Volleyball Nutrition – Pure Green Protein

Volleyball Nutrition for the fastest and most optimal recovery from competition

Today for my volleyball nutrition review, I look at Vibrant Health’s Pure Green Protein.  My name is Russ Marchewka, and I am the health and wellness guy in the volleyball community.  I play professional beach volleyball in the US and am a top 25 player domestically.  I subscribe to a “mostly vegan” diet meaning I eat plants for the majority of my calories and take fish oil as a health supplement.  I have spent the last 2 years on tour perfecting how I eat and what I supplement with for complete nutrition, optimal performance and faster recovery.

Volleyball Nutrition, Why Pure Green Protein?

Pure Green Protein is amazing because:

• It’s a plant protein and much easier to digest than whey
• The amino acid profile mimics human muscle tissue
• Maintains energy and speeds recovery time

Volleyball Nutrition and how your body works

When we play sports, work out or just do anything physical our muscles are working much harder than at rest.  Muscle contraction burns 9 times more energy than a muscle at rest.  Muscles are powered by the blood sugar glucose.  When the glucose stores run out, our body converts fat to glucose, or protein to glucose.  We have various fat stores around our body, but when we use protein it’s coming from our surrounding muscles.

When we push our body to the limits, our muscles get fatigued in two different ways, either by micro-tears in the fibers or because we lost muscle mass due to a need for glucose.  In either scenario we have lost the ability, temporarily, for our muscles to give us 100% effort.  So for ideal athletic endurance and performance and the fastest recovery we need to speed nutrients and amino acids to those muscles for repair.

Volleyball Nutrition, plant proteins vs. whey protein

Protein is protein.  It’s just a series of amino acids bonded together in different arrangements.  In other words, as far as building muscle or repairing it, plant proteins are utilized the same as meat proteins or whey proteins.

So why choose plant proteins over whey?  Simply put, your health.  As an athlete, your health is the most valuable asset you have.  The healthier you are, the harder you can train, the longer you can stay on the court.  Plant proteins are much easier for our body to digest than animal based ones.  Since digestion is the most energy intensive process in our body, we ideally want to consume a protein that requires less energy to digest.  Whey protein not only takes more energy to digest, but it also causes inflammation around the body which weakens our immune system but also can lead to injuries.

Volleyball Nutrition, Is Pure Green Protein the best?

Now we know that plant proteins are not only easier to digest, but they are better for our overall health.  Pure Green Protein is a blend of yellow pea protein, alfalfa protein and rice protein in such a way that the combination of amino acids nearly matches that of our human muscle.

Think about it.  If you want to repair muscle quickly after a tough workout, there is no faster way.  If you (need) to maintain maximum output of your muscles during competition there is no better way than to give your body a pre-formed, ready to use protein that is easy to digest.  Each serving has 20 grams of protein.  That may not seem like enough compared to the other guys, but if you’re utilizing all of it quickly then it’s totally worth it.

Pure Green Protein comes in vanilla and chocolate and mixes easily with almond milk or rice milk.  I like to also mix it with a flavored coconut water and Oxylent (insert hyperlink to Oxylent) to increase my electrolyte intake at the same time.

For more information on purchasing Pure Green Protein visit Vbvolleyball.com, Nutrition Volleyball Store or for more information on Volleyball Nutrition visit Volleyball1on1.com