The secret drink to boost your exercise workout

As a Certified Personal Trainer and former long distance runner, I’ve tried several sports nutrition products to help keep me hydrated, prevent fatigue, and reduce muscle cramps.

Most of them were “goo’s,” gels, “chews,” or beverages. I never found one I liked enough to buy again. Plus, their nutrition profile didn’t meet my standards. Let’s not even talk about how they tasted!

My previous history with these specialty products made me a bit skeptical to try the Arbonne PhytoSport line. However, after reviewing the label of ingredients I said “this is exactly what I’ve been looking for!”

After tasting them, I realized how much easier it is to stay hydrated when it taste good. All the beverages contain ingredients that clinical research has shown provides benefits to reduce exercise -related fatigue, repair muscles post exercise, reduce dehydration and muscle cramps.

Let me introduce you to each product and discover why I recommend them to my clients and why I use them (and my Registered Dietitian husband too).

PhytoSport: Prepare & Endure

One of the most annoying things that can happen whether your training hard for the next competition or at your early morning Pilates or Yoga class is when you realize your tank is empty. Whether you have a total “bonk” where you feel dizzy, nauseated, and light-headed; or start to think “I can’t do one more pose or leg lift”, this uncomfortable feeling occurs when you’ve run out of the bodies source of immediate energy, glucose for your muscles to use.

Exercising on an empty or semi-empty stomach happens intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. Some people feel better with less food in their stomach when they exercise and some believe that working out on an empty stomach will burn fat in place of carbs. This may work if the workout is a short non-vigorous walk.

However, if you’re workout lasts an hour or longer and requires use of large muscles (think squats, plie’s, walking up hill, climbing stairs, or boot-camp workouts), the right blend of nutritional fuel can make the difference between finishing feeling like a winner or fading away at the end of your workout.

Prepare & Endure is formulated to deliver a modest amount of carbs blended with two key amino acids (Arginine and Citrulline) that help the body with a series of bio-chemical reactions that result in increased oxygen and nutrients to muscles which supports blood flow too.

The addition of Carnitine, a dietary supplement frequently used by endurance athletes and in the treatment of certain metabolic diseases, helps with a more rapid transport of fatty acids in the body to cross over into the cell’s energy factory (the mitochondria) to be converted into energy.

Other nutrition rock stars, Ribose and B12 have been added to Prepare & Endure along with a blend of botanicals that offer antioxidant protection.

At only 50 calories per serving this Orange-Pineapple flavored pre-exercise beverage can be used for early morning outings; after work gym dates; or anytime you want to start your workout with premium fuel in your tank.

Keeping the Arbonne promise of Pure * Safe * Beneficial, all the PhytoSport products are vegan-certified, formulated without gluten, and free of artificial flavors, colors or sweeteners.

PhytoSport: Complete Hydration

We know we need fluids when we exercise since we sweat and we experience thirst. The loss of body fluids through our sweat contains more than just water. The bodies electrolytes sodium, magnesium, chloride, potassium, and phosphorus are lost in sweat and and replacement in a timely fashion re-feeds the muscle.

Without replacing these electrolytes, muscle cramps, light-headiness, and the extreme of fainting can occur. The stamina to complete the exercise is compromised when we don’t provide our bodies with optimal hydration too.

Complete Hydration sticks provides the above 6 electrolytes plus vitamin C, calcium and the nutritional supplement Ribose. From our heart to calve muscles, our bodies use Ribose. Ribose is recommended for chronic conditions such as Fibromylagia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and heart problems. Ribose is made in the body from glucose but it is a very slow process.

Using Ribose for exercise has the remarkable benefit of protecting your muscles when you exercise. Ribose protects your muscles from fatigue and more importantly, from soreness caused by muscle exhaustion that occurs during exercise.

You get all of this from Complete Hydration for only 25 calories in a tasty tropical berry flavor. The Complete Hydration sticks are a superior replacement for other popular sports marketed beverages since they are free of artificial dyes, colors, and sugar substitutes.

PhytoSport: After Workout

Hands down this is my favorite of the 3 products! I love to work my body hard but dread the delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) I experience 2 days after the workout.

Adding the After Workout beverage to my workouts has resulted in a significant to total elimination of DOMS for me. It must have worked for a lot more people since Arbonne had a back order due to the flood of orders in June.

A closer look at the label shows why this powder has the power to feed the muscles what they need: the key ingredients are branched chain amino acids. Clinical research shows that the branched chain amino acids (leucine, isoleucine, and valine) specifically support muscle repair, alleviate exercise-induced muscle soreness and promote recovery from normal exercise-induced muscle damage.

To help the body recover from the positive type of stress that occurs with exercise, adding sources of antioxidants from pomegranates, cayenne, ginseng, and tumeric add to helping with joint and circulation support.

The superstar minerals calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium are included to help muscles function and recover from increased activity. These minerals help prevent dehydration and help to reduce occurrence of muscle cramps.

At 40 calories per serving, with a mild Berry flavor, this post exercise beverage is a reward to look forward to after exercise.

Whether you use all three of these products or just one, each of these beverages can stand on it’s own merits to provide the boost to your workouts and may make exercise feel easier, more enjoyable, less painful, and something you want to do more of.

That’s the “side effects” we want more of in our exercise prescription!