With protein-rich diets becoming more widespread among athletes, carbohydrates are often being neglected. Carbohydrates provide the energy high-performance athletes need in order to increase stamina and push their bodies further.
A lack of carbohydrates will cause athletes to tire faster than usual and reduce performance results. If you've bought into the current trend to reduce carbs and increase proteins, you may be hurting your body and limiting the gains you get from your workouts.
Carbohydrates are the body and brain's first option for fuel during any workout routine. The proper carbs are easily digestible, so they can be eaten soon before and after most activities. Once digested, these carbs turn into glucose sugars and are transported to your muscles. Your muscles need glucose for optimum performance and complete recovery after any intense activity.
Carbohydrates also provide glycogen for high-intensity workouts. Glycogen is the unused glucose sugars that your body stores in your muscles and liver. These sugars are vital for replenishing the glucose levels in your bloodstream, and athletes run the risk of reducing the level of this essential sugar by not consuming enough carbohydrates.
So how exactly does consuming enough carbohydrates improve performance?
The answer is simple. Carbohydrates provide the muscles with the sugars that your body converts into energy. Without these sugars, you'll fatigue much faster, not have enough energy for a grueling workout and not get the performance you expect. Once glucose and glycogen stores are severely diminished, your muscles begin eating themselves for fuel. Not only will this reduce your performance, but you won't see the gains you would expect from your workout routine.
Carbohydrates not only give you energy, but they also keep your brain active during a workout. If your body is not turning enough carbohydrates into glucose and glycogen, you'll deplete those resources long before they reach your brain. This can lead to a type of mental fatigue that leads to slower decision making, lightheadedness and potential confusion.
This potentially results in poor choices, dizziness, injury and causes athletes to end workouts early without reaching their full potential. Even at rest, the brain requires up to 130g of glucose per day, during long-duration workouts and high-intensity activities, the glucose requirement for your brain is even higher.
Athletes need to take care of their physical nutrition as well as their mind to stay at the top of their game.
Providing your body with enough fuel to propel you through your workout, game or other physically strenuous activity is essential if you want results. Even low-intensity activities require some form of carbohydrate, and high-intensity and long-duration workouts put an incredible strain on your sugar levels.
It's estimated that low-intensity activities burn 2g of glucose per minute. Imagine how high that number can get during an intense workout such as a marathon. Low estimates of the rate glucose is burned during intense workouts is somewhere between 30 and 40g. Over long-durations, this number probably increases to upwards of 100g of glucose burned.
Your body's stores of glucose and glycogen during workouts must be replenished. It's important that recovery is taken seriously, and addressed shortly after any exercise. Two hours after a workout, the effectiveness of the consumption of carbohydrates is cut in half. This means that you are at 50% replacement rates of the depleted glycogen in your body if you wait. The sooner you refuel, the faster your body can recover from your workout.
Your body burns through much more than glucose and glycogen during a workout. As you dehydrate, your body is stripped of electrolytes and minerals, so it's vitally important to replenish your fluids and electrolytes as well. TapouT performance beverage is the perfect way to recover these essential nutrients after any workout. TapouT is the only major brand of sports drinks to contain all five necessary electrolytes as well as eight vitamins. Recovering with a TapouT beverage will replenish your body's:
- Sodium
- Potassium
- Chloride
- Magnesium
- Calcium
- Vitamins A, C, E, B2, B3, B5, B6 and B12
Our regular TapouT sports performance drink comes in a Citrus Kick flavor and has 30g of carbohydrates to help your muscles recover the glucose and glycogen it has burned during your workout. Our Cherry Lemonade flavor contains no sugars for those still looking for a no carb sports recovery beverage.
