The Best Recovery Drink For Athletes

The best recovery drink for athletes should contain protein, carbs, electrolytes, and other muscle healing agents.

EndurElite Chief Endurance Officer Matt Mosman breaks down RecoverElite and why it is the best recovery drink for endurance athletes.

Video Transcription:

What is the best recovery drink?

Good morning, family of fast. Matt Mosman, the Chief Endurance Officer over at EndurElite. Today, we are going to do a product breakdown of RecoverElite, the endurance athletes recovery formula.

More specifically, we're going to talk about what RecoverElite is and isn't.

We'll highlight a few of the ingredients and why we included them, and then we'll tell you the best way to take it to promote optimal recovery.

Why Your Recovery Drink Should Have Protein And Carbs

Now, right off the bat, RecoverElite is more than just a protein powder.

Now, I get it, most of you correlate recovery with protein, and that's true. Protein is vastly important for muscular repair and recovery, but that only addresses one area of endurance performance.

The other area is restoring muscle glycogen, so you have the energy to perform the same day or the next day without bonking hard.

"So, what RecoverElite really is its protein, its carbohydrate, its electrolytes and a few other ingredients that promote optimal recovery. So, think of it as a comprehensive recovery drink for endurance athletes."

So, let's take a look at a few of the ingredients in RecoverElite, why we put them in there and how they're going to help you recover. Now, the first ingredient in RecoverElite is our carbohydrate matrix. And this has dextrose, fructose, highly branched cyclic dextrin, and brown rice powder for a total of 52 grams of carbohydrate.

How Many Carbs Should Be In Your Recovery Drink?

Now, that number is important because ideally, after endurance exercise, you want to consume about 1 to 1.2 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram body weight immediately after exercise.

Now, this is important because muscles are hypersensitive to absorb glucose and to restore muscle glycogen probably right after exercise up until about two hours later.

So, it is really, really important again, for your...right after exercise to take in carbohydrate, especially quick digesting sugars like the dextrose and the fructose so the muscles can soak that carbohydrate up and again, restore muscle glucose and then restore muscle glycogen as well.

Why Simple Sugars Are Important After Exercise

Now, the thing about the dextrose and the fructose, and you guys are probably freaking out and be like, "Oh, my gosh. Sugars, you know, sugars are the devil." But this is not the case. All carbohydrates are either a sugar, a starch or a fiber.

And like I said before, it is vastly important that you take in quick digesting sugars like dextrose and fructose immediately after exercise when the muscles are hypersensitive to uptaking it.

What About Complex Carbs

Now, because we want to, kind of, maximize or prolong the glucose absorption and the glycogen resynthesis, we also added the highly branched cyclic dextrin and the brown rice powder.

So, those are both, kind of, a mid and slow digesting, more complex carbohydrate that basically comes in where the quick sugars leave off.

So, you're optimizing, again, glucose absorption and glycogen resynthesis.

Now, another point to make on the carbohydrate matrix is this.

The ratio of dextrose to fructose in RecoverElite matches the basically sugar transporters in the gut. So, you get maximal absorption when those ratios are correct as opposed to just having one simple sugar in a recovery drink to basically, again, absorb glucose and resynthesize muscle glycogen.

So, a total of 52 grams per serving of carbohydrate in RecoverElite. So, again, this is important because you want that 1 to 1.2 grams per kilogram bodyweight immediately after exercise if possible. So, that's the carbohydrate matrix and what it does.

How Much Protein Should Your Recovery Drink Have

Now, let's go on to the next part and talk about the protein matrix in RecoverElite.

So, the protein matrix includes whey hydrolysate and then leucine. Now, let's talk a little bit about both of these as it relates to muscle recovery and repair. Now, you can think of whey hydrolysate as the ultra-premium form of protein, even more so than whey isolate.

And why is it important and why we included it in RecoverElite is because whey hydrolysate is the quickest digesting protein out there.

And again, muscles are hypersensitive to uptaking these amino acids immediately after exercise, so you want something that digests super quick to get the recovery process kickstarted.

What Type Of Protein Is Best For Recovery

Now, with the form of whey hydrolysate we use, it's hydrolyzed to 23% to 26%, and all that means is basically it's a really high-quality form of hydrolysate.

Typically in the supplement industry, people will use a hydrolysate that's 3% to 5% hydrolyzed, which is okay, but it's not optimal compared to the 23% to 26% hydrolyzed whey protein we use.

Where The BCAA Leucine Comes In And Why It Is Important For Recovery

Then we also added a little bit extra leucine. And this is important too because with the 14 grams of whey hydrolysate and then the added leucine, this basically equals or promotes muscle protein synthesis as well as 25 grams of whey isolate.

And the reason this is because when you get the leucine and the other essential amino acids from the whey hydrolysate, that, kind of, gives you the building material per se, to have muscles repair and recovery, excuse me.

And then you add the extra leucine, and what that does is it brings the total leucine content up to 2.5 grams. And this is important because this is the amount of leucine needed to maximally stimulate muscle protein synthesis or muscle repair and recovery.

Why You Don't Need More Than 25 Grams Of Protein Post-Exercise

Now, a lot of you've probably taken a lot more protein after exercise than what's found in RecoverElite, and this is really totally unnecessary.

As long as you're getting 25 grams of a high-quality protein or in our case, you're combining the whey hydrolysate with the leucine, that's going to be enough to stimulate muscle protein synthesis.

So, you don't need a ton of protein after endurance exercise.

Just the 25 grams, and then throughout the day, you know, another 20 to 25 grams of protein per meal and you'll be good as gold as far as maximumly stimulating muscle protein synthesis and promoting muscle repair and recovery.

Why The Carb To Protein Ratio In Your Recovery Drink Should Be 4:1

So another point to make too is the protein or the carb to protein ratio in RecoverElite is 4:1.

And this is important because when you combine the two together at that ratio, they, kind of, complement each other in a way, so it actually helps a little bit better with glycogen resynthesis and amino acid uptake into the muscles again to restore muscle glycogen and then to promote muscle protein synthesis.

What Other Supplements Should Be Found In Your Recovery Drink

Now, that's the protein matrix. The next two ingredients found in RecoverElite you can think of as assisting in nutrient absorption.

And these are L-carnitine, L-tartrate, and then we also have AstraGin.

Now, most of you probably see L-carnitine as a fat loss ingredient, not a lot of research there on L-carnitine. What L-carnitine really does and what the research demonstrates is that it's as a very good recovery agent because it basically:

  • flushes out metabolic waste
  • increases blood flow
  • helps with nutrient delivery and absorption

Then you have the AstraGin, and that's Kinda the same thing. AstraGin has a lot of cool studies behind it showing that it can help with the uptake of amino acids, aka protein after exercise, so more is absorbed into the muscle.

So, that is why we included those two ingredients in RecoverElite basically to enhance nutrient absorption.

What About Electrolytes For Recovery

Now the last matrix in RecoverElite is an electrolyte matrix. Now we don't do this to prevent cramping or anything like that.

We just put the electrolytes in RecoverElite to basically help replace any of the electrolytes you've lost through sweat during endurance exercise, and ultimately to get your body back to fluid homeostasis after exercise.

So, those are some of the ingredients in RecoverElite again that make it a very comprehensive recovery formula for endurance athletes. It's just not protein. It's just not carbohydrate. It's just not a bunch of amino acids. It's a collection of all of them that maximally enhances muscle recovery and repair.

When is the best time to have a Recovery Drink

So, what is the best way to take RecoverElite as a man or a woman?

Now, ideally, again, you want to take RecoverElite immediately after endurance exercise or race when the muscles are hypersensitive to nutrient uptake.

Now, for men, we recommend anywhere from two to three scoops based on body weight, and women about two scoops based on body weight.

And again, why this is important is you want about 1 to 1.2 grams per kilogram body weight of carbohydrate immediately after exercise, again, to enhance the absorption of glucose and to basically help resynthesize muscle glycogen.

So, you're going to take two to three scoops of RecoverElite. We recommend six ounces of water per scoop of RecoverElite use. For some of you, that may be a little too sweet. So, I've been using anywhere from 16 to 20 ounces of water with anywhere from two to three scoops of RecoverElite.

Now, RecoverElite is something I would personally take every day after exercise. But if not, you know, save it for after your really hard days and then use it in conjunction with a healthy diet because that's going to be important too.

I mean the RecoverElite will basically get the recovery process started, but you want to keep on eating carbohydrates and proteins after that to use again your diet to promote recovery.

Now another way you can reuse RecoverElite is if you have like a multi-event days, so you're exercising for an hour, you're taking a break, you're exercising in another couple hours, resting and exercising in a couple another hours, you can take RecoverElite immediately after your first exercise and then every three to four hours after that.

So, if you have like an endure race or a multistage race or something like that, RecoverElite, you can use it anywhere from one to five times a day depending on, you know, how quickly you want to recover or the availability of other food. So, that is the best way to use RecoverElite.

Does Your Current Endurance Recovery Drink Have Efficacious Dosing? Probably Not

Now, some of you may be looking at the price of RecoverElite, and you see it's $64.99 for 20 servings, and you may be like, "Holy hell, that is expensive." But the reason why it is a little more pricey is because it contains the efficacious dosing of all the ingredients and macronutrients you need, again, to optimize recovery.

I'm going to post an article below this video that basically compares RecoverElite to all the other recovery drinks out there. And you're going to see you would need to take probably three to four servings of these other products to get the efficacious doses you would find in RecoverElite.

So, that is the 411 on RecoverElite. And RecoverElite basically completes the family of the fast stack, which includes our PerformElite pre-workout, SustainableElite sports drink, and then obviously RecoverElite. Now, since the inception of EndurElite, we've designed all three of these to work in conjunction as sort of a system per se, to help you perform at your max and get you ready for exercise, to sustain your performance during exercise, and then to help you recover optimally after exercise.

So, the slogan we have is "Perform, sustain, recover, repeat." And if you do that you will be good as gold. All right, my endurance friends. I appreciate you hanging in tight for this product education. If you have a buddy that is curious about RecoverElite, please share this video with them.

If you want other videos like this on endurance training, nutrition and supplementation, head on over to the EndurElite YouTube channel, subscribe or head on over to the EndurElite blog at www.EndurElite com. Get social with us as always on Instagram and Facebook. And until next time my endurance friends, stay fueled, stay focused, stay fast, and stay informed.