So, you’ve adopted a high-protein diet and are wondering how to adjust your fitness routine for best results.
Although any fitness routine can complement a high-protein diet, research suggests that muscle-building, strength training, and endurance exercises may further enhance its effects.[1-4]
What does that look like?
Here, we share five fitness routines you can try to maximize the benefits of your high-protein diet, plus recipes and other resources.
Fitness Benefits of a High-Protein Diet
You’re probably aware of the health benefits of a high-protein diet, so let’s look at the fitness benefits.
The primary fitness benefits of increasing protein are:[1-4]
- To help support muscle maintenance: Protein supplies the amino acids required for muscle growth, which may help you reach your fitness goals faster.
- To promote exercise recovery: Amino acids in protein help promote normal repair and recovery of muscles and tissues.
If you’re eating high-protein and working out to lose weight, studies also suggest protein can help by increasing satiety, potentially supporting normal production of appetite-stimulating hormones.[5-7]
There’s also evidence that protein may support various aspects of normal hormonal function, which may play a role in optimal body composition and the energy needed for exercise.[8-11]
There are many connections between protein intake, health, and fitness, which is why high-protein diets have remained standard among the world’s most elite athletes and everyday fitness enthusiasts.
3 Fitness Routines that Pair Well with High-Protein Diets
Changing your diet offers a perfect opportunity to switch up your fitness routine.
Although any exercise is considered healthful, changing the way you move can help you by challenging new muscle groups, breaking through plateaus, avoiding repetitive injuries, preventing boredom, and enhancing mobility, endurance, and strength.
Here are three fitness routines that pair well with high-protein diets for building muscle, strength, and endurance.
1: Weight Lifting
High protein diets and weight training go together like, well, protein powder and frozen berries!
The reason is that the extra protein helps fuel and support muscle growth, repair, and maintenance, as well as aiding recovery.
If you’re new to weight-lifting, it’s essential to learn proper form to prevent injuries and select the right amount of weight.
Often, beginners—especially women—lift much less than they could if they knew which exercises to focus on and how to lift safely, whereas men may lift too heavy, neglect form, and injure themselves early on.
To jumpstart your routine, spend some time researching proper form and load, or, better yet, invest in a few sessions with a personal trainer for individual recommendations and coaching.
The fees are affordable, and they will save you tons of time and headaches.
If you can’t afford a personal trainer, look for online strength training programs that offer a beginner’s guide to lifting, and start slow. Once you have the form down, you can safely increase your weight without risking injury.
A Sample full-body Beginner’s Strength Training Routine may include:
- A five-minute warmup, combining stretching and mobility (Tip: Warm up by doing the moves you plan on doing in the workout without the weights, then add in stretching.)
- 3 sets of 10-12 weighted squats
- 3 sets of 10-12 pushups
- 3 sets of 10-12 deadlifts
- 3 sets of 10-12 bicep curls to shoulder press
- 3 sets of 10-12 side lunges with a one-arm backrow (repeat on each side)
- 3 sets of 30-60 second plank holds
- 3 sets of weighted step-back or isometric weighted lunges
- 3 sets of 10-12 overhead triceps or tricep dips using bodyweight
- A five to ten-minute cool down with stretching
There are endless free and paid strength training workouts available online for all abilities and fitness styles, including body pump, traditional strength training, heavy lifting, kettlebells, and body weight.
Although recommendations vary, most fitness experts recommend 3-4 strength-training sessions per week, with a day’s rest in between.
Rest days are essential for muscle repair and for making room for cardio, such as walking, interval training, and dancing.
Tips to Help with Post-Strength Training Soreness
Delayed onset muscle soreness (also known as DOMS) is common after lifting weights (even for experienced weight lifters).
Fortunately, it can be prevented or eased by:
- Eating enough protein and healthy carbs following your workout or throughout the day (Aim for 0.7-1 grams of protein per pound of body weight for optimal muscle building.)
- Try taking an Epsom salt bath to relax sore muscles
- Drink at least 8-10 glasses of water daily to help flush lactic acid
- Take a sauna
- Try BCAAs (branch chain amino acids) to promote muscle repair and recovery[12][13]
- Stretch before and after your workouts, and on rest days
- Try Creatine monohydrate to support speedy recovery[14][15]
Get more helpful tips in: 12 Tips for Clean & Efficient Muscle Recovery Post-Workout and 10 Tips for Building Muscle After 40
2: HIIT Training
High-intensity interval training (HIIT) supports many goals associated with a high-protein diet, including metabolic function, optimal body composition, cognitive function, and muscle recovery.
Unlike traditional cardio or endurance training, HIIT exercises require only short bursts of all-out effort, followed by rest, rinse, and repeat with a different exercise.
HIIT workouts are popular because they:
- Can be completed quickly and efficiently
- Build strength, speed, and endurance
- Work the whole body
- Prevent repetitive injuries
- Keep things interesting
- And some research suggests they are even more effective than traditional cardio for certain aspects of health and fitness, such as increasing exercise capacity.[8]
A Sample HIIT Workout may include:
- A 5-minute warm-up
- 8 exercises of 30-60 seconds with 30 seconds to 1 minutes of rest, such as:
- Jogging in place
- Jumping jacks
- Burpees
- Plank shoulder taps
- Mountain climbers
- Tricep dips
- High knees
- Air squats or pop squats
- 5-minute cool down and stretch
HIIT workouts pair well with strength training, weight lifting, or yoga, and can be alternated for maximum muscle building and conditioning.
Since HIIT demands all-out effort, proper warm-up and stretching are essential to prevent injuries, as is adequate rest time between sets of at least a minute.
You may be able to reduce rest time as you become more fit, but be sure you give yourself enough time to recover.
Related reading: Strength Training vs. Cardio – How to Choose
3: Endurance Training
If you’ve been playing with the idea of increasing endurance by running a 5K, half-marathon, full marathon, or triathlon, research suggests a high-protein diet can help fuel that goal.
Endurance training requires more time, patience, and effort than strength training or HIIT, but can also offer the ultimate fitness challenge and get you in the best shape of your life.
The key is to start with manageable goals—like running a 5K or a try-for-fun race rather than a full marathon—and do your research or consult an endurance exercise expert about the best way to train to prevent injury while making noticeable gains.
If you decide to move up to more demanding exercises, like a triathlon or marathon, hiring a coach/trainer is a really good idea, as they can customize a training, recovery, and nutrition program to help meet the physical demands of rigorous endurance training.
Many endurance athletes find great motivation and camaraderie by joining a team or group, such as a cycling or distance-running team, to make things more fun and help them reach their goals.
Regardless, be sure you’re taking enough time for recovery and focusing on stretching, mobility, optimizing sleep, and hitting your protein targets while consuming enough carbs for energy.
If you’re focusing on one endurance exercise, like running or cycling, be sure to engage other muscle groups on rest days through strength training, like yoga, pilates, or weight lifting (talk to a trainer for individual recommendations).
Protein shakes are a great way to help meet the body’s demands for extra calories, protein, and carbs during training.
Some perfect post-workout shakes for endurance training include:
How to Use Protein Powder to Help Meet Your Daily Targets
High-protein diets can offer many health and fitness benefits, but hitting those protein targets can be a challenge on busy days.
This is where clean protein powder supplements can help you meet your daily protein goals and help fill in nutrient gaps.
Protein powders can be blended into shakes, oatmeal, puddings, baked goods, and homemade protein bars, and taste great.
Biochem offers two varieties of clean, sustainability-sourced protein powder, including:
- Grassfed Whey Protein Isolate in chocolate, vanilla, unsweetened, and unflavored
- Sustainably Sourced Vegan Protein Powder made with organic ingredients in naturally sweetened chocolate or vanilla
Each variety contains at least 20 grams of clean protein per scoop, with no artificial ingredients, refined sugar, or unnecessary fillers.
We also offer a line of sports nutrition supplements, including Creatine Monohydrate, BCAA Powder, Glutamine, and Natural Testosterone Booster.
All Biochem protein powders and sports nutrition supplements are tested for purity and potency, and manufactured in cGMP-certified facilities, ensuring you get all the benefits with none of the junk!
References mentioned in this article:
- “A systematic review, meta-analysis and meta-regression of the effect of protein supplementation on resistance training-induced gains in muscle mass and strength in healthy adults”. British Journal of Sports Medicine.
- “Effects of Protein Supplementation on Performance and Recovery in Resistance and Endurance Training”. Frontiers in Nutrition.
- “The effects of protein supplements on muscle mass, strength, and aerobic and anaerobic power in healthy adults: a systematic review”. Sports Med.
- “Nutrient timing revisited: Is there a post-exercise anabolic window?” Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.
- “Effect of short- and long-term protein consumption on appetite and appetite-regulating gastrointestinal hormones, a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials”. Physiol Behav. 2020.
- “Are Dietary Proteins the Key to Successful Body Weight Management? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Studies Assessing Body Weight Outcomes after Interventions with Increased Dietary Protein”. Nutrients.
- A high-protein diet for reducing body fat: mechanisms and possible caveats. Nutr Metab (Lond).
- “Dietary protein intake and reproductive hormones and ovulation: the BioCycle study”.
- Fertility and Sterility, Volume 104, Issue 3, e2
- “Increased Human Growth Hormone After Oral Consumption of an Amino Acid Supplement: Results of a Randomized, Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind, Crossover Study in Healthy Subjects”. Am J Ther.
- “Effects of Dietary Protein on Thyroid Axis Activity”. Nutrients.
- “Branched-Chain Amino Acid Ingestion Stimulates Muscle Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis following Resistance Exercise in Humans”. Front Physiol.
- “Co-Ingestion of Branched-Chain Amino Acids and Carbohydrate Stimulates Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis Following Resistance Exercise in Trained Young Men”. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab.
- “Effect of creatine supplementation and resistance-exercise training on muscle insulin-like growth factor in young adults”. Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab.
- “Creatine supplementation nullifies the adverse effect of endurance exercise on the subsequent strength performance”. Rodrigo Vitasovic Gomes1 and Marcelo Saldanha Aoki1,2.
- “Evidence-Based Effects of High-Intensity Interval Training on Exercise Capacity and Health: A Review with Historical Perspective”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health