Anyone know of a 'budget' P90x recovery drink? I'm not really in a position financially to go for the one sold by BeachBody.

My wife and I are going to do the program together (starting Monday Nov 9), so the cost is double. Wish money grew on trees.

Anyway, enough whining (I guess I'm trying to get it out of my system before Monday - haha). Your suggestions would be well appreciated.

Thanks.

%1 chocolate milk. 1 8oz glass should be good.

Why do people keep suggesting chocolate milk?? Does no one realize the amount of sugar in it?

1 cup milk (skim, 1%, or 2%) and 1 scoop of body fortress protein powder from walmart ($15 a tub.) Mix shake (or stir) and drink. I love it. It's got VERY LITTLE carbs and sugar and tastes great. It's not AS GOOD as isopure, but at $50 a tub, isopure gets expensive.

A tub will last ONE person around 30 recovery drinks. If you are drinking it for breakfast like I do, it'll go quicker obviously.

The idea is that when you completely exhaust your muscles, you should have some sugar immediately to restore your glycogen before your body turns to destroying muscle. To be honest, I haven't looked at the science behind it so I'm not claiming it as truth. People claim that there are studies that show a 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein (and much of those crabs coming from sugar) directly after exhausting your muscles is very beneficial.

Chocolate milk is a good recovery drink. Yeah yeah it has sugar but after a tough workout your body needs a LOT of things to recover! If you want, buy some whey protein (chocolate) and mix with with some chocolate milk. only use a little though and the whey protein will last a much longer time.

Thanks for the tips. I've read elsewhere about the chocolate milk...seemed strange to me, but BeachBody's recovery drink has a lot of sugar in it as well, I think for the reasons mentioned here. Chocolate milk is quite a bit cheaper...which is really good. Doing this program exactly as the nutrition guide says (98-100%) is really pricey... unless you're a zombie and can eat the same thing day in and day out. My wife and I just can't do that, but we're still trying to find ways to minimize monetary output and enjoy life.



Thanks again.

Yes a lowfat chocolate milk is a cheap alternative to a recovery drink. The ideal recovery drink is for the carb/protein ratio is to be 4carbs/1protein. Your basic 1% chocolate milk has 30g carbs and 8g of protein. So its right in that ratio. People here are misguided about protein powder and recovery drinks.

AdamC, Adding protein powder to skim milk does not make that a recovery drink. It makes it a protein shake. Carbs are what helps in the recovery process. They provide the needed glycogen replenishment for your muscles.

Check out "Optimeal".

Link:
http://tinyurl.com/y9jyasg

I am trying "ISOPURE" until the tub runs out. Then re-evaluate. Right now I could not be happier w/ the Isopure product, but it is pricey.

The whole purpose of a recovery drink is to have more carbs than proteins. You are all recommending drinks that result in more protein than carbs which is not a recovery drink, it is a protein shake.

Again I think people are confusing protein drinks/shakes with recovery drinks. You can use whey protein in a recovery drink/shake but your going to have to add a lot of fruit to get the complex carbohydrates need for the 4:1 ratio. Recovery drinks are suppose to be take within an hour of your workout for optimum performance. Protein shakes are taken any time during the day to supplement protein intake.

The previous poster has got it right. In not as many words as I do.

Here is a summary of the argument for protein after a workout and no "recovery drink". It is backed up by scientific studies, but I think this is almost 10 years old, so new studies may have improved on it by now, supporting the recovery drink. Either way, it's an interesting read and a great site in general.

http://www.hussmanfitness.org/html/TFPostProtein.html

I can admit when i'm wrong.

Apparently I've been drinking a protein shake after working out instead of a "recovery drink." I'm in Phase II now, and I'm supposed to drop one portion of protein anyways, so I guess I'll reevaluate my recovery drink.

I really don't want to buy the P90X recovery drink. $50 a tub (shipped) is pricey, but I'll look into it.

Can I get a couple reviews on the recovery drink? Who likes it? Who doesn't?

I love the recovery drink, it's delicious, but it's also expensive. I use chocolate milk half the time and the P90X recovery drink half the time. I tried another recovery drink from GNC and it was not very tasty so I switched back to P90X brand.

bcaram1,

Great article. Thanks for posting. I didn't take from it, though, an argument against a 'recovery drink,' per se. It was more just making a case for consuming a little bit of protein after a workout. Evidently having protein after a workout shuts down the natural process of muscle breakdown after stress, but allows fat to be burned. Although it didn't mention the 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein, they did recommend some carbs after working out to help in that same process. And the studies showed that it didn't take very much...just around 100 calories total with about 40 calories being whey protein.

Interesting. I think for the cost of it I'm going to start with chocolate milk.

Cheers.

Totally agree, NGY26. What I do on resistance days is add a half scoop of protein powder to my recovery drink or chocolate milk to make sure I'm getting some luceine since the P90X recovery drink doesn't say explicitly if it has any.

I think you'll be fine to use chocolate milk, but maybe think about adding a little protein powder to it since milk doesn't have very much luceine in it, maybe half a gram in a cup. It throws off the 4:1 ratio, but I still haven't seen the science behind that.

You should read the rest of that site, it's very detailed and is all backed up with science. I do think some of it is outdated, so take it with a grain of salt, though.

I'm a little broke right now, so I don't have any recovery drink or chocolate milk. Is Gatorade mix an okay temporary replacement until payday?

I'm going to say no to gatorade. Lots of sugar and sodium. TONS of sodium.

but if that's all you have, it's not gonna kill you to do that for a couple days.

You can drink regular milk if you have any.

No, I'm that broke lol. It's just till Friday.

It's not gonna hurt you. I personally would cut it with some water. Just cause there is a ton of sodium in gatorade.

It's not really a recovery drink, but I guess it's better than nothing.

It is delicious, though!