A lot of gyms nowadays have a smoothie bar. Everyone is figuring out how important it is to get the proper nutrition right after a muscle building, fat burning workout. But there are two good reasons not to hit that smoothie bar after your workout. One is the price. It's sort of like buying a beer at a baseball game. You might have to take out a loan.

The second problem is that you can't control exactly what is in the smoothie. Even health bar smoothies may contain lots of hidden calories that are high in fat and sugar, like sherbert, frozen yogurt and various forms of high-fructose corn syrup.

Creating your own muscle building smoothie allows you to control the cost and the ingredients. And that's a plus, both to your wallet and your physique.

Your muscles can't grow witout the proper nutrition and that nutrition is vitally important right after a hard weight training session. And that means loading up on the right protein and the right carbs at the right time - immediately after your workout. You can prepare your post-workout shake before you hit the gym, stick it in a thermos and take it with you to store in your locker.

Here are two versions of my favorite post-workout shake. The first one involves a specific post-worktout powder called RecoverX by Muscle Link. It's designed just for after your weight lifting session. It includes fast acting carbohydrates and hydrolized whey protein islolates. This version of whey is more digestable and faster acting, so it can start helping your muscles immediately.

The second version will do pretty much the same thing, without getting RecoverX.

Muscle Building Shake

1 serving RecoverX
1 serving Creatine
1 cup frozen fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries)

Mix in a blender. You can alter how much of the powder and fruit you use to get the appropriate number of calories you want.

Or you can try this version of the muscle building post-workout shake

1 1/2 cups of Orange Juice
40 grams of whey protein isolate (I use vanilla)
1 serving Creatine
1 cup frozen fruit (raspberries, strawberries, blueberries)

You can alter this any number of ways to suit your taste buds. You could add banana, or even some yogurt, which will also make the shake a little thicker in its consistency.

One thing I've found that has helped my progress is to add a few more calories than I normally would and then drink part of the smoothie right before my workout, or even sip some of it during my workout so my muscles are constantly getting the nutrients they need, both to power my workout and to recover from it.

Consider creating your own pre and post-workout muscle building smoothies so you can start adding new muscle mass fast.