One of the key goals most trainees and athletes have is changing their body composition. They want to lose fat and gain lean skeletal muscle, either with the goal of bulking up and getting huge or slimming down and getting ripped. Either way, they want their exercise and nutrition regimens to help them change their health, their energy levels, and they way they look. In order to do that, you have to change what your body is made of, and in order to do that, you need to consume the right kind of food. Enter Beachbody’s Hardcore Base Shake.

What is the Hardcore Base Shake? It’s as simple as it is essential: it’s a whey protein formulation that will help you maximize muscle growth and prevent muscle loss. When you exercise, you tear your muscles down, inflicting millions of micro-tears in your muscle fibers, which while you’re recovering are built back up bigger and stronger. This process of tearing your muscles down so that they can be built back up is the key of any training regimen, but in order for them to be built back up right, you need the highest quality protein you can get your hands on.

Hardcore Base Shake provides you with just that: an elite composition of whey protein that has zero artificial sweeteners, flavorings, or colorants. That means you can mix your whey protein with whatever you like without worrying about the taste: any body builder that’s tried to mix their chocolate whey protein with orange juice will know exactly how limited having a built in flavor can be!

What does Hardcore Base Shake Do?

When you work out, you wear down your muscles. Your body then releases hormones to help rebuild the muscles, and repairs them with the available amino acids it has at hand. By drinking a dose of whey protein, you will fuel your body’s drive to grow bigger and stronger by making sure you have lots of muscle building blocks available, making your muscle’s regeneration easier and faster to accomplish.

Our muscles are made of protein, and you can think of protein as being composed of twenty different amino acids, nine of which are called ‘essential’, which means we simply can’t make them ourselves; we have to consume them from an outside source. Luckily for us, whey protein contains all nine of these essential amino acids. Found in milk and other dairy products, whey protein is absorbed quickly, which makes it perfect when it comes to recovering from a work out.

However, even the fastest protein is slow when compared the absorption speeds of carbs. Our blood sugar is derived from carbs, and when our glycogen and blood sugar levels are low after a workout, we absorb a new dose of carbs like nothing else. That’s why Hardcore Base Shake comes with dextrose and maltodextrin, which are a simple and complex carb. The simple carb, dextrose, is absorbed quickly and turned directly into blood sugar, while the complex carb, maltodextrin, is absorbed slowly through the liver. The result is a quick boost of energy that is followed by a long payoff as the maltodextrin is released through the liver, making it perfect for a recovery shake right after a workout.

Finally, the elite touch to be found in Hardcore Base Shake is the cocktail of digestive enzymes that will help you absorb the protein all the quicker and more effectively, as well as reducing any bloating or stomach gas.

When Should You Use Hardcore Base Shake?

Whey protein is an excellent source of energy and calories. You can mix it with milk or any other beverage at any time for a quick nutrition bump, or even load it with fruit, peanut butter, coconut oil and other delicious foods to make it part of a complete meal replacement shake.

When you’re looking to gain muscle, you need to make sure that you get enough protein in general. It can be hard to do this from just eating animal protein, as most of us need to 1 to 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight, which is where adding whey protein to your drink can really help out.

However, if you’re looking to use your Hardcore Base Shake as a workout recovery drink, then you

should take it right after your workout. This is when your blood sugar and glycogen are low from being used up in the workout, and your muscles are sore and torn up from the stress. Drinking the right combination of whey protein and carbs at this point will maximize your recovery and muscle growth.

We recommend the following formula: 2 Scoops of Fuel Shot for the carbs, 2 Scoops of Hardcore Base Shake, and whichever juice or milk you prefer to use to wash it down.

This will deliver the ideal 4:1 ratio of carbs to protein to help maximize your absorption.

How Much Hardcore Base Shake Do You Need?

If you are looking to maximize muscle growth, then you need to make sure you are eating enough protein. If you don’t get enough, you’ll not reap the rewards of all your hard work. That’s why it’s essential to have the right amount—and Hardcore Base Shake can make it incredibly easy to get as much as you need.

If you are doing extreme training hard to bulk up, then you should aim for 1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight. Thus if you weigh 150lbs, you should be eating 225 grams of protein each day. 1 scoop of Hardcore Base Shake will give you 18 grams of protein, so drinking two shakes a day with two scoops in each will give you an excellent base of 72 grams right there. It can be incredibly hard to get enough protein, which is why a protein shake can make it much, much easier to get all you need without making you consume seven steaks a day.