PowerBar Nutrition
PowerBar Nutrition
Nutritional Recovery - Don't leave it to chance.
By Greg Cox
Sports Dietitian, APD
Recovery from training and competition is an integral part of being a serious athlete - that is, if you're trying to improve your performance. The key requirements for optimising your nutritional recovery are to be:
(1) Planned and integrated. It doesn't happen by accident and needs to be integrated with other recovery modalities such as your recovery run, massage, immersion in cold or contrasting water temperatures or sleep. Alternate recovery modalities complement, but don't replace nutritional recovery strategies. Suitable foods and fluids for recovery don't just appear when you've finished exercise. You need to plan ahead, as many available options at sporting venues are less than optimal.
(2) Targeted. Some athletes are at greater risk of failing to meet immediate post-exercise recovery nutrition goals than others. Haphazard eaters, athletes with especially high demands and limited time between sessions, and weight conscious athletes or restrained eaters that count every morsel of food are all at risk.
(3) Aligned with other nutritional goals. Recovery nutrition guidelines need careful interpretation to ensure they are aligned with other nutritional goals and challenges you face. For instance, if you need to lose some body fat or gain muscle mass then the following guidelines need to be adjusted accordingly.
(4) And lastly, accommodate everyday eating. You don't only eat to optimise performance, so when socialising with fellow athletes after training at the local bakery or café, it's important to be flexible and make the best available choice!!
Nutritional Recovery - Don't leave it to chance.
By Greg Cox
Sports Dietitian, APD
Why should you consume carbohydrate during exercise?
Carbohydrate from blood glucose and muscle glycogen (stored glucose in the muscle), is an important fuel for your muscles during exercise. The relative contribution of carbohydrate as a fuel for you muscles is influenced by the exercise intensity, exercise duration, how much carbohydrate is available during exercise, your training status and environmental conditions. In short as the intensity of exercise increases, the contribution of carbohydrate as a fuel increases - hence, it's an important fuel.
During extended endurance exercise as muscle glycogen stores decline, the relative importance of blood glucose as a fuel for the working muscles increases. To that end, the primary purpose for consuming carbohydrate during endurance exercise (that is, exercise lasting longer than 90 minutes) is to maintain blood glucose in order to maintain the use of carbohydrate as a fuel by the muscles in the latter stages of prolonged exercise.
In terms of performance, the benefits of consuming carbohydrate throughout endurance exercise are a consistent and reproducible finding in performance based studies (i.e. where researchers have employed a time trial). So, in endurance events, consuming carbohydrate enhances performance by maintaining blood sugars and providing a source of fuel for the working the muscle.
Is there a ceiling as to how much carbohydrate your body can use from sports drinks and other carbohydrate sources (e.g. gels) consumed during exercise?
Your muscle's ability to use carbohydrate from a single carbohydrate source (i.e. glucose) appear to be ~1.1 grams per minute. However, when different types of carbohydrates are combined, most commonly glucose and fructose, it appears this ceiling can be increased to ~1.75 grams per minute - almost a 50% increase.
So what should make of all of this?
In races where you're trying to maximise your intake of carbohydrate when provided with sufficient opportunity and tolerance (i.e. the cycle leg of an Ironman Triathlon) using products that contain mixed carbohydrate sources (i.e. glucose and fructose) will allow a greater delivery of carbohydrate to the working muscle.
PowerBar Gels, PowerBar Performance Bars and PowerBar Blasts are based on C2 Max technology, which is a carbohydrate mix of glucose and fructose. In situations where you're consuming high amounts of carbohydrate (>60 grame per hour), these products offer a benefit over products sourced from single source carbohydrates.
