after training. What does it do?
- Pre-workout - reducing the catabolic effect of pumping workouts.
- During training - a temporary improvement in strength indicators by 2-3%, which allows you to take a few pancakes more weight.
- After training, closing the protein window.
As a result, it stimulates the development of the athlete, shifting his athletic performance off the ground.
Taking whey protein correctly will help:
- On drying - in the early stages (before the sodium is drained) will reduce muscle catabolism immediately after training, without affecting the overall caloric balance of the diet. At this time, the synthesis of new amino acids is a priority for the muscles, which means that the body will not burn protein into carbohydrates.
- On mass gain - to finish off the protein level without affecting calorie content. This results in a higher ratio of lean muscle mass to total weight.
- When losing weight, it will increase overall well-being due to the addition of protein. Reduces the load on the digestive tract. Replaces frequent snacks to boost metabolism
- While maintaining shape. Make it easier to control protein intake. It will increase strength indicators, which will create an excellent anabolic background.
How to use
How to take whey protein for strength athletes? In the specialized literature, you can find a lot of articles on how it is taken for weight loss or for gaining mass. However, this is all a myth. Whey protein is not suitable for drying or general weight loss due to its amino acid profile and absorption rate. They cannot close the nighttime protein window, but it is quite suitable for daytime anti-catabolism.
Let's take a look at a typical whey protein intake regimen. For this we need:
- calculate net weight;
- count the number of workouts per week;
- calculate your protein intake from natural foods.
Note. There is a myth that whey protein should not be taken in portions of more than 30 g of substrate at a time. In fact, this is not so - it all depends on individual portability. For some, this dose may be 100 g, while for others, 30 g will have to be divided into several doses.
Whey protein, like any other, is designed to achieve a lack of it in the body. Consider a classic situation. Athlete 75 kg, fat - 20%. It is on active mass gain. Needs 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body. The total protein intake from natural food is about 50 g of the complete amino acid complex. Common disadvantage - 70 g.
How to drink whey protein correctly in this case?
- On a training day. The first dose instead of lunch is 30 g of the mixture mixed with milk or yogurt. The second dose is taken within 15 minutes after the end of the workout to close the protein window - up to 60 g at a time. The third dose is optional, one hour after the last meal, but not earlier than 2 hours before bedtime.
- On a non-training day. Dose # 1 instead of lunch - 30 g of the mixture mixed with milk or yogurt. The second dose is taken one hour after the last meal, but not earlier than 2 hours before bedtime.
That's all the secrets. You don't need any extreme circuitry to achieve optimal results. In addition, excessive protein indulgence can negatively affect the digestive system. In particular, the athlete will simply stop absorbing natural protein.
Effectiveness
How Whey Protein Works When Used Properly and What You Can Achieve with it:
- Improving power performance. The main task of protein is precisely to strengthen muscle fibers in order to increase their initial strength potential.
- Increase in dry matter. As long as you follow your diet correctly and avoid excessive calorie intake, whey protein will improve internal protein synthesis, which will allow you to build a truly dry mass.
- Change in energy level. Whey protein, due to its absorption rate, will force the body to synthesize ATP intensively, which will also affect endurance indicators.
- Improving well-being.
- Light flooding with water. Despite the absence of lactose, whey protein contains a huge amount of sodium, which will result in a little overflow and make it unusable during the quality final drying steps.
Best Whey Proteins
Time to figure out which whey protein to pick and which manufacturer to listen to:
- KSB 80%. Belarus is a clean raw material. It is important to buy it not from advertised suppliers, but to look for really Belarusian distributors. Purchase in this case will be possible only in bulk from 50 kg. On the other hand, however, you get a full year supply of protein, at a price three times cheaper than any other branded protein. The quality of KSB is certainly not the highest - and its consumption will exceed the standard one by about 20%. However, this protein has a complete amino acid composition, and is perfect as a raw material for the first 12-18 months of training.
- For those interested in better quality products, Optimum Nutrition's Whey Isolate is recommended. The quality of the raw materials is excellent. It has many flavors. Sometimes supplemented with valine. The disadvantages are high price and inconvenient packaging. 2.5 kg is very little for a month, so you have to take 2 cans, which is economically unprofitable.
- BSN is probably the best option. The highest degree of raw material purification. Complete absence of the effect of flooding with water. The only drawback is the price - about $ 30 per kg of product.
How much will it cost
Now about the price of the issue. Despite the fact that whey protein is one of the cheapest, it is still somewhat more expensive than natural food. How much can a course of protein on mass gain cost, and how much is it purchased with whey protein?
If you plan to stay in strength sports, then it is better to purchase whey protein for 3 months at once - for this, bags with packaging up to 10 kg are suitable.
With the consumption, which we indicated as recommended, the average consumption is 3 kg of protein per month + - statistical error. Only by starting to eat so intensely can you expect stable growth. This means that, in the first place, you should not buy the small packages or bags sold in the sports bars of fitness centers.
If you find a normal purified protein without flavors (such as KSB was before the advertisement), then a course of 3 months will cost you about 60-70 dollars. If you do not trust little-known manufacturers and want to take a complex enriched isolate from Optimum nutrition - then 3 cans of such prota (2.7 kg each) will cost you 200 USD. The best American manufacturers will cost 30 USD. per kg. The same BSN prot, combined with creatine.
Expert Tip: Never Buy Cheap Whey Protein Gainers. Dextrin, which is part of them, costs a penny, but the cost of the final gainer will exceed all dreams. If you are interested in gainers, it is better to take a couple of kg of low quality whey protein and stir it with glucose (1.2 USD per kg), or malta (1.5 USD per kg). In extreme cases, you can stir it with sugar, which will cost less than a dollar per kg.
Outcome
Knowing how to consume whey protein can push your progress off the ground. But don't put too much hope in him. Still, protein is not steroids, which means that a magical increase of 10 kg per month cannot be expected. All you can count on is a steady increase in an additional 25 grams of protein per day. This means your progress will increase by about 1 additional kg of dry matter per month or 12 kg of dry meat per year.
At the same time, if you disrupt your exercise regimen or experience a calorie deficit in your diet, you can forget about such successes. After all, a stable increase in strength indicators and lean mass is always 3 factors: nutrition - 30% of success, training - 50% of success, good sleep - 20% of success.