Category — Post-workout

This could quite possibly be the greatest bar ever made! Supreme Protein Incorporated, a company based out of Manasquan, New Jersey has come up with the best tasting, most satisfying bar on the market. First let me give you a rundown of the nutritional information. One Supreme Protein Bar contains 360 calories and 16 grams of fat.

Now I know 16 grams is a lot but only 5 grams are saturated and the rest is the “good fat” coming from flaxseed oil.

Supreme comes in two flavors, Caramel Nut Chocolate and Peanut Butter Crunch. Each bar is packed with 30 grams of protein consisting of whey isolate, whey concentrate, and milk protein isolate. The abundance of whey makes it a great post-workout snack. It also contains 31 grams of sugar, however 27 grams are of the sugar alcohol variety which have little effect on your blood sugar. Both bars are “Carb Conscious” according to their labels. These bars are also packed with the full array of multivitamins you get from most protein bars.

Guys, if you’ve never tasted a Supreme Protein bar it’s almost like eating a candy bar. In fact, it’s better than most candy bars. If you didn’t know any better you wouldn’t have a clue you were eating a protein bar. The chocolate and caramel actually taste like chocolate and caramel.

I think Supreme has set a new standard in protein bars. I don’t think I’ll ever have to try another nasty one for the rest of my life.

Rating: 5.0/5

Serving Size: 1 bar, Calories: 360 Total Fat: 16 g, Saturated Fat: 5 g, Cholesterol: 20 mg, Total Carbohydrates: 34 g, Dietary Fiber: 1 g, Protein: 30 g

You’ve just worked hard at the gym and come home ready to cook something up for dinner. You know you need some protein to go along with those vegetables, but what kind? There are many choices but only a handful pack the muscle building compounds your body needs to recover.

So, let’s break down the 3 most practical meats: chicken, turkey, and beef and look at the benefits each provides.

Chicken: I like to go with prepackaged breast cutlets because they are the easiest to prepare and contain little or no added ingredients. One average size 3 ounce breast will set you back only 142 calories. It also contains about 3 grams of fat and 26 grams of muscle buliding protein. Chicken breasts are probably the most prevalent meat you can find (in restaurants or grocery stores) and are always a popular choice among athletes and bodybuilders for their excellent protein to fat ratio.

Turkey: The best selection here is ground turkey breast. You can cook some up on the stove top and add veggies and whatever else you like. Turkey contains high amounts of niacin and B-6 and is an excellent source of selenium. A single 4 ounce serving of ground turkey contains 120 calories and just 1 gram of fat while packing 28 grams of protein.

Beef: While it may be the best tasting of the 3, it has the highest fat content. Even 95% lean ground beef contains 5.6 grams of fat (half of it being saturated) and 155 calories per 4 ounce serving. It’s okay to have beef once in a while but try not to make it a staple of your diet. When you do eat it, make sure it’s lean ground which contains the least amount of saturated fat. Ground beef does contain 24 grams of protein per serving and is an excellent source creatine.

ChefMD John La Puma reports that weightlifters who drink green tea are able to recover faster from the oxidative stress that occurs after workouts.

“Athletes who drank the green tea had less damaging lipid hydroperoxide and more protective polyphenols in their blood before and after exercise. Another key finding was a 37 percent higher post-exercise level of a protein called glutathione, which helps protect the body from oxidative stress caused by damage from free radicals. The researchers concluded that green tea provided significant benefits for sports participants.”

 When you lift weights I think most of us are concerned more about results and less about keeping our body and cells healthy (especially from free radicals). That’s why getting enough antioxidants and polyphenols is so important.

The quicker you can recover, the quicker you can get back to the gym and the less sore you’ll be. Which will in turn allow you lift more weight, more often.

Labrada’s newest entry into their lineup of protein bars is a disappointing one from a flavor standpoint, but solid when it comes to muscle building ingredients.

I was really expecting a lot more in terms of taste from this bar because it is Labrada and it packs pecans, caramel, chocolate, and nougat. However, it was the latter nougat that was least appetizing. It leaves you with a bitter aftertaste that overpowers the rest of the bar. The sugar-free caramel is good as is the chocolate, although I would’ve liked to see more pecans.

With that said, you can’t really argue with the nutritional value. This bar contains 30 grams of Labrada’s standard LeanPro Protein Blend, consisting of whey protein isolate, soy protein isolate, and milk protein. It also contains 350 calories, a little on the high end for bars of this type, but not too crazy. The bar also has 10 grams of fat. For those reasons, it makes a great post-workout bar or snack in between meals.

This is not one of Labrada’s best tasting bars, but it isn’t exactly battery acid either. It’s still packed with muscle building nutrients and only 10 grams of insulin-impacing carbohydrates.

Rating: 3.0/5

Serving Size: 1 bar, Calories: 350 Total Fat: 10 g, Saturated Fat: 6 g, Cholesterol: 0 mg, Total Carbohydrates: 35 g, Dietary Fiber: 3 g, Protein: 30 g

When you’re focused on hitting the gym and pumping some serious iron that last thing you’re usually worried about it stretching your muscles. Well, you might want to think twice about that for your next workout.

The science of muscle building really revolves around the small tissue strands that make up your muscles called fascicle. When a muscle contracts, the fasciciles constrict. The more you workout the more the muscle fibers breakdown. Stretching helps to speed up the recovery process from this breakdown by realigning those fibers.

Simply put, stretching is good for you and your muscles! It will expediate recovery after a strenuous workout and decrease lactic acid.  In the end you’re going to reap the benefits by allowing yourself to workout longer and recover more quickly from soreness.

Tip: Make stretching a part of your workout (like a bicep curl or lateral pulldown). If you keep a log of your exercises make sure you include stretching before and after your regimen. If you usually do cardio after the exercises then stretch afterwards.

MHP’s Macrobolic Meal Replacement shakes are loaded with muscle building nutrients. They have an exclusive Low Glycemic Carbohydrate Blend consisting of barley, oats, and oat fiber. They also boast an Essential Fatty Acid Blend that contains 78% Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA). One shake also contains 32 grams of protein made up of soy isolate, calcium caseinate, and whey concentrate.

MHP prides itself on the 45-35-20 nutritional ratio and refects this in all of their products. This means a diet consisting of 45% calories from carbohydrates, 35 % of calories from protein, and 20% coming from fats.

The Meal Replacement Packets come in Vanilla Cream and Chocolate Fudge Brownie and it’s suggested that the packet be mixed with 10-12 ounces of cold water. Be sure to shake it up well or else you’ll be left with chunks of dried powder.

With the vast array of nutrients, vitamins, and muscle popping amino acids this shake has, the taste doesn’t quite match its contents. Chocolate is definitely the better tasting of two as the Vanilla leaves you with a bitter after taste. The saving grace of this MRP is definitely the high quality ingredients.

With less than 1 gram of sugar per packet this meal replacement will definitely provide you with everything you need for that post-workout replenishment or dinner on the run. However, the taste makes this one just average.

Rating : 3.0 / 5

Serving Size: 1 Packet, Calories: 350, Total Fat: 7 g, Saturated Fat: 1.5 g, Cholesterol: 5 mg, Total Carbohydrates: 39 g, Dietary Fiber: 6 g, Protein: 32 g