We know you spend precious time planning your workouts, but exactly how much time do you spend planning what you eat before, during, and after exercise? We at Fluid recommend a balanced diet, loaded with fresh fruits & vegetables, whole grains, lean meats and in accordance with the recommended daily allowance of vitamins and minerals. During exercise, carbohydrates and electrolytes are needed by the body to simply maintain a level of extended effort. However, opponents of nutritional supplements often argue if we ate properly, we wouldn’t need food supplements. For the best possible nutrition to your body during exercise and for post-exercise recovery, this is simply not true.
During Exercise Performance:
Whether you are running, biking, or moving your body in any way, proper nutrition during exercise is the cornerstone for maintaining your efforts. Carbohydrates are the preferred source of energy for the body during exercise. With sustained efforts, muscles will gladly take in carbohydrates, which provide immediate and sustained energy. Electrolytes are also essential to make up for the minerals lost in sweat and to help prevent cramping during exercise. What about all the other ingredients that companies tend to throw into their product? While there are some studies that may suggest benefits from additives such as Beta Alanine and Carnosine, usually products that emphasize these ingredients are less effective. Many companies push the philosophy of “more is better”, but in reality, you (and your body) will see that “less is more” and that a clean and efficient product will work great. Ingredients like Sodium Citrate act as a natural buffer to help minimize the lactic acid that builds up in your muscles, thus allowing you to train harder and break through those training barriers. Last, but certainly not least is the taste and physical components of the drink and how your stomach will handle it while you are in the middle of your next workout. Your stomach will thank you for a light, crisp taste and and low sugar beverage in the middle of sustained efforts. This means no watered down drinks while also giving you the exact nutrients your body seeks.
After Exercise Recovery:
For recovery, there is a crucial window of time where the body can repair itself and develop at an accelerated rate after exercise. This is due to hormonal changes within the body during intense exercise, but the changes are temporary and return to normal rapidly. All the gains of a workout are made during recovery, the time after a workout when your body grows stronger and regenerates itself. If you can’t recover, you can’t build, and you can’t get better. Plain and simple. The good news is the body can heal itself and transform more efficiently when nutrients are readily available before, during, and after workouts. Nutrient balance and timing are essential to the recovery process.
Everything about sports nutrition is about the speed at which nutrients can get from the mouth to the cellular level. This window is a roller coaster curve, greatest immediately after exercise, and rapidly declining. Ingestion of solid food can take hours to digest, empty the stomach, enter the blood stream, and arrive at the cellular level. At this point, the hormonal window is long gone, and no added benefits from nutrition can occur. Solid food simply takes too long to capitalize on the window of opportunity. The Fluid drink line is based on supplying the body with the right balance of the right nutrients at the right time.
Exercise can provide wonderful benefits, but it can also be stressful on the body. It can break down muscle, inflame joints and tendons, cause soreness, compromise the immune system, empty glycogen stores, cause dehydration, upset electrolyte balance, and put the body into a needed state of repair. We understand these needs well, and designed Fluid with the athlete in mind. Fluid provides the body with all the essential nutrients to begin the rebuilding process. It is like no other drink on the market because it’s made from the highest quality ingredients available with the sole purpose of replenishing the body to its full potential.
