Articles
First Endurance x Best Buddies
We’re pleased to announce that First Endurance is providing nutrition and supplement support for Best Buddies Racing. Given our longstanding relationship with many of the team’s riders – including Daniel Estevez and Rubén Companioni – the move makes professional sense. It also doesn’t hurt that Best Buddies International, the team’s title sponsor, is a great organization to support.
How Your Biggest Gains Can Be Found In The Off Season
By Matt Hanson, EdD
As a coach, I’ve noticed a trend that goes on repeat year after year. Athletes tend to reach out 4-5 months prior to their first big race of the season and continue working with the coach through the fall when their final race is complete, but then they disconnect for the winter months. While I certainly understand the need to check out from the daily grind for a period of time at the end of the season, I really think this is a difficult approach to take if you are looking for the best possible performance.
Drinking in the “Off” Season
By Burke Swindlehurst
If you’re looking for some insightful tips to keep the pounds off during the Holidays, I’m going to stop you right here, because this isn’t going to be that sort of article. I’m not a nutrition expert, and I’ve never played one on TV. If anything, I’ve always just been more of an amateur philosopher, so if that’s your jam, then read-on…
How Senactiv® Allows You To Train Hard & Recover Harder
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.
Dehydration & Muscle Cramps
The most common complaint fielded at First Endurance about endurance training is cramping, known officially in scientific literature as Exercise-Associated Muscle Cramping (EAMC).
In this blog installment, Dr. Bucci explains how First Endurance products use the latest scientific research and a refusal to accept axioms in product formulation in order to actually prevent dehydration cramps, not just treat them once they occur.
Understanding Tibet’s Secret To Superhuman Performance
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.
The Glycemic Index & Carbohydrate Fueling
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.
The Do’s, Don’ts, and Donuts of Fueling for Gravel Riding and Racing
By Burke Swindlehurst
So, you’ve been hearing a lot about this “gravel” thing lately, amiright? Color yourself intrigued. Indeed, gravel is on the tip of seemingly everyone’s tongue, and by now you’ve heard enough to know that there’s a lot to consider when looking to tackle this emerging genre of events.
There’s the bike, the tires, the tire pressure, the gearing, the tactics, the fashion—wait, what? Uh, yeah, we’ll not go there.
But there’s also another aspect to gravel that truly can make or break your day regardless of how dialed your rig is or how on-point your fanny pack game.
Fuel.
Adaptogens & New Insights Hiding in Plain Sight
Adaptogens constitute a catch-all category lumping together various herbs and traditional medicines that have a long history of keeping humans healthy under periods of stress, both physical and mental. There are many definitions of “adaptogen,” but the simplest may be any substance that helps the body function effectively while under stress. That’s a simple concept – when you are under stress that adversely affects your life, adaptogens help you adapt to maintain your health and homeostasis (in other words, a return to normal). But how that happens – how adaptogens “work” – is where adaptogens are misunderstood, especially by modern science and medicine.
Amino Acids, Exercise, & Immune Health – Timing Is Everything
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.
“Full stick until the line” – Facing the Heat in Castelo Branco
By Kyle Murphy
Rally Cycling’s talented all-rounder, Kyle Murphy, has been quietly putting together another impressive year with strong showings throughout the season. He finally clawed his way to the top step on stages two of the Volta a Portugal.
Calling that race “hot” is an understatement, so we asked him about his approach to hydration and fueling, as well as his general impressions of how the day went. His initial response was, simply, “Tough race!” However, he did elaborate on fueling, hydration, tactics, and the importance of keeping a cool head when the race is figuratively (and, in this case, literally) heating up.
The Fourth Leg – A Professional Approach to Ironman Fueling & Hydration
By Matt Hanson, EdD
We have all heard the saying, “nutrition is the fourth leg of a triathlon.” And no doubt we have all heard horror stories and seen (and even smelled!) the evidence of when someone gets their nutrition plan for long-course triathlon racing very wrong.
