Sports drinks

Gumper

Could anyone give me the scoop on the different sports drinks that are available? I've recently gotten back into cycling and noticed that there seem to be a ton of these type of products out there.

Do they really work? Is one brand better than the next? I currently drink only water while I ride, would it be better to drink one of the endurance type of sports drinks?

Thanks for the input.

Randybaker99

Here is a good article in velonews about the glycemic index of sports drinks:

http://www.velonews.com/train/articles/5972.0.html

I hope it sheds some light.

Roadie_scum

If you ride for greater than 1 hour, it's good to take some carbohydrate on board. Sports drinks provide an easy way to do this. Things to look out for are:
(1) Tastes OK (try diffeerent ones)
(2) Cost
(3) Contains some sodium (may prevent cramp - helps body keep same level of osmolarity).
(4) Contains plenty of carb in concentration between 4% and 8% - Sucrose, glucose, maltose, maltodextrin all good - fructose, galactose, lactose, not so good.

Four is probably the key for sports drinks - they should all meet this, though some drinks use fructose. Go with what you can stomach and what you like in terms of taste, as most will meet 3 and 4.

JoeHudson

What's your take on SoBe products?

Roadie_scum

I'm sorry, but I'm not familiar with that brand - I'm from Australia, so we probably get different products even from the same brands anyway. Do you have a link to the nutritional information? I'd be happy to have a look for you.

JoeHudson

I've posted the site below. It looks like they may be a little high in carbs according to the data above. This company has several products on the market, as I understand it.

http://www.sobebev.com/product_info...ine_power.shtml

Roadie_scum

It really depends on what you want the sports drink for. The criteria I listed are for drinks to be consumed during aerobic exercise. The primary concern then is carbohydrate replenishment. This 'SoBe' contains creatine and a lot more CHO than should be in sports drinks (to much for rapid absorption). It seems this would be more useful to a bodybuilder than a cyclist. It would not be a good aid for an endurance/aerobic athlete. The caffeine might help a little, but there are other more effective ways to get that. Maybe a gym junkie would like it...

cbergstr

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cbergstr

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cydewaze

I should really start trying different sports drinks. I'm getting kind of sick of the blue gatorade powder mix.

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Randybaker99

I am currently bringing 2 different drinks with me on a ride: Accelerade for the "hearty" drink (it has 4:1 carb protein ratio and seems to give me more energy) and GU2O for the "lite" drink (it has no protein, just carbs and electrolytes - a bit like flavored water. I find drinking just the Accelerade alone gets kinda gross.

larry barr

I have always had good success myself with Accelerade, especially when it comes to long distance events. There are many on the market and it seems like more products are introduced every day. It is all about what works for you.

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jcjordan

Hey at least in the US you have some choice. In Oz the choice is fairly limited in the pre-mix, gatorade and poweradem, and in powder you can only get the lemon-lime flavor.

does anyone in Oz know any others that are good. I have tried a few others, like Musashi's ching, but they all have a funny after taste.

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txbuckeye

I'm using Shaklee's Performance drink mix. No stomach probs and works great. I use this in one bottle and one bottle of water.