Vegan Beachbody Performance Supplements

When Beachbody’s R&D department developed the Beachbody Performance supplement line (BBP), they focused on combining cutting-edge science with botanical ingredients to create products that were unique and highly effective.

That alone was a major juggling act, making it difficult to also pay much attention to the many nutritional ideologies out there, including vegan eating.

As a result, all BBP supplements are lacto-ovo vegetarian-friendly — but not all of them are 100-percent free of animal products.

(Ovo-lacto vegetarians avoid most animal products, but do consume dairy and eggs.)

Energize and Hydrate are vegan-friendly: In other words, while they’re not yet certified vegan, they are not formulated with animal-derived ingredients.

Plant-Based Beachbody Recover

However, until now, our post-workout recovery product — Recover — was only available in dairy-based versions, so it didn’t fit into the vegan lifestyle.

But Plant-Based Recover is now available.

The formula is 100-percent vegan, with 20 grams of pea protein along with the added BCAAs and pomegranate extract found in the original formula.

With the new formula, you get the same key benefits you’ll find with original Recover, which are to help: speed muscle recovery, promote lean-muscle synthesis, combat exercise-induced muscle soreness, and improve muscle strength recovery.

One of the key goals of post-workout nutrition is to take advantage of the window when your body is especially receptive to nutrients.

Specifically, you’re trying to get dietary protein into your system so that when protein synthesis (muscle building/repair) spikes about two hours after you finish exercising, you have ample amino acids available to take advantage of it.

Although the body tends to absorb vegetable proteins slightly slower than whey, you should still be able to make the window if you take them immediately after a workout.

With this in mind, pea protein is proving to be a viable option.

Pea protein is already a strong source of branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) leucine, isoleucine, and valine, which are especially good at stimulating muscle synthesis.

And Beachbody Performance Plant-Based Recover increases those BCAAs even more thanks to an added BCAA blend with a 2:1:1 ratio of leucine, valine, and isoleucine.

Other Helpful Times to Consume Protein

Post-workout isn’t the only time that consuming protein can help with muscle synthesis and recovery.

Before bed is one great time because you can take advantage of the six-hour protein synthesis window that occurs as you sleep — but that’s just one of many times of day that protein can be beneficial.

Basically, as long as you’ve given your previous meal two to three hours to digest, consuming 20 to 25 grams of protein either as part of a meal or as a snack should have some benefit.

When it comes to high-protein snacks, most vegan protein sources can be tricky since they tend to also be high in fat and/or carbohydrates, meaning you’ll need to eat quite a bit of food to get those protein grams.

There may have been a time when the term “vegan athlete” felt oxymoronic, but not anymore.

Indeed, more and more people are looking to plant-based foods as part of a healthy lifestyle—and there’s no reason fitness enthusiasts shouldn’t follow suit.

Vegans like ultrarunner Scott Jurek and boxing champion Timothy Bradley show that an animal-product-free diet is not a limiting factor for sports performance.

With a little effort and some smart nutrient timing, there’s no reason you can’t take your athleticism to the next level as well.