#TheProgram2025 as it always does, provides an opportunity to reflect on your process. To analyze the many ways, large and small, that we could be doing what we do, but do it better.
Your training, nutrition, supplementation, recovery, lifestyle. How can this checklist of factors be improved? And how can these improvements translate to better results?
An easy “box to check” for me has always been the post-workout shake. The first thing to touch my lips and enter my bloodstream the moment I drop the iron on my last set has always been my shake.
It was a “life hack” linked to maximizing gains that was imparted upon me by the OGs. If you’re serious about this game, that shake is non-negotiable. The directive was simple—this is what the best do, and I should do the same.
The specific shake evolved over the years. From the ABB SuperShake to Met-Rx or Myoplex to Real Gains to FEAST or FUEL, since I was a teenager, this daily practice has been most sacred. Some combination of protein and carbohydrates—in RTD or blender or shaker cup-form, down the hatch, no questions asked. In that three decades time, the percentage of workouts immediately followed by a protein shake in some incarnation (often as simple as whey blended with a banana) is a number well north of ninety-nine.
However, as sports science has advanced in recent years, many have called into question the value of the post-workout shake and even the existence of the “anabolic window”—the purported period of time most advantageous to accruing new gains. Some in classrooms and laboratories claim that data supports the only area of concern in this regard, is the total protein and calories taken in on a given day. They’d state that the form and timing are irrelevant to your muscle-building progress.
I am not, for the record, a scientist nor am I a medical professional. This is not an accredited university-funded double-blind placebo study. I don’t even own a lab coat. But nonetheless, allow me to share my own common-sense perspective, one beyond simply the three decades of anecdotal observation of what the very best athletes in the world do in their own protocol, and what has seemed to suit me so well.
The two macronutrients most critical for muscle repair and function are protein and carbohydrates. Protein, made up of its amino acid “building blocks” which quite literally serve as the raw material for building new muscle tissue. And carbohydrates, the body’s preferred fuel source, which are utilized to refill the “gas tanks” of energy within the muscle. To perform, recover and grow to your utmost potential, an athlete requires proteins/aminos and carbs in abundance.
When an athlete physically exerts themselves, the muscular gas tanks storing glycogen are depleted—this is even more severe following any prolonged fast. When that same athlete takes part in resistance training, especially heavy and intense weightlifting, muscle fibers are critically broken down, hence the period of marked soreness (delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS) to follow.
To think that, in the aftermath of what the body interprets as physical trauma when muscles are in their most acute state of disrepair, that one would not benefit from easily assimilated and digested protein and/or essential amino acids and carbohydrates in liquid form, quickly and readily available in the bloodstream, seems, in a word, absurd. Yet, some still have their doubts.
This then, is what I believe to be the “Pascal’s Gambit” of performance nutrition. A regularly utilized post-workout shake containing protein and/or aminos and carbohydrates in solution, at best, immediately rushes recovery nutrients to damaged tissues to “kickstart” anabolism. At worst, it simply serves as another feeding—a quick and convenient method of ensuring sufficient protein and calories on a training day. There is literally no downside to having a post-workout shake, but, I (and many world class athletes and coaches) would argue, quite possibly tremendous benefit.
Lastly, the more advanced you become in this, or any, discipline, the greater the quest to perfect your process. This is not an argument on behalf of what will suffice or what is adequate. A properly and consistently implemented post-workout shake is a step in the direction of doing what is “optimal”, what will deliver maximum results. Do not settle for satisfactory… Strive for what would be ideal in the pursuit of your goals.
As you set the tone for the New Year, and alter your lifestyle to make improvements across the board, I strongly urge you to consistently include a post-workout shake in your protocol and reap the time-tested, proven-in-the-trenches benefits… Shake it up, check that box, optimize your growth and recovery, and witness the strength of this simple, old-school ritual.