Juicing for workouts is a great way to get your body pumped and primed for a lengthy workout session. When you juice, you cram loads of essential nutrients into one glass that will power your workout and improve your results.
Besides the important health benefits, key plant nutrients give you energy so you perform at your best in your workouts and get the most out of your exercise efforts.
Because a lot of us don’t like eating whole fruit and vegetables, we struggle to get our fill of the essential micronutrients. Micronutrients are gems of nature for our bodies and minds. Without them, our bodies aren’t ready for a workout.
Juicing is a fantastic and tasty way of stuffing yourself with the right amount of nutrients at the right time in a convenient manner.
Get ready to learn all about the ultimate warriors of the juicing world. You’re going to discover the nutrients, the fruits, and vegetables that enhance your workout, boost your staying power, and help you take your exercise regimen to the next level.
Let’s start!
The Role Of Nutrition In Exercise
Perhaps you already know that what you eat is really important. But what you’re perhaps looking to learn is why when you eat is so important too - especially if you exercise.
If you drink the right nutrient-stuffed juice an hour or two before exercise and follow it up with another an hour or two after your exercise, you’re pretty much meeting all your workout nutrition needs. You don’t really need anything else.
However, it can also depend on what you’re looking to get out of your workout. If, for example you’re an endurance athlete who trains every day for high-level competition, you’ll need more carbs and calories than the average person who exercises. You also need more protein.
On the other hand, maybe you’re training as a bodybuilder who lifts weights in order to seriously grow muscles. Because you’re looking to gain more weight, you’ll need more protein and carbs. Alternatively, you may be looking to get ready for a fitness competition, in which case your carb intake should be reduced.
It also comes down to your body type. If you have an ectomorph, you’ll probably be looking to gain more muscle. If you have a mesomorph, you’ll probably be looking to optimize your physique. If you have an endomorph, you’ll probably be looking to lose body fat.
However, it all comes down to the same thing: We all need nutrients to power us through a workout, and juicing them is just plain easier and faster than eating them.
Pre-Workout Nutrition
What and when we eat before we workout can often make a huge different to not only your performance, but also the way you recover.
You need to eat or drink about two to three hours before a workout with nutrients that will:
Carbohydrates
Carbs are important because consuming these before exercise will fuel your training, giving you lots of energy, and they will also help you recover.
Many people say that you only need carbs if you’re going to be engaged in a lengthy workout session, but that’s just not true.
Let’s say you want to do a shorter workout, but you want it to be high-intensity. You need lots of energy, right? Unless your idea of exercise is to go for a stroll in the park and feed the birds, you’re going to need to stock up on carbs.
Carbs also retain muscle and liver glycogen, which is important because it is this that tells your brain you have been well fed and don’t need any more food during your workout.
The last thing you want is to get hungry after 30 minutes. Carbs also stimulate the production of insulin, which prevents protein breakdown.
Moreover, this is why you absolutely need to start juicing and stop drinking sugary energy drinks.
Fats
Healthy fats are another essential macronutrient that you need.
The funny thing about fats is that they don’t improve your performance - but they don’t really weaken it either.
What they do is slow down digestion, which keeps your body on an even keel in terms of its insulin and blood glucose levels. They also provide you with some micronutrients, too.
Protein
You can drink some of your juice during exercise, and it should be high protein because protein helps to prevent muscle breakdown, which leads to a better recovery post-workout.
It also ensures that you adapt better to training as you progress, which means that you are better able to power your way through your workout.
You don’t need a massive amount of protein in your juice; just a small amount is enough to prevent protein breakdown. If you like exercising on an empty stomach, then you don’t need any more than around 15 grams of protein during training.
Athletes who do punishing training bouts need more protein, as does anyone who is looking to gain a significant amount of mass.
Micronutrients
Lots of people know how to get their macronutrients - such as fats, carbs and protein - but they don’t always stop to think about the role that vitamins and minerals (micronutrients) play in helping them power their way through a workout.
Micronutrients play a really key role in energy production
They also help to strengthen bones, boost your immune system, instigate hemoglobin synthesis, and protect you against oxidative damage
Vitamins and minerals also repair muscle tissue that has been damaged during exercise
You have to remember that workout stresses numerous metabolic pathways, and if we are to stay on top of these pathways and aid their recovery, we need micronutrients.
It’s the same as when a car breaks down on a highway - it needs assistance from an auto repair company, otherwise, it’s just dead on its wheels.
Moreover, when we exercise more and more, we experience muscle biochemical adaptations. To cope with these changes, we need even more micronutrients.
Even routine exercise can lead to a loss of too many micronutrients. These leaves you feeling fatigued. It doesn’t help you to finish off a workout. Your body takes ages to repair, and you may even come away with a few injuries.
The key nutrients that athletes include in their diets are:
And the best place to get more micronutrients?
From juicing, of course!
Why?
Juicing is easy, and convenient, what is more convenient than drinking your nutrients?
An 8-ounce vegetable juice blend is like eating 2 large salads without the dressing.
It’s portable, so you can easily drink them on your way to the gym, and on the drive home!
Key Nutrients That Power Up Your Juicing For Workouts
B-Vitamins
If you’ve been working out for almost an hour but you find yourself running out of steam towards the end, the problem could be that you’re lacking in B vitamins.
B Vitamins include:
If you’ve ever bought an energy drink, you may have noticed that they contain nutrients from the B-vitamin family, including thiamin, B12, riboflavin, and many others.
The reason for this is that B-vitamins give you a burst of energy. They’re essential for the conversion of food into fuel. Essential really means essential because without them you will have little energy. The body uses the B-vitamins to convert sugar and protein into fuel so athletes get as many of them as they can.
According to experts from the Department of Nutrition at Arizona State University which posted on MedlinePlus Health Information, B-vitamins, which include thiamin, riboflavin, and vitamin B-6 are necessary for energy-producing pathways in the body. https://medlineplus.gov/bvitamins.html
Additionally, folate and vitamin B-12 are necessary to synthesize new red blood cells and to repair damaged cells.
Active individuals with a B-vitamin deficit may experience diminished performance during high intensity workouts.
The major difference between vitamin B from juices made at home and that energy drink is the latter is filled with other bad ingredients that have landed people in the emergency room, but your juice only has fresh produce and nutrients - Winning!
Calcium
You’ve probably heard all about calcium and how it strengthens the bones and you probably realize that a super strong skeleton is fundamental if you’re going to working out, right?
Therefore, it makes sense that calcium should be one of the key nutrients that power your workouts. It increases your bone density, which ensures that your skeleton is strong enough for a great workout.
Milk is not the only source of calcium, you can get it from vegetables, and it’s a better source since vegetables have no fat, no cholesterol, and they are low in calories.
Vitamin C
Did you know that if you work out in colder climates, you could suffer from exercise-induced asthma? Not to raise any alarm bells, but that chesty cough you’ve been battling with these past few months could in fact be asthma.
In addition, it could be that your immune system is not as healthy as you might think. This can be resolved with Vitamin C, which naturally occurs in citrus fruits and various vegetables, and can boost your immunity, protect your cells from free radicals, and a slew of other functions that builds a better body that is powered for exercise.
Moreover, the more vitamin C you have, the easier it is to avoid contracting the flu and the common cold.
Vitamin D
We all need vitamin D, right? Vitamin D comes from the sun and it makes us feel amazing. For many of us, the more sun we have the better we feel. It just imbues us with positivity and motivation.
Vitamin D boosts your mood, and in this way, it can increase your determination to make it through a workout like a beast.
However, your mood alone will not get you through all the obstacles; you need something more. You need power, too. You don’t need to go searching too far, though, because according to Science Daily vitamin D has been studied and found to be linked with increased muscle efficiency.
It may also be fantastic at tightening up your skeletal muscle function. These are some pretty awesome findings.
Vitamin E
When we’re sick, we don’t really feel like doing anything. We’re just not at our best. We don’t feel like filing all those documents at work, going out on that date tonight … and we especially don’t feel in the mood for powering through the workout.
It’s funny, but it always seems as though some people are more susceptible to getting sick than others are. Perhaps it’s you that always seems to be sick, while your friends are constantly motoring through their workout like a warrior.
The reason for this could be that you defficent in vitamin E. Consuming more vitamin E can lower your risk of infection. It can make you almost immune to the common cold, the flu, and can slash your risk of developing pneumonia by almost 70%.
Iron
Popeye loved his spinach because he knew it contained lots of iron that would power his way through a workout. His nemesis Bluto must have loved the dark leafy green even more, because he was even bigger!
Iron is one of the key nutrients you need a lot more of if you want to own your workouts and fight fatigue; it’s also integral in the metabolizing proteins, hemoglobin production, and red blood cell health.
Here is some quick science:
Each time you work out for an hour, your body loses around 5.6% of iron. That’s quite significant
What happens next is your red blood cells struggle to carry as much oxygen to your muscles
Moreover, when your muscles don’t get enough oxygen, you quickly get fatigued and may not be able to complete your workout
Magnesium
Magnesium is an absolute powerhouse mineral that top athletes make a priority. Magnesium is actually composed of over 300 enzymes that aid energy metabolism.
It also helps to strengthen your bones, which as previously mentioned is vital for your workout. As well as having a strong skeleton, you always need to avoid stress fractures as much as possible, and magnesium will help you do just that.
In addition, because you lose a lot of magnesium through sweat, you really need to consume as much of it as possible to replenish the supply lost in your workouts.
Potassium
No doubt, you’ve seen tennis players munching away on bananas during a break in play. This is because bananas are super rich in potassium, a vital nutrient that speeds up recovery and nips cramps in the bud.
Juicing For Micronutrients: Key Ingredients
Now that you know that what key micronutrients you need to power your workout, you’re probably wondering about the best sources for these, here are your best fruit and vegetable sources that will provide you with much needed nutrition through power juicing.
Calcium
Vitamin C
Vitamin C could easily turn out to be your favorite micronutrient because so many tasty fruits and vegetables are loaded with it.
Vitamin E
Iron
Potassium
Magnesium
Vitamin D
There are many choices in great juicing fruits and vegetables for vitamin D.
B-Vitamins
Riboflavin
Vegetable sources include beet greens, asparagus, spinach, collard greens, dandelion greens and other dark green leafy vegetables, peppers, Brussels sprouts, asparagus and broccoli.
Fresh fruit sources include blueberries, apples, passion fruit, and avocado. When it comes to fruit, many offer higher counts in dried form which is not appropriate for juicing, plus dried fruit is not your best choice in any case, since it is much higher in sugar than fresh fruit.
Folate
Vegetable sources include leafy greens such as spinach and turnip greens.
Fruit sources include oranges with the most at about 50 mcg per fruit and one large glass of orange juice providing even more. Other folate-rich fruits include grapes, banana, cantaloupe, papaya, grapefruit, and strawberries.
Vitamin B6
Vegetable sources include leafy green vegetables: spinach, kale, greens, and broccoli.
Fruit sources include bananas.
The Power Of Beets
This chapter is dedicated to beets, which can go a long way to power your workouts and improve your overall performance.
Beets Contain A Wealth Of Nutrients
Yes, beets contain a wide variety of healthy nutrients, including:
Benefits
Yet people keep on ignoring these purple veggies whenever they do their weekly shop. As a matter of fact, beetroots must be one of the most overlooked veggies in America. It’s amazing how people who see these colorful vegetables screaming at them “pick me! pick me!” but opt for lettuce again, as usual.
Get out of your comfort zone, and get into juicing beetroots. Elite athletes all around the world use them, and they’ll tell you that beets are the vegetables that give them the edge over their competitors.
The Science Behind Beets
Beetroots are rich in inorganic nitrates, which are compounds that encourage the signaling molecule Nitric Oxide (NO) to take action.
NO is made in our bodies but we don’t always produce very much of it. To produce more of it, we need to eat food that is rich in nitrate - such as beets.
NO improves the strength of our skeleton, and increases the amount of oxygen that is sent to our brain.
Why Juice Beets?
According to research, drinking around 500ml of beetroot juice per day can keep us feeling more energetic. In fact, drinking beet juice can keep us going in the gym for 15% more time than we normally would.
Many people think that juicing just takes up too much time, and it’s too messy. However when you have the right equipment and plan ahead, it is much easier than you think.
If you have the time to make yourself some juice in the morning before a workout, this is something you should definitely think about doing.
Alternatives include beet powder and concentrated juices, but these are often filled with artificial substances, too much sugar, and not enough fiber or nutrients - basically, they don’t have the same amount of good stuff as beet juice does.
How Much Do You Need?
As previously stated, 500ml of beet juice per day is enough to increase our staying power by around 15%. This equates to 2 cups. However, go ahead find a dose that works for you, if 250ml of beet juice a day increases your staying power by 10%, then go for it.
Some athletes drink more than 600ml, but again it’s all about how much you can handle.
Cooked Or Raw?
Research in the past has shown that cooking beetroots can reduce the nitrates content - which is not what we really want. For this reason, it’s best to juice with raw beets only.
Drink It Slow Or Fast?
It takes a while for the nitrates in beets to be ingested, and used by your body. They enter our mouth, where they are manipulated by saliva.
This takes a bit of time, so if you clean your teeth not long after eating (and many people do this after eating beets in order to get rid of the purple color) you will only be washing all the beneficial nitrates out of your mouth. Drink slowly for better conversion rates.
Does It Work For Everyone?
Beet juice works for many people, many boost their workouts, but like with anything, our body’s all respond in different ways. What works for some might not work for others.
The only really accurate way you can find out is by giving it a go. Other high nitrate vegetables include spinach and kale.
10 Boosting Recipes With Juicing For Workouts
Here are some great juicing recipes to power your workouts. These recipes pack a lot of punch and they will fuel your pre and post-workout routines.
Preparation of these juices will depend on your juicer model, as they are all different in requirements for cutting, speed settings and order in which to juice.
Get juicing!
Magnesium Magic
Too many of us don’t get enough magnesium, yet this micronutrient plays an essential role in a solid workout.
If you’re looking to find a way of sneaking more of this mineral into your diet, this represents a fantastic way to do so.
Ingredients:
Dynamite Blend
Stop reaching for a sports drink after your exercise, and start making this best juice after workout with antioxidant-and vitamin C rich plants instead. It’s super rich in all your essential vitamins and minerals.
Ingredients:
Repair And Recovery
This is nature’s best juice for muscle recovery so that you can go again soon. It helps to repair muscle and tissue damage and makes your body tougher over the long-term.
Ingredients:
The Red Resurrector
Tomato juice is super rich in electrolytes, and ideal for maintaining proper hydration during and before a workout. Tomatoes also have many other health benefits and essential antioxidants to prevent chronic disease.
This juice includes an added boost from coconut water, which is naturally rich in electrolytes, so you can skip the sports drink and get your energy from juice instead.
Ingredients:
Beet Power Juice
Ingredients:
Post Workout Bliss Juice
Another great all natural post workout juice recipe for recovery.
Ingredients:
Pre-Workout Energy Blast Juice
Get all the energy with this pre workout juice recipe and all you need for your intense workouts with this refreshing blend.
Ingredients:
Iron Infusion Juice
This juice is loaded with healthy iron rich vegetables for healthy production of hemoglobin, healthy red blood cells, and fighting fatigue.
Ingredients:
Green Iron Power Juice
Another iron rich blend, with super healthy greens and ginger that fights inflammation.
Ingredients:
Vitamin D Infusion Juice
Get your vitamin D fix from this blend.
Ingredients:
Conclusion
Juicing is a quick and convenient way to get all those micronutrients you need. You can make enough juice for 2 or 3 days and take it along to the gym in a thermos or have it within easy reach in your fridge when you come back from a run.
Its convenience can’t be beat, eliminating the time and inclination to chew up to 3 or 4 bowls of vegetables every day.
Juicing is something that helps you to reach your goals. It is enjoyable - most people love it - and you can experiment as much as you want.