[sharebox4 sharetext=”Share This Page”] [/sharebox4]
What Is The Best Pre-Workout Supplement?
If you exercise and workout regularly hopefully you already know that it is very important to eat before your workout. However, since the health and fitness industry is so enormous and there is so much money put into marketing supplements it is easy to be steered in the wrong direction.
In this article you will learn what you should eat before a workout including the most nutrition and best pre-workout supplement for you to take.
An important thing to note is that 99% of supplements in general are really just junk food disguised and marketed as healthy. Since most companies are more concerned with their profit margins they buy cheap inferior ingredients and use poor processing and manufacturing practices.
What you want to avoid are pre-workout supplements that use cheap proteins, fillers like cheap fiber, are loaded with refined sugars, sugar alcohols, or even worse artificial sweeteners. Also, you should know that most pre workout supplements are highly processed using extreme heat which in essence damages or even kills any of the good nutrients. The end result is a bunch of empty calories with very little nutritional value that your body can actually use but they still wreak havoc on your blood sugar levels.
Ok, so how do you know how to choose the best pre workout supplement?
My suggestion is to eat as many whole foods as possible and simply use a supplement as it was originally intended…to act as a supplement.
Your body needs fuel in the form of carbs, fats, and protein. However, you need to know the right kind of each of these nutrients to eat.
Let’s start with protein. Most commercial proteins are absolutely junk…there’s no other way to say it. They use terrible ingredients that are sourced from inferior food sources, pump them full of sugars so they at least taste good, then super-process them so that all of the nutrients are damaged or killed completely.
The soy industry may be the biggest culprit of using clever marketing to sell a product that isn’t just inferior but is actually damaging to your health. Soy is one of the most commonly genetically modified foods, is highly processed, and is known to wreak havoc on your hormones. I avoid soy at all costs and so should you. Do not drink soy milk, do not eat soy protein, and I even go so far as to avoid products that have soy lecithin in them which is a lot.
My #1 choice: whey protein powder.
But not just any whey protein because not all are created equal. You see, whey protein is actually a protein found in cow’s milk so the actual health of the cow makes a huge difference. Most milk comes from feed lot, grain fed cows that are usually very unhealthy and produce very unhealthy milk.
However, grass fed cows have a completely different biological makeup and the milk they produce is incredibly powerful and healthy. It is almost not fair to compare a grain fed cow to a grass fed cow because they are so incredibly different. Cows are not meant to be kept in feedlots and were never meant to eat grains or corn. When cows are fed grains it causes numerous health problems that are passed on to their milk.
The whey protein from grass fed cow’s milk is a superfood that delivers the highest biological source of complete protein that includes every single essential amino acid that your body needs. The reason I list this as the best pre workout supplement is that your body is easily able to absorb and use this high quality protein to help energize your workout.
Along with protein your body also needs carbohydrates. However, like protein there are good and bad sources of carbs.
You should avoid processed carbs at all costs. This means no breads, no pastas, no white rice, and not refined sugars at all. I actually read an article today where the author advised people to eat pasta and bagels before working out. Refined breads and carbs are absolutely terrible for you and should not be eaten if you can help it. There is a lot of research being conducted right now that is starting to show that refined carbs such as these are a major factor for the rise in obesity and heart disease in the United States today.
The best source of carbohydrates are organic fruits and vegetables. Since fruit is higher in natural sugars that your body can use quickly it is a great idea to add fruits to a shake with natural grass fed whey protein like this one.
Finally, you need to add some medium chain fatty acids to your pre workout meal or routine. What I do is simply add a couple tablespoons of organic coconut milk to a shake with organic fruit and grass fed undenatured whey protein.
Do not be fooled that you need to avoid fats…your body needs fat as much as anything else. The key is finding good fats and coconut milk is an excellent source of natural fat. You can also eat a small handful of nuts such as almonds, pistachios, or even sunflower seeds.
So to wrap it up, the key is to supply your body with the highest quality sources of everything it needs. Get a high quality protein and try to avoid the cheap knockoffs that are just selling you over-processed garbage in a can. The best protein choice is either smaller portions of natural proteins such as open pasture meats like grass fed beef, bison, or grass fed whey protein that is cold-processed so that all of the fragile nutrients remain. Then get good natural carbs such as fruits and vegetables or some brown rice, quinoa, or sprouted grains. And finally make sure you get your good fats!
