Energise your workouts with the perfect homemade pre-workout shake.
If you want the best results from your workouts, that begins with the right pre-workout nutrition. Make your own homemade pre-workout shake to boost your energy and maximise your performance with just a few simple ingredients!
Click to jump straight to the recipe.
Ingredients To Add To Your Homemade Pre-Workout Shake
It’s essential to include carbohydrates and protein in your homemade pre-workout shake to unleash your maximum potential in the gym. Plus, performance aids like creatine, caffeine and beetroot have been shown to give a boost to your workout.
Click each ingredient to find out why you should include it in your homemade pre-workout shake:
Carb Up
Over the last few years, carbohydrates have been given a bad rap – damned by trendy diets that recommend eating little to no carbs (moody and fatigued, much?). But if you’re looking to give your body the right fuel to build the physique you’ve always wanted, then pre-workout carbohydrates are your friend.
The best way to provide your muscles with the energy they need before a workout is to consume high-carbohydrate foods, drinks or supplements that are absorbed quickly. High-carb foods like certain fruits (like tinned peaches or bananas) are ideal.
Carbohydrates are well-known to be the main energy-providing nutrient, which is why people looking to improve their performance should make carbs a major part of their diets. They’re metabolised by the body most efficiently during exercise, and provide the energy you need during high-intensity exercise where your fast-twitch muscle fibres are relied upon1.
Plus, if you’re looking to pack on some muscle, having carbohydrates along with protein in both your pre- and post-workout shakes is known to enhance muscle protein-synthesis (i.e. muscle growth)2.Pack With Protein
Proteins are the body’s bricks and mortar for rebuilding muscle. During resistance training, protein stimulates muscle breakdown (catabolism) and muscle growth (anabolism). Eating enough protein puts your muscles into what’s called a ‘positive net protein balance’, which means they’ll favour growth, rather than breakdown.
Research shows that consuming protein both pre- and post-workout stimulates better muscle growth than a placebo2.
So, to maximise your results and dominate your workouts, add a scoop of your preferred protein to your homemade pre-workout shake.Call on Caffeine
This probably won’t surprise you, but caffeine is the stuff that gets you going. As well as making you feel like a human being in the mornings, caffeine is renowned for improving exercise performance3, and can be found in nearly every pre-workout shake, for good reason, too. It’s known to work by stimulating the nervous system and improving muscle contraction, energy and alertness, which means energised workouts.
Guarana is an all-natural alternative to coffee, sourced from a small shrub native to the Amazon rainforest.
It contains 2.5 times the amount of caffeine compared to coffee, and works as a great natural pre-workout ingredient.Beetroot Boost
Beetroot has gotten a lot of attention recently for its ability to enhance exercise performance.
The high level of nitrates in beetroot means it’s able to increase blood flow to muscles and therefore enhance muscle efficiency during a workout or endurance exercise4. Adding it to a homemade pre-workout shake is the best way to take advantage of the benefits of beetroot.Charge With Creatine
Considered the gold standard supplement for athletes and recreational weight lifters, Creatine Monohydrate is a no-brainer for adding to your homemade pre-workout shake, as it's one of the most researched supplements out there. It's scientifically proven to improve physical performance during bursts of short-term exercise (like weight training or sprinting), as well as increasing muscle size.
It's recommended that you take 4-10g per day, spread out in your pre- and post-workout shakes.Read more about the benefits of creatine.Energising Homemade Pre-Workout Shake Recipe
Ingredients
- 200ml skimmed milk
- 400g tinned peaches
- 1 scoop Vanilla Impact Whey Protein
- 10g Beetroot Powder
- 5g Guarana Extract
- 5g Creatine Monohydrate
- 6-8 cubes ice
Method
1. Simply blend all ingredients together until smooth. Done! Drink 60-90 minutes before your workout.
- Kanter, M. (2018). High-Quality Carbohydrates and Physical Performance: Expert Panel Report. Nutrition today, 53(1), 35.
- Cribb, P. J., & Hayes, A. (2006). Effects of supplement-timing and resistance exercise on skeletal muscle hypertrophy. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 38(11), 1918-1925.
- Ormsbee, M. J., Bach, C. W., & Baur, D. A. (2014). Pre-exercise nutrition: the role of macronutrients, modified starches and supplements on metabolism and endurance performance. Nutrients, 6(5), 1782-1808.
- Murphy, M., Eliot, K., Heuertz, R. M., & Weiss, E. (2012). Whole beetroot consumption acutely improves running performance. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 112(4), 548-552.
Jennifer Blow has a Bachelor’s of Science in Nutritional Science and a Master’s of Science by Research in Nutrition, and now specialises in the use of sports supplements for health and fitness, underpinned by evidence-based research.
Jennifer has been quoted or mentioned as a nutritionist in major online publications including Vogue, Elle, and Grazia, for her expertise in nutritional science for exercise and healthy living.
Her experience spans from working with the NHS on dietary intervention trials, to specific scientific research into omega-3 fatty acid supplementation and also the effect of fast foods on health, which she has presented at the annual Nutrition Society Conference. Jennifer is involved in many continuing professional development events to ensure her practise remains at the highest level. Find out more about Jennifer’s experience here.
In her spare time, Jennifer loves hill walking and cycling, and in her posts you’ll see that she loves proving healthy eating doesn’t mean a lifetime of hunger.
