Articles

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!

The idea that habituation reduces caffeine’s effect on exercise performance is a myth that has been perpetrated by years of investigator reporting bias, unsupported anecdotal comments, and ambivalent study designs in many peer-reviewed articles over the years.

The real story is that no matter how much caffeine you normally ingest daily, taking it before and during exercise will still produce tangible performance benefits – or, in scientific terms, it’ll still be ergogenic. You will still run faster, farther, longer, burn more fat, spare more glycogen, and perform better physically if you ingest caffeine before exercise. Your physiology and biochemistry still respond favorably to caffeine and always have. So keep it up!

Is caffeine a nootropic? 

Short answer: YES! Calling caffeine a nootropic is a no-brainer; it’s the poster child, most prolific, and – arguably – best nootropic.

For years, First Endurance had PreRace in capsule and powder form. The formula was well-loved, but advancements in sports nutrition research opened new vistas for using a streamlined new formula with each ingredient clinically studied for performance benefits.

The new PreRace provides multiple, complementary benefits for long-duration, intense endurance exercise and recovery, pushing every crucial button for mental and physical performance. As always, we’re not just guessing or puffing a product up with marketing hyperbole – the formula is built on a comprehensive review of scientific literature, clinical research, and our know-how from real-life field testing.

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.

Due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions, Curcumin has long promised stunningly powerful effects against all sorts of maladies; however, popular messaging about curcumin is often imprecise at best or misleading at worst, contributing to a sense of illegitimacy about curcumin’s potential benefits. This is the first in a series of blog posts to address misconceptions by showing the research behind our use of curcumin, explaining the significance of HALO’s formula for curcumin’s operation, and exploring how curcumin works in the body.

The technology that makes curcumin viable and effective in human bodies didn’t exist. So First Endurance developed it.

In this third and final installment on curcumin in HALO, Dr. Bucci breaks down the effects the compound has on exercising bodies by explaining how curcumin does what it does for athletes – and why it’s important.

Senactiv® has been carefully designed and clinically studied to improve exercise recovery and thus, performance. It speeds up normal muscle repair processes after strenuous exercise and improves exercise capacity by increasing muscle energy (ATP) production. Let’s do a little digging into what Senactiv® actually is and how it produces these effects.

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

Cordyceps has been a standard ingredient for exercise performance since it first gained attention when researchers discovered Sherpas were making a special tea concoction with them. Studies demonstrated that cordyceps plays a critical role in allowing the body to adapt to high levels of physical stress, the kind of performance-under-duress that has earned Sherpas a reputation for amazing physical capabilities.