EndurElite Chief Endurance Officer Matt Mosman discusses what makes SustainElite the best sports drink for runners, cyclists, and other endurance athletes.
Video Transcript:
Why SustainElite Is The Best Sports Drink For Runners, Cyclists, And Other Endurance Athletes
Here's Johnny. So, the other day, I got an email from this marketing guy. We're gonna call him Johnny Jackwad [SP]. And Johnny Jackwad said, "Matt, you know what? You really need to start putting products in all your videos, really push things in front of people's face till they're almost sick of it, and really create a strong branding presence." And I was like, "You know what, Johnny Jackwad? I like shooting product videos from time to time, but I don't like pushing it in people's face. I would rather talk about things like exercise physiology or doing leprechaun miles with whiskey as opposed to talking about one of my products because I prefer our customers to do their own research. Sure, I'll put some information out there just a little bit. But at the end of the day, I want my customers to do the research for themselves and see if the products are right for them."
And Johnny Jackwad said, "Matt, you are dead wrong. You are doomed to fail." But I'm here to prove Johnny Jackwad dead wrong. So, anyways, to make a long story short, usually, I don't like to push products in my video. But today is a little bit different because I'm extremely excited to talk to you guys about our new SustainElite sports drink. So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna get this out of the way so you can focus on this beautiful face. I'm gonna get the sticker off my forehead. And what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk a little bit about the SustainElite per formula, how it's so different from anything else currently available in terms of a sports drink, and then we're gonna talk about the best way to use it during training and racing, and then also the best way to use it in conjunction with PerformElite. So, let's just get right to it.
Reason #1 Why SustainElite Is The Best Sports Drink
The first thing you'll notice about SustainElite is it doesn't include a carbohydrate found in about 95% of the sports drinks that are currently on the market. And this carbohydrate that we did not include is maltodextrin. Now, maltodextrin isn't horrible, but it's not optimal for fueling yourself during training and racing. And we'll get to that reason here in a second. But honestly, the main reason companies use maltodextrin is not because it's a superior carbohydrate because it is dirt cheap. We're talking pennies on the dollar. So, we're not interested in making a cheap product or making an inferior product. We always wanna bring you a premium product that is designed to enhance your endurance training and racing.
So, unlike other sports drinks that only include one carbohydrate source like maltodextrin, we decided to include five carbohydrate sources. And these are cane sugar, fructose, highly branched cyclic dextrin, rice potato powder, and sweet potato powder. Now, we did this for a couple of reasons. The first one being is these carbohydrates all digest and absorb at different rates. So, the fructose and the cane sugar digest quickly, keep blood glucose levels elevated. The cyclic dextrin is more of a medium digesting carbohydrate, so it keeps it sustained. And then, the rice potato powder and sweet potato powder are slower digesting carbohydrates. So, just think about it as a nice sustained release of carbohydrates compared if you only included quick sugars, where you get a quick spike and subsequent crash. So, that's reason number one why we included five carbohydrate sources.
Reason number two has to do with digestion kinetics. Now, a lot of people don't know that the body can digest and absorb up to about 100 grams of carbohydrate an hour. But there's a caveat to this. You need to have different carbohydrate sources. So, back to maltodextrin, for example, the body can only absorb and digest about 1 gram of maltodextrin a minute or 60 grams an hour. After that, the body isn't able to utilize it based on different intestinal absorption mechanisms. But when you combine different carbohydrate sources together like in SustainElite, so like the cane sugar, the fructose, the highly branched cyclic dextrin, the rice potato powder, and the sweet potato powder, your body can absorb up to about 1.7 grams per minute when you combine all these together.
So, that's kinda reason number two that we included five carbohydrate sources because your body is able to utilize those for endurance exercise. This is especially true as you go over 60 grams of carbs an hour, like, say, during a 3 to 4-hour mountain bike race and ultra-endurance events, stage racing, things like that. You want your body to be able to utilize the maximum amount of carbohydrates to keep your body fueled and going strong. So, that's the carbohydrates found in SustainElite. The next thing you're gonna see about it is SustainElite contains a few different amino acids. And there's a reason for this.
Reason #2 Why SustainElite Is The Good Sports Drink
The first being is we included branched-chain amino acids. Now, we did this because branched-chain amino acids, especially when consumed during endurance exercise can do a few cool things. They can reduce muscle protein breakdown, which if you don't reduce that, that can lead to muscle fatigue. It can also blunt fatigue because it competes with tryptophan in the brain, which tryptophan kinda makes you a little bit sleepy. And then, also, BCAAs is when carb stores are running low can be used as a fuel source. So, that's the BCAAs.
Then, we also included glycine, alanine, and glutamine. Now, a lot of people don't know this, but those are glucogenic amino acids, meaning, again, when carbohydrate stores are running low, alanine can be converted into glucose. And then, with the glycine and the glutamine, those also can be converted to glucose to be used as energy during endurance exercise. And also, the amino acid glutamine can help with the absorption of other ingredients in SustainElite like the carbohydrates and whatnot.
And then kind of the cherry on the top with SustainElite is we included an awesome, awesome electrolyte blend. Now, this is just to help maintain fluid balance in the body, possibly prevent cramping if you adhere to...you know, electrolyte imbalances cause cramping. But that's nearly not the main reason we put the electrolytes in there. We did it, again, for more the bodily fluid balance, to avoid things like hypernatremia. It can also help with blood volume, regulating blood pressure, when all those electrolytes are combined together.
So, mainly speaking, we included sodium chloride, potassium citrates, calcium gluconate, and magnesium chelate, which again, calcium in there can help with efficient muscle contractions, and then the magnesium, the same thing, as far as nerve impulses, keeping those efficient. And then, some people also think that magnesium can help prevent cramping as well. So, from top to bottom, you can see we included everything, including the kitchen sink, when we designed our SustainElite sports drink. We left no stone unturned. I mean, this is the premier sports drink on the market for endurance athletes.
What Is The Best Way to Use SustainElite?
And you know, what's...I guess the next question is, you know, what's the best way to use SustainElite for your endurance training and racing? Now, there is a few different ways to do this. Like, for example, I like to take SustainElite about an hour before I go out for a run or a ride just to kind of top off glycogen stores. So, I might slam 2 scoops of SustainElite that has 60 grams of carbs about an hour before exercise. Now, during exercise, how much you really take is gonna depend on the duration and intensity of the exercise. If you're going out for under an hour, you really don't need to have SustainElite unless you want something to drink, you know, if you get really thirsty and what not. But it's really not gonna do anything in terms of performance since your body has enough glycogen to get you through that exercise.
Now, as you start to go over the hour mark up to about maybe the 2, maybe 3-hour mark, you're gonna want to mix 1 scoop of SustainElite in about anywhere from 16 to 24 ounces of water, depending on how much fluid you're gonna be consuming and how you like the sweetness of the product, too. And that'll cover your carbohydrate needs to fuel your training and racing in addition to the glycogen you already have stored. So, hour to two hours, one scoop of SustainElite in a water bottle.
Now, as you go above two to three hours and get into that more 4 to 5-hour mark, you're probably gonna wanna mix about 2 scoops of SustainElite in about 24 ounces of water because as that duration increases, your reliance on carbohydrate oxidation also increases to keep you going long and strong. And then, if you start to eclipse that 5 to 6-hour mark and go into maybe the ultra-distance events, you can mix up to three scoops of SustainElite in about 30 ounces of water, and that will give you 90 grams of carbohydrates. And again, that's really the amount your body is gonna require for these really ultra-endurance events to keep you going long and strong.
Now, you can also use SustainElite in conjunction with like gels and chews if you want to. But we really designed this to be your one-stop shop for both, you know, fuel and hydration. It makes it simple. It makes it easy. It has everything you need in one convenient bottle. But again, if you wanna take something else in addition to that, you just kinda have to adjust how much SustainElite you would wanna combine with gel. Like, if I'm doing a 2 to 3-hour event, you could do a bottle of SustainElite with 1 scoop in it in 16 ounces of water in conjunction with, you know, gels, for a total of 60 grams of carbohydrate an hour. So, that's kinda during training race and racing.
Now, I also like to take SustainElite immediately after exercise to help kinda kick-start the muscle glycogen replenishment process and also the recovery process with the BCAs in there. So, after exercise, I'll put about
2 scoops of SustainElite in about 32 ounces of water and drink that immediately after exercise, like I said, to start replenishing muscle glycogen, and then the BCAs to kinda kick-start the recovery process.
So, that's the best way to use SustainElite. I should also tell you that when you mix SustainElite in the bottle for the first time, you definitely wanna fill your water bottle up with about 16 to 20 ounces of water first, and then put your SustainElite in. Because it's not made of simple sugars like most sports drink, it's a little bit less soluble at first. So, when you put it in, you really wanna shake it good to dissolve everything. And even after that, though you may notice some settling of the SustainElite at the bottom of your water bottle, and that's perfectly normal again because of the higher density carbohydrates. Now, if you're mountain biking or running with a hand-held bottle, the agitation from the exercise will mix it up fine. But if you're like on a road bike or you have, you know, your SustainElite at an Aid Station or sitting still, you're definitely gonna wanna shake it up before you take a drink.
How Should I Take SustainElite With PerformElite?
What else? Best way to take with PerformElite. Again, like, if you take SustainElite before exercise, I would take my SustainElite about an hour before, and then take your PerformElite about 30 minutes before your workout or race. And that, again, will top off carbohydrates stores with the SustainElite, and then the PerformElite will address all those other things that we've come to love about PerformElite as far as increasing VO2 max, buffering muscle acidity, and just making the exercise feel a lot easier. So, the combination of SustainElite and PerformElite is really an awesome one-two punch. And then when we get RecoverElite, I mean, it's gonna be the holy grail of sports nutrition for endurance athletes.
So, I'm not gonna bore you with any more details on SustainElite today. But I am gonna link an article below this video that has a really in-depth look at SustainElite and also compares it to all the other sports drink on the market right now. And I just want you to take a quick look at that and you'll see why I say SustainElite is the pinnacle of sports drinks for endurance athletes.
So, that is about it for today, my endurance friends. If you like this video, you found some use in it, please share it with your friends. Subscribe to our YouTube channel if you want other videos like this. Check us out on the EndurElite blog at www.endurelite.com and get super social with us on Facebook and Instagram. At EndurElite, we have a ton of good content going up daily. So, until next time, my endurance friends. Stay fueled, stay focused, stay fast, and stay informed.
