Protein powder is more quickly assimilated than solid food and gets into your muscles faster. This protein shot gives your metabolism a boost, which can help with fat loss. Be sure to follow it with a good breakfast, of course.

4. Last Thing At Night

Prepare your body for long overnight fast by giving it a little something to work with. A good combination for this purpose is to mix a scoop of whey protein in with a small glass of milk.

Whey is what’s known as a "fast" protein, meaning that it’s digested quickly, while milk protein (casein) is what’s known as a "slow" protein, meaning it’s digested relatively slowly. At night, you want your protein to be metabolized slowly so that your body gets a more even supply over course of night. By mixing "fast" and "slow" proteins, you get benefits of higher-quality whey with slower digestion time of milk.

5. In-between Meals

A quick protein shake can be a great snack in between meals. It helps keep your body supplied with protein all day long. This is especially useful if you tend to have long periods of time in-between meals. It could mean difference between losing muscle and building or keeping muscle!

6. With Meals

Taking a protein supplement with meals is a handy way to increase protein content of a meal. This is perfect for when you make a meal that is somewhat low in protein.

7. In The Middle Of The Night

This is a trick that bodybuilders sometimes use in order to keep their muscles supplied with protein throughout night. Keep a pre-mixed protein shake right beside your bed. Although some trainers have been known to set alarms to wake up to drink it, I prefer to have it there waiting just in case I wake up, but I don’t try to wake up on purpose. If I don’t wake up, it’s right there ready for me to drink first thing in morning! This strategy is more targeted for muscle growth rather than fat loss.

WARNING!

Never drink a protein supplement immediately before working out!

Some people do this thinking that it will give them an energy boost or give them a head-start for post-workout recovery. Basically, all it does is sit in their stomach and bloat them up. Valuable blood that should be going to working muscles gets sent to digestive system to try and digest it. The same warning goes for taking protein during a workout. Don’t do it!

By following these protein-intake recommendations, you will increase effectiveness of your supplementation. Even if you choose to take advantage of only one or two of these timing techniques, you will certainly see an improvement in your recovery ability.

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Protein Is Crucial For Fat Loss! Part 3

The Best Protein Powder and How To Get It Dirt Cheap!

Without a doubt, whey protein is king when it comes to protein quality and digestability. Ironically, whey used to be considered a useless by-product of cheesemaking and was just dumped into ponds as waste!

There are two main classifications of whey protein, which are essentially based on how processed whey is. The two forms are whey isolate and concentrate. The major difference between two is that whey isolate is more processed and is thus a purer source of whey. Whey concentrate is still a very high quality protein however.

If you have money to spend, whey isolate is higher quality protein. If you’re looking to get most protein bang for your buck, I’m going to let you in on a little secret:

Whey concentrate is very nearly as good as isolate and is a whole lot cheaper!

I would compare it to driving a sports car. Imagine whey protein as Ferrari of protein. It is a top-quality protein and a top-quality car. If you put a manual transmission into that Ferrari, you are going to get more performance out of it. This is what happens with whey isolate as compared to whey concentrate. Whey concentrate is your basic Ferrari, while whey isolate is your souped-up Ferrari.

My favorite protein supplement, which I always recommend to clients and friends, is EAS brand whey concentrate protein powder called "Simply Protein."

EAS is a very high-quality, well-known brand name and is a pioneer in scientific supplement development. They know their stuff!

But here’s best part...

I know an online store where you can get this protein powder at a fraction of price you would pay at a regular retail store. Let me throw some numbers at you.

For 2 pounds of whey isolate you will generally pay anywhere between $29.95 and $39.95.

For 10 pounds of EAS whey concentrate at online store I will tell you about, you will pay only $49.95 (as of Nov 22, 2002). For this exact same brand at a retail supplement store, you will most likely pay around 35 to 40 dollars for only a 5 pound tub of it.

When you break down numbers, it looks something like this:

Whey Isolate: $15 to $20 per pound EAS Whey Concentrate Retail: $7 to $8 per pound EAS Whey Concentrate Online Store: $5 per pound

I’ve been using and researching protein supplements for past 12 years and I have yet to find a better deal on this high a quality of protein.

Use this link and go get some today!

http://www.fitrx.com/fitrx/fitrx_result.asp?operation=Find&i_pagesize=10&ref_franchise_id=17392&i_desc=simply protein&i_brand=34

p.s. best part is they only charge a flat rate of $5.95 for shipping regardless of size of your order. You could order 40 pounds of protein and still only pay $5.95 for shipping! (Actually, if you ordered over $200.00 worth, your shipping would be free!)

Come down slowly, being absolutely sure to keep arch in your lower back. As you near bottom, stick your butt out and try to raise your toes as high up as possible. This dramatically intensifies stretch you put on your hamstrings. Hold that stretch for a moment or two then reverse direction without bouncing.

Repeat this for 5 to 7 reps. At end of set, place barbell down gently then get ready to grab onto something for support. If you’ve done this technique correctly and intensely, your hamstrings will probably feel like jelly and you might find yourself prone to falling down suddenly (this is not a joke - I can’t tell you how many things I’ve had grab onto to catch myself on after doing a hard set of these)!

Why Is This Technique So Effective?

The reason this toe-raising technique is so effective for stiff-legged deadlift comes straight from biomechanics and anatomy.

The stiff-legged deadlift exercise places most tension on hamstrings at bottom, stretched position. Therefore, in order to maximize tension on hamstrings, we must maximize stretch on hamstrings at that point.

In standard stiff-legged deadlift, this is normally accomplished by simply bending at hips. But this is not greatest anatomical stretch that can be put on hamstring muscles.

As you may or may not know, muscles of calves are tied in with hamstrings. Therefore, placing a stretch on calves also places more stretch on hamstrings. This is what weight plates accomplish - they raise your toes, putting a stretch on calves, which then puts a greater stretch on your hamstrings.

By stretching hamstrings at both hip joint and knee joint (from stretching calves), you literally force your hamstrings to activate strongly during stiff-legged deadlift movement.

The difference is quite amazing! Try it for just one set and I promise you’ll never go back to doing it standard way ever again!

For a photograph of how to set this exercise up, visit:

http://www.fitstep.com/Misc/Newsletter-archives/issue9-hamstring-tip.htm