USN Protein Shakes review

Protein shakes are just for body builders right? You only need them if you are lifting weights or trying to bulk up? 

I'm no nutritional expert but I kind of always thought that protein intake was more important for people into weights and body building than for runners and endurance athletes. 

Then a friend recently pointed out that while lifting weights undoubtedly causes muscle damage that needs a protein fix to repair running surely causes a much higher level of muscle damage when you are running high mileage which surely needs even more attention in the form of a protein fix. 

I'd never really looked at it that way before so recently I have had an added interest in not only getting enough protein into my diet but also getting a good intake after particularly long or intensive runs. 

So when I had the chance to try out some USN protein shakes I jumped at the chance to try out some high quality protein supplements from one of the market leaders. 

I later went onto read that USN were in fact founded by a mountain biking enthusiast as opposed to gym going body builder, alongside their ethos of providing advance sports nutrition to people from all sports with any goals I was even more assured that their products could be for a runner like me. 

The main protein shakes that I sampled were the Diet Whey Isolean which although designed as a meal replacement shake worked pretty well as a post workout drink as it contains over 25g of protein. 

I sampled the vanilla flavour, which would probably be my least favourite flavour of the general options you get of protein shakes. However this flavour of this product was actually delicious and one of the best vanilla flavoured products I have tasted. 

Thick and smooth like a rich vanilla yogurt it tasted great and provided a great recovery drink after a 15 mile run. 

The other product I tried out was Pure GF1 6-Stage Lean Protein which I sampled in the chocolate cream flavour. 

Packing a massive 40g per serving I saved this for after a really long run as I figured my muscles would be glad for the protein overload! I was excited by the sound of the chocolate cream flavour and it didn't despite as it was chocolaty and creamy however there was the horrible artificial after taste you sometime get with these products, but all in all not a bad shake. 

Overall I really enjoyed using the USN products and really felt like I noticed a difference in my recovery when taking these products, part of that might be mental of course but I think that there was definitely a physical benefit. 

I would definitely consider purchasing USN products going forward as I believe their products have an obvious superior taste and benefit. They are more expensive than some other products on the market but that is because they are a quality product and as with most markets the added cost does represent itself through higher quality.

You can find out more about the USN protein shakes range here.

Thank you to USN for providing me with some fitness shakes to try for free in return fro a review. Although these products were received free of charge all opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.