What's the best whey for CrossFit and when to use it?

There are more than 200,000 CrossFit enthusiasts in France. Athletes who consume more and more supplements such as protein powders. 

While whey remains the most popular dietary supplement for these athletes, many of them are unsure of which type of whey to choose.

Is whey isolate better than whey concentrate? Should I take hydrolyzed whey? Classic" whey already has a high nutritional value, providing essential amino acids and BCAAs, but it's whey isolate that's more suitable for sports.

When used in the right conditions, whey improves muscle recovery and therefore the beneficial effects of training on muscles, including muscle gain according to exercise intensity.

To achieve these goals, however, you need to look at your diet as a whole, and not neglect other macronutrients such as carbohydrates and lipids. Carbohydrates are very important for (re)filling up on energy and maintaining physical performance.

Other rules must be observed for successful sports nutrition. The CrossFit enthusiast must monitor the quantity and quality of whey consumed on a daily basis. In addition, it's best to take itpost-training.

These few lines will provide valuable nutritional advice for all CrossFit practitioners.

CrossFit: strength or endurance?

Contrary to popular belief, CrossFit is nothing new. The sport originated in the USA in the 1970s. Conceived by the Glassmann couple, it is, in fact, a method of physical conditioning.

This sport enables its practitioners to prepare for tough physical challenges. For this reason, it has been practiced for years by military personnel the world over.

CrossFit combines cardio and strength training. It's based on the famous "Workout of the Day" or WOD. This term refers to a set of exercises to be performed during a session. These WODs last between 45 and 60 minutes and enable you to work on balance, limb strength and coordination, and muscular explosiveness.

Depending on the WOD of the day, the practitioner will have to use a pair of dumbbells or a kettlebell. Despite the use of this equipment, CrossFit cannot be reduced to a bodybuilding technique.

In fact, the aim is not specifically to build muscle mass. It's all about improving overall fitness. CrossFit would be an excellent way to lose body fat, for example, as part of a lean bodybuilding program.

Although the discipline is a mix of endurance and strength exercises, the focus is on optimizing recovery rather than on muscle mass gain in particular. The best whey for footballers may, for example, also be suitable for CrossFit.

Is it necessary to consume protein powder to practice CrossFit?

Whey is never essential for building muscle. However, sporting activity is always accompanied by an increase in protein requirements. This is because physical effort triggers a biological process that leads to the restructuring of muscle fibers.

An adapted protein intake will then be necessary to optimize muscle tissue reformation, and even repair micro-injuries.

The body repairs these damaged fibers through physiological adaptation. During muscular reconstruction, the body improves the response to effort of the muscle groups concerned. 

This biological process enables us to gain strength or endurance, depending on the sequence and nature of our training sessions. It also helps to lose weight by mobilizing fat reserves.

Since CrossFit has the reputation of being a fairly tough discipline, it's all the more important to supplement your protein intake. In fact, any deficiency is relatively dangerous, since injuries are not uncommon in this sport. Taking protein powder will help reduce the risk of muscular injury.

This is just one of the many benefits of consuming protein powders. These products improve physical fitness in many ways if the consumer takes part in regular sporting activities.

These supplements enable better physiological adaptation to exercise. This translates into an increase in endurance and/or muscle mass, depending on the intensity and nature of the exercise.

Of course, protein powders in themselves don't boost your physical performance. For example, we still see too many athletes looking for protein to bulk up their glutes or swell their backs. In the same way, whey won't make you fatter or thinner. It's your workouts that are at the heart of their many benefits. Without physical activity, these dietary supplements will be useless to you.

Which protein is right for CrossFit?

Before determining the best protein for CrossFit enthusiasts, it's important to understand the needs of these athletes. As mentioned above, CrossFit is not about building excessive muscle. CrossFiters train regularly to achieve a slim figure, with well-defined muscles.

In this context,whey is certainly the best solution. In addition to its high amino acid and BCAA content, this product is also highly bioavailable. It therefore has all the qualities needed to effectively support your body after a CrossFit session. That's the whole point of supplementation in this discipline.

Whey provides your body with the amino acids it needs to rapidly repair muscle damage. Its high bioavailability will ensure that the body quickly has the nutrients it needs to strengthen the main muscle groups. In this way, whey speeds up the whole recovery process, while optimizing the results of your training sessions.

Whey is currently the most popular protein powder among athletes. It's perfect for reversing the ratio of body fat to lean body mass. In addition to its muscle-building effects, this supplement also has a strong satiety-enhancing effect. This appetite-suppressant effect aids weight loss in those who find it difficult to lose fat. This is sometimes the case for beginners who are just starting out in CrossFit. See our article on whey for beginners to find out more.

On the other hand, some exercisers may have a different metabolism, and may struggle to put on weight and build muscle mass. Gainers (or mass gainers) are an excellent alternative. We come back to this morphotype in detail in our articles on mass gain for an ectomorph, the best whey for an ectomorph and choosing between whey vs gainer.

In general, it's nothing more or less than whey coupled with a carbohydrate source, resulting in a high-calorie mix. These high-calorie protein powders have been formulated with muscle mass gain in mind, and can be of great help to exercisers with very fast metabolisms, or those who find it difficult to eat enough.

For athletes, the quality and origin of whey protein are essential, impacting on their state of health, their sensations during exercise and their overall performance. Our made-in-France whey and mass gainers are free from sweeteners and additives. They are the fruit of the work of a team of pharmacists, aiming to optimize the performance of top-level athletes.

What is the best type of whey for CrossFit?

If whey is indeed the best protein for CrossFit, we mustn't forget that there are 3 variants of this product: concentrated whey, whey isolate and hydrolyzed whey. Is whey isolate better than concentrated whey for CrossFit? And what about hydrolyzed whey?

It would appear that all these dietary supplements are relatively similar, although the isolate is of better quality, with an optimum degree of filtration (neither too much nor too little). Classic" whey has a sufficiently high concentration of amino acids for supplementation.

What's more, it is rapidly assimilated by the body. As a result, the body has the amino acids it needs as quickly as possible. However, whey isolate has a lower lactose content (virtually lactose-free), and higher protein purity, without denaturation.

Isolate remains the protein supplement to consider for the most sensitive. When high quality and additive-free, these products help prevent any digestive problems associated with regular whey consumption.

How do you take your whey if you practice CrossFit?

CrossFit athletes should consume whey under the same conditions as endurance athletes. In this way, they can make the most of supplementation to optimize recovery.

Consequently, it's best to consume your shaker after your workout. Even if this is less true for bodybuilding, post-exercise supplementation is essential to ensure that the body repairs post-training damage as quickly as possible. In general, the ideal timeframe is between 30 minutes and a few hours after exercise.

As for the amount of whey to consume, you'll need to plan for around twenty grams (20-25g) of protein after your workouts. It's also important to have the right amount of carbohydrates, i.e. around 12g of carbohydrates in your whey shaker. These carbohydrates are essential for replenishing glycogen stores.

The presence of carbohydrates guarantees the famous " 3Rs of recovery". The resulting beverage ensures glycogen replenishment (Refuel), muscle fiber repair (Recover) and rehydration (Rehydrate).

Which whey should you choose for CrossFit?

Because whey brands abound on the market, making the right choice is no easy task. Consumers will have to learn to identify the best products, and to do so they will have to analyze the composition of these supplements. Indeed, most producers do not market raw whey. Instead, it is almost invariably blended with additives.

These additives improve certain aspects of the finished product. Some can be used to whiten the whey, while others reduce the foam produced during dissolving or improve the miscibility of the mixture. This is particularly true of lecithins, which you'll find on the labels of many whey packs.

Another widely-used additive is sweeteners, the famous "fake sugars", which provide an extremely sweet taste, without the calories of sugar. Unfortunately, these widely-used compounds are not without danger, especially in the context of long-term comfort consumption, as with protein supplementation.

These ingredients could lead to a variety of disorders over the long term (metabolic disorders, inflammatory disorders...). What's more, they are the primary cause of the digestive problems often wrongly attributed to protein powders.

So it's not just a question of choosing a recognized whey. Whenever possible, you should opt for a certified additive-free whey, such as the classic Protéalpes range. A protein powder without additives will be very well tolerated by the body and will be perfectly healthy.

Finally, as well as a doping-free certified whey, we can't recommend enough a whey made in France, from French pasture milk, reared extensively and traditionally, in small volumes.

Last but not least, French legislation offers consumers a degree of protection. Current regulations oblige manufacturers to detail the origin of the ingredients used.

A first guarantee of quality in a market where some producers use GMO additives, among other things.