Whey Protein
ByWhey Protein is one of the most commonly used sports nutrition supplements.
It has a whole range of benefits that make it a no brainer that every active sports person should be taking-even endurance athletes.
It’s not only the product of choice for power athletes there is increasing evidence that protein mixed in with the usual carbohydrate energy drink can have significant benefits in endurance athletes it can help prevent muscle breakdown associated with exercise.
Whey Protein contains high levels of Branch Chain Amino Acids (BCAA). In total there are 20 amino acids the building blocks of protein, 9 of these amino acids need to be ingested because they cannot be made by the body they are called essential amino acids.
The 3 BCAA’s iso-leucine, leucine and valine are all essential amino acids. The protein in your muscles is made up of 30% BCAA’s so they are a very important part of your muscle mass. When you exercise it’s the BCAA’s that are broken down first in your muscle cells, so by ensuring you have an adequate supply before you train you can preserve your muscle mass.
Whey protein is also rapidly absorbed, it’s this feature that makes it a necessary post workout beverage for any form of exercise. When it comes to purchasing whey protein you will probably come across whey protein concentrate and whey protein isolate, with the isolate version costing a bit more.
The reason for the 2 different types is that isolate is presented in smaller molecules that in theory can get into the muscle cells quicker. In practice I have not noticed any major difference when working with my athletes when using whey protein isolate exclusively compared to whey concentrate.
There are many different suppliers in the UK and I have tried a lot of brands with surprisingly mixed results. I’ve had some brands tested in the lab and what they say in the tin is not always what’s in there, some cheaper versions are padded out with milk protein.
At the moment the brand that I recommend that people start with is the Iron Tek range from Reaction Nutrition it contains whey concentrate and isolate,
You can get a 25% discount at Reaction Nutrition by filling in this form
http://sportsnutritionvlog.com/order_supplements.php
If you’ve got any questions about whey protein then post a comment here.
10 Comments
June 29th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Hi Matt,
Reading your entry on Whey, i was curious as to whether you’ve tried the Optimum Nutrition Gold brand – i usually buy the 4.54kg bag at around £67, but if the Iron Tek range is a far superior make, i’d be happy to be buying less of a far better product.
June 29th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
that’s pretty good brand, i’ve not tried it. there’s alot of good brands out there, and alot of poor ones too. I’ll only recommend brand i’ve tested myself to see what level of protein they contain.
the key with whey is to switch brands, as like other foods and whey more so, you can become intolerant to taking the same brand too much, just like if you eat too much wheat or other foods. In china the major intolerance is to rice for instance.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Great info Matt – thanks very much! I had never considered rotating types of Whey, will give it a try.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:38 am
Hi Matt,
What are your thoughts on Synerprotein? Is this product similar to whey protein?
July 1st, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I’ve not heard of it. I think it would be worth mentioning that we’ll list the things and product type we think are the best, but we’d prefer not to answer questions on particular supplements. Unless it a general question about the merits of a particular substance as opposed to a brand name.
It’s just there are so many – it could end up taking to much time.
October 30th, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Matt – you recommend on here the Iron Tek range for whey but this is different from the Myprotein whey stated in your sheet with all the supplements on them. is there any difference between the two – I have just bought the myprotein whey. thanks
October 30th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
Myprotein is just as good – it’s just when we first wrote the programme we had the supplements bundled and this was using Biochem whey – it’s more expensive so you save a bit of cash on the myprotein stuff.
you’ll be just fine on the stuff you’ve bought.
November 26th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Hey thanks for post, totally agree that useful for all inc endurance athletes…
anyway, what do you think about myprotein, I have been impressed by their prices and that their cheapest whey “says” it is undenatured as well as seeming to put up fairly good contents…
http://www.myprotein.co.uk/bulk-powders/protein-powders/impact-whey-protein/
(the link isn’t a plug!)
thanks,
Scott
November 27th, 2009 at 8:30 am
My protein are good – I trust them. I dont get paid to say that!
Maximuscle do some good products as well, I make no money from recommending them.
My favourite protein though is by Kinetica – because I formulated the products – i’ve also visited the factory and I know the protein goes from grass fed cows to the pot!
I do make a small % from the kinetica stuff – but only because of my involvement with them.
all these companies drug screen which if you are a tested athlete you need.
I believe wholeheartedly in cycling proteins – to avoid allergies.
Cycle types, companies etc
January 27th, 2010 at 6:31 pm
Hi Matt
Its difficult getting impartial advice on what products are best – everything you read is biased towards certain manufacturers!
However I am lactose intolerant/allergic and have been using either egg protein powders or soy protein powders. Am I getting sinilar benefits now and do you have any recommended brands for either of these?
Cheers
Richard