By now, we have all heard about the importance and benefits of pre-workout and post-workout supplementation. But what about the intra-workout products that are now becoming more popular? Is this just another category of supplements made up by sports nutrition manufacturers to convince you to buy something that offers no real benefit? Or is it produced from real scientific data and beneficial to anyone looking for an edge in maximizing their progress, increasing recovery, and decreasing muscle soreness and breakdown? Let’s delve into this subject to find out if it really is something that is worth investing in.

As the term “intra” suggests, these are supplements taken during a workout. They provide a boost of energy, additional endurance, and improved power while you are training. They are also designed to improve protein sympathies and support recovery after a workout.

The first thing the must remember sit to stay hydrated. During high-intensity training research has shown that a 2-3 percent decrease in one’s body water weight causes a significant drop in performance, reduced number of repetitions completed during a workout, and higher ratings of perceived exertion.

Once you’ve ensured proper hydration, we will now look into the benefits of amino acids during training.

Exercise causes your body to increase blood flow to working muscles by up to 500 percent, boosting amino-acid delivery to skeletal muscle by 650 percent. At the same time, cellular sensitivity is increased, enabling your muscles to increase the rate of absorption of substrates and fuel. There’s no other time of the day when your body is so primed for nutrient absorption. So then why don’t we simply take our protein and recovery supplements during our workouts? After all, if taking protein an hour after is good, 30 minutes after is better; then wouldn’t during be best? In theory, during is best, however, your standard protein and recovery supplements won’t cut it, and for a good reason: mechanical digestion. What is mechanical digestion? Mechanical digestion is the process of digesting food. During this process, nearly 25% of your blood travels to the gut to facilitate the breakdown of matter. So, taking a good old recovery mash-up during your workout simply isn’t going to cut it.

Intra-workouts, however, makes nourishment possible during activity without triggering mechanical digestion so your muscle building potential will increase. This is where intras become so beneficial since they contain more than just amino acids, but include electrolytes, performance-enhancing compounds such as betaine, and in some cases carbohydrates. These ingredients can help mitigate muscle damage, hydrate, improve strength and endurance, increase blood flow, support energy production, and accelerate recovery.

If you are looking for the just the right way to put your workout over the top, intra-workouts help you have overall prolonged endurance during your workouts, giving you the ability to push yourself beyond your normal comfort zone. If you plan on doing bodybuilding or want to increase your cardio times, these supplements are a good investment.

However, we must take into consideration that if one consumes a pre-workout meal and a post-workout meal, there might not be much of a nutritional gap to fill during your training, especially if your workouts are typically very short. If you do not have any major goals in sight or are not looking to take your workout to the next level then this type of supplement might not be right for you right now.

Considering the research done on supplementation during training, an intra-workout would be a worthwhile investment that can enhance your session and give you the best benefits in muscle mass possible for the time and effort you put in during your training. You will notice an improvement in strength, muscle growth, and endurance and get quicker results when cutting weight, in a fasted state while training, doing cardio, or bulking up.

At the end of the day, it comes down to whether you have serious goals when hitting the gym and lifting weights. If you are driven to make significant changes to your body then this type of supplement will provide a competitive edge both in and out of the gym.

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