Bodybuilding Recipes > Shakes/Drinks > How to make muscle building shakes Making Your Homemade Bodybuilding Shakes Now the idea of these bodybuilding shake recipes is that they are very quick and very easy to make. Even if the extent of your cooking skills only reaches as far as boiling an egg, you will have no problems here. What do I need to make my shakes? A blender. Yep, other then the ingredients to the recipes themselves, all you need is a blender, electric preferably. Blenders are pretty simple kitchen appliances but I would recommend a few things to consider when choosing a blender: 1. Quality You are, hopefully, going to be using this 1,2, or more times a day. You need to make sure the blender you buy is going to cope with the amount of use you intend to get out of it. Because of this it’s probably a good idea to avoid the cheaper option and go for something a little more expensive that you believe will be harder wearing. Something that looks like it belongs in a restaurant or café bearing a brand name you have heard of is likely to be a good choice. 2. Capacity Forget those smaller blenders. By the time you have added all your ingredients and the extra ice and liquids you might try, the volume of shake you end up with will be quite a lot. 3. Glass or Plastic? There is a large selection of blenders to choose from but remember you are avoiding the cheaper options because you want your blender to last. I definitely advise you opt for a blender that comes with a glass jug/pitcher. Firstly, it will last longer (assuming you don’t drop it or smash it of course), and secondly, I think it is cleaner. When plastic gets older, the surface breaks down and stains. Just think a minute about all that milk, fruit, yoghurt, cottage cheese, etc sticking to the inside of your blender over time – not nice. 4. Power / Torque I know we aren’t talking about sports cars but you might want to consider how powerful your blender is. You are going to be throwing in quite a few ingredients, some of which are going to be stiff or hard to begin with. Make sure you choose a blender that has the power to blend all your ingredients. This is another reason to spend a little more money. How do I Use My Blender for the Bodybuilding Shake Recipes? Hopefully you bought a hard-wearing blender because you are going to get a lot of use out of it. Measurements Used For the recipes on this site, I have chosen to stick to US Customary Units (cups, tablespoons, etc). Below is a quick reference for some basic conversion that might help you: 1 dash = 6 drops 1 teaspoon (1 tsp) = 76 drops = 1/3 tablespoon = 4.93 ml 1 tablespoon (1 tbsp) = 1/16 cup or 1/2 fluid ounce = 3 tsp = 14.79 ml 1 fluid ounce (oz.) = 1/16 pint = 29.57 ml 1 cup = 8 fluid ounces = 16 tbsp = 237 ml You can easily convert measurements on a number of websites including this one from Science Made Simple, Inc.: http://www.sciencemadesimple.com/conversions.html Recommended Blending Procedure In the hope of extending the life of my blender, I try to follow the following steps in order when creating my shakes: 1. Add liquids – Pour your milk, water, juice, etc into the blender first. This ensures the work your blender will have to do is as low as possible because the more ‘liquidy’ the contents, the easier it is to mix. Also, if you put in your protein powders first, I find a lot of it will stay at the bottom of the pitcher without ever getting mixed into the liquids – a waste. 2. Add protein powder – Throw in your protein powders and any other dry ingredients. 3. Quick blend burst – My blender has a button you can tap to blend. It only blends for as long as I hold the button down so this allows me to tap it preventing your powder ‘jumping out’ of the liquid and sticking to the pitcher and lid. After this you can blend a bit more if you want. 4. Add other ingredients – You can now add your other ingredients. If the recipe includes nuts or other harder fruit, etc, be sure to chop them up or crush them to make them easier to blend. 5. Final blend – Now you can blend ‘til your heart’s content. Add more milk or other ingredients to get your desired consistency and flavour. Don’t forget your ice cubes! How Much Does Each Bodybuilding Shake Recipe Make? Naturally each recipe is different and will make different quantities depending on the ingredients and the amounts you use. This leaves it entirely up to you. It’s hard to get the nutrients your body needs when you have a busy day so a great idea is to double up on a favourite recipe at the start of your day. This means you have made one shake for now and one for later at the same time. You can easily take the second shake with you to work or wherever you go and drink it when you need.