To begin with, in my personal opinion, nearly all big brand protein/recovery blends are sub par. They generally contain cheap protein, cheap carbs and loads of other crap that you don’t need. I feel the best thing to do is get exactly what you need in the pure ingredient form and create your own blends, allowing for cheaper, better quality shakes (I get mine from myprotein.co.uk). It also allows you to tailor your shakes to suit your current goals. I will use a different blend in the run up to a competition than I will when I'm trying to put on weight. So let's break it down:
Protein
We'll start with this because it's the most obvious and there is a massive number to choose from. Let's start with the basics:
Whey - Whey is the most commonly used protein you will come across. Whey protein is extracted from the cheese making process, it's then filtered to create what we call whey protein. Depending on how much it's filtered leaves you with varying degrees of quality. Going from whey concentrate to whey isolate to hydrolysed whey isolate.
Concentrate - This is the least filtered, cheapest form of protein. Because of the low quality it can take 3 hours to fully digest (which if you read part one you will know is no good for after a workout to meet your anabolic window).
Isolate - This is highly purified and will therefore fully digest in within 20 - 30 mins. Which will meet your anabolic window for after a training session. This is what I use.
Hydrolysed isolate - This is the most expensive most, filtered form of whey and will digest incredibly fast, in around 10 mins. This is therefore great for post workout and is the optimum protein to take. Sometimes digestive enzymes are added in the production process that can reduce the digestion rate to basically instant. Predigested hydrolysed isolate protein in the highest quality protein you can buy. You may be wondering why I don’t take that if it's so good? Because, to put it politely, it tastes like shit.
WARNING - If you ever pick up a brand name protein powder or all in one you may read something along the lines of “New protein blend”, “Revolutionary protein matrix” or “Whey isolate blend”. What this normally means is that they fill the majority of the powder with whey concentrate and chuck in a tiny spoonful of the more expensive isolate, allowing them to use the term Isolate but not spend too much money. Always check the ingredients, and this is why its best to make your own from the ingredients.
Casein - This is protein produced through ultra-filtering milk. This is by far the slowest digesting protein around. This can be good for putting on weight, having protein sustaining for long periods of time (when bulking casein is great for before you go to bed) however a terrible choice for a post-workout drink.
I would talk about alternative/vegan/vegetarian protein but I don’t believe in vegetarians or vegans...
CARBS
As mentioned in part one, carbs are just as important as protein, if anything more important. There are 2 main types of carbs:
Dextrose and Maltodextrin - These are the most common carbohydrates found in most “all-in-one” powders and are basically a building block of sugar. They have a very high glycemic index and therefore create a big insulin spike when ingested. This is good for getting the big post workout insulin boost that you’re looking for during your anabolic window to carry the nutrients to your muscles. Although there are some differences in the molecular structure of the two, what they actually do in your body is pretty much the same.
Vitargo - This is a higher quality carbohydrate made from starch in a very specific way to give it a particular molecular structure. Vitargo, while still stimulating an insulin response (possibly a even larger one than Dextrose), actually contains no sugar. It also digests far far quicker than glucose derivatives (Dextrose and Maltodextrin). This makes it a lot more efficient at replenishing glycogen supplies and transporting nutrients to the muscles, also causing less bloat and possible stomach discomfort. It costs a bit more than Dextrose but I use this 99% of the time and believe this to be the best post workout carb on the market.
There are many other things that you can put in a post workout shake but these are the basics and I may go into the other stuff another time. Once you’ve decided what you're taking, you must figure out the amount: 20-40 grams of protein and around double that of carbs.
So, what I take after every training session (BJJ, weights, conditioning, cardio, some particularly vigorous nights out) is a post workout shake containing around 40g of whey isolate and around 70 grams of vitargo pure. I've done this for the last couple of years and this is what I recommend to most people who ask.
Ape out
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