6 Pre Workout Smoothie Recipes for Athletes | How To Make Smoothies (2024)

Athletes training at the top of their game completely understand the importance of fueling your body the right way. By learning to make your own smoothie, you can fuel your body before and after workouts without spending large amounts of money.

Pre workout smoothies for athletes are a great way to maximize your bodies capability in a workout, in a completely natural way.

In addition to getting a pre workout boost from a smoothie, we can add a ton of ingredients with additional health benefits to our smoothies.

In this article, we’ve laid out our favorite 6 pre workout smoothie recipes for athletes.

Pre workout smoothies vs pre workout for athletes

When it comes to deciding whether or not you should take pre workout or drink a pre workout smoothie, my answer is always go for the smoothie. With a smoothie, you get to choose whats going in to your body. You know the ingredients, and you can choose to make an organic smoothie if you’re completely natural.

With pre workout, you don’t always know exactly what’s going in to your body. On top of that, pre workout mixes can lead to things like an abnormal heart rate if taken incorrectly. As a rule of thumb, we generally do not recommend pre workout for athletes.

Looking for something to add to your pre workout smoothie in place of pre workout?

We recommend Athletic Greens.

Athletic Greens are a 1-2 times daily supplement that contain over 75 whole food sourced ingredients. We add the greens powder to our daily breakfast smoothie, as well as a scoop to our pre / post workout smoothie. Athletic Greens are designed to cover 5 areas of your bodies health: the nervous/immune system, liver detox and digestion, gut health, efficient energy production and storage, hormone (neural and adaptogen support), antioxidants and superfoods designed to fuel healthy aging. The best part about the Athletic Greens we add to our smoothies? No GMOs, herbicides or pesticides. There are no fillers. That means, you’re not getting a jar of “super greens” that’s half full of filler blend. Athletic Greens are Paleo/Keto/Vegan friendly. Gluten and dairy free. No wheat, corn, lactose, sucrose, dextrose, egg, yeast, peanutes or animal products. Bottom line, when you’re adding to your smoothie, always add in some type of super food like Athletic Greens. We also use Flax / Hemp / Chia seed blends in our smoothies, as you’ll see below. It’s a great way to get valuable nutrients that you wouldn’t necessarily get otherwise. Buy Athletic Greens on Amazon.

We recommend a blend of flax seed, chia seed, and hemp hearts in every smoothie. We’ll purchase the flax, hemp, and chia and grind the seeds ourselves. The Nutribullet smoothie maker works well for this.

Note: we use the 900 watt Nutribullet smoothie maker and it works just fine.

Add equal portions of your hemp hearts, flax seeds and chia seeds to the blender and grind the entire thing. Why not just buy milled seeds? We like to buy our seeds in larger quantities and have found that the seeds store longer when they’re not milled. We can blend a months supply in 2 minutes, keeping the remaining seeds for further months.

The smoothies that we’ve listed below are perfect for the on the go athlete. We recommend going with a smoothie roughly an hour before your workout for the best results. Why smoothies? We believe that they’re a safe, natural alternative to pre workouts. You know what you’re putting into your body versus a guess with pre workouts.

Smoothie #1: The Berry Blast

This smoothie is a combination of a few different classic smoothie recipes. There are two things to remember with smoothies. First, portion. Come up with portions that work for you. If you want more of something, add more. Second. Ingredients. If you want less of something, take it out and replace it.

The best part of smoothies is you can really only taste your “base”.

We refer to the main ingredient, the most powerful ingredient, as the “base”.

Here’s how to make The Berry Blast.

1. Banana
2. 3/4 cup of blueberries
3. 3/4 to 1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk (or water)
4. 1 serving of Athletic Greens
5. 1 scoop of your Chia / Flax / Hemp blend

Add the entire concoction to your NutriBullet and enjoy. Do not be afraid to add water to achieve the desired consistency.

Smoothie #2: Mixed Berry Brain Fuel

The Mixed Berry Brain Fuel smoothie follows the Berry Blast smoothie, except we add a couple key ingredients.

First, we’re adding avocado to this smoothie. Avocados have a ton of important health and brain benefits (like blueberries).

In addition to the avocados, our base this time will be mixed berries with a dash of honey. By adding mixed berries and a dash of honey we can take some of that blueberry flavoring out of the smoothie, without eliminating them completely.

This smoothie can add up quickly, so if I’ve got a workout planned later in the day and won’t have time to make a smoothie, I’ll add some vanilla greek yogurt to the mix. It just gives the smoothie a bit more substance.

Here’s how to make The Mixed Berry Brain Fuel Smoothie.

1. Avocado slices (you choose)
2. 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Greek Yogurt (optional)
3. 3/4 cup of mixed berries
4. 3/4 to 1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk (or water)
5. 1 serving of Athletic Greens
6. 1 scoop of your Chia / Flax / Hemp blend
7. 1 serving of Acai powder

Bonus ingredients: granola on top / dash of honey. This is one of my favorite smoothies for long days when I do not have a chance to make a smoothie prior to a workout later that day.

Add the entire concoction to your NutriBullet and enjoy. Do not be afraid to add water to achieve the desired consistency.

Smoothie #3: Peanut Butter Power

Peanut butter smoothies can be tricky if not made correctly.

They’re a great change of pace smoothie for athletes, as most of my favorite recipes involve a lot of berry bases.

I also like the peanut butter smoothie for those times when you run out of mixed berries / blueberries or spinach (the three bases I use most often).

Another secret here, do not go as heavy on your Athletic Greens / Flax Chia mix.

These smoothies pack some serious punch, so I make them in pretty small doses. I’ll add a bit of the greens and just a dash of my flax chia hemp hearts mix to a smaller base and get a perfect shot of energy.

Here’s how to make The Peanut Butter Power Smoothie.

1. 1 to 2 tablespoons of peanut butter (I use Natural Peanut Butter)
2. 1/4 to 1/2 cup of Greek Yogurt (optional)
3. 1 banana
4. 1/4 cup of oats, add more if desired
5. 3/4 to 1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk (or water)
6. 1/2 serving of Athletic Greens
7. 1/2 scoop of your Chia / Flax / Hemp blend
8. Ice cubes (if you like a cold smoothie)

Bonus ingredients: add a dash of cinnamon to this mix. Cinnamon helps mask the pure peanut butter taste, turning this into a delicious pre workout smoothie. One of my favorites for athletes looking for a smoothie boost.

Add the entire concoction to your NutriBullet and enjoy. Add water to get the perfect consistency.

Smoothie #4: You Had Me AtAvocado

Alright, I’ll give in.

You’re the type of person who just has to have a green smoothie recipe for athletes, aren’t you?

Green smoothie people are a different breed. They really are. It’s sort of the “once you go green, you never go back” club. With all joking aside, green smoothies are incredibly popular, especially within athletes.

Packed with powerful ingredients, not only do these things taste good, they maximize your athletic output (which is what we’re after!).

Here’s how to make The You Had Me At Avocado Smoothie.

1. 1 cup of spinach (I use organic spinach, personal preference)
2. 1 cup swiss chard / collard greens / kale
3. Avocado slices, your choice on quantity
4. Dash of coconut oil, for a pre workout boost
5. 1 banana, this is optional
6. 3/4 to 1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk (or water)
7. 1/2 serving of Athletic Greens
8. 1/2 scoop of your Chia / Flax / Hemp blend

Bonus ingredients: beet greens, if you’ve got them. Beet greens are an excellent source of potassium, since that’s an optional ingredient in this smoothie.

Add the entire concoction to your NutriBullet and enjoy. Add water to get the perfect consistency.

Smoothie #5: The Strawberry Banana Blend

Similar to the crowd that enjoys their pure green smoothie prior to a workout, there’s always a group of people who love strawberry banana blends.

This smoothie has a heavy strawberry / banana base with a dash of apple. I generally will avoid adding apples to my other smoothies as they can tamper with the taste, but for this smoothie they’re a nice subtle touch.

A note on this smoothie, go for more strawberry than banana flavor. If, on your first go around you do not get enough frozen strawberry in there, add one or two more.

Here’s how to make The Strawberry Banana Blend Smoothie.

1. 1 banana
2. 3/4 cup of strawberries
3. Dash of coconut oil, for a pre workout boost
4. 1/4 to 1/2 cup of apple
5. 3/4 to 1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk (or water)
6. 1/2 serving of Athletic Greens
7. 1/2 scoop of your Chia / Flax / Hemp blend

Bonus ingredients: add oats to this one as well, if you can. Oats and a dash of honey.

Smoothie #6: The Healthy Chocolate Bar

For me, I enjoy a nice chocolate smoothie a couple times per week after a workout.

If I’m in a hurry and do not have time for a smoothie in the morning, I may have a bowl of yogurt and some granola. Or a couple eggs / avocado slices.

Regardless, a chocolate smoothie after a workout is a good way to mix up your daily smoothie routine.

Here’s how to make The Healthy Chocolate Bar Smoothie.

1. 1 banana
2. 1 serving cacao powder(for you chocolate taste)
3. 1 serving chocolate, plant based protein powder
4. 1 tablespoon peanut butter, natural
5. 3/4 to 1 cup Unsweetened Almond Milk (or water)
6. 1/2 serving of Athletic Greens
7. 1/2 scoop of your Chia / Flax / Hemp blend

Bonus ingredient:add oats and spinach to this to tone down that chocolate candy bar flavor.

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