Articles

By Dr. Luke Bucci, PhD

Discover how your body turns every carb source into glucose in order to generate ATP and power muscles. Also learn why increasing ATP production is much (much!) more complicated than simply gobbling up glucose.

By Dr. Luke Bucci, PhD

When used correctly, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) help improve exercise performance after hours of grueling effort. Late in the race, deep in the training session – those times when you need an extra reserve of energy the most.

One of the most frequent questions we get is: How many carbs do I need to take during my long-duration events, races or training lasting more than three hours? The prevailing wisdom has long been set at 30-60 grams per hour (120-240 calories/hour), and usage directions for EFS & EFS-PRO are based on this time-tested range. But emerging research suggests athletes can ingest more and more carbs per hour: 90-140 grams or 360-560 Calories. That’s 1.5 to 19 times MORE carbs than the endurance experts have agreed upon for years!

Research shows the brain plays a significant role in fatigue and exercise tolerance. Our latest formulations of EFS and EFS-PRO expand the focus beyond simply supporting your body to buttressing up mental toughness—often the final hurdle an athlete has to overcome whether they’re training alone or competing.

The most common complaint fielded at First Endurance about endurance training is cramping, known officially in scientific literature as Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramping (EAMC). 

The Glycemic Index (GI) is a characteristic of carbs in different foodstuffs that affects choosing what carbs to use during long-term exercise. Since glucose is by far the main sugar in the bloodstream, glycemic index tracks the change in blood glucose levels for 4-6 hours after eating on an empty stomach, and it’s measured by administering 100 grams (about a quarter pound) dry weight of a specific carb source. The area under the curve for the rise in blood sugar from 100 grams of glucose is defined as a GI = 100.

We typically associate amino acids with rebuilding muscles and post-training recovery, so why are amino acids important for immune function? Because your immune system operates differently from muscles, nerves, and other organs; it uses amino acids as energy, even preferring them to glucose and fats.

The immune system’s major amino acid fuels are glutamine and the branched-chain amino acids leucine, isoleucine, and valine, which we’ll just lump together as BCAAs for this blog. Because of their known importance for immune cells, research has focused on these amino acids and immune function in long-term, strenuous exercise.

Training and racing in cold weather is entirely different than training and racing on hot days.  Strange things happen in hot conditions;  some athletes thrive while others fall apart.  Your nutrition program has a lot to do with how well you handle extreme conditions.  Dehydration, cramping, and GI distress can wreak havoc on your performance, so it’s important to pay attention to your sweat rate.

After months of research-driven tinkering, testing, and trial, we’ve updated the formulas for EFS and EFS-PRO hydration mixes. Given the technical–and, frankly, revolutionary–nature of both formulas, we compiled a list of changes to quickly highlight and explain the differences and confirm what’s stayed the same.