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So you’ve decided to ramp up your training to take your first-ever shot at a marathon or triathlon. Or maybe you’re just starting a program of regular endurance training. You’ve got the necessary gear. You’ve got a training plan. But you don’t have a clue about sports nutrition or the myriad sports nutrition products that claim they’ll make you a better athlete. Bars, drinks, gels, chews, electrolytes, carbohydrates, protein, and fats — the choices can be overwhelming, and quite frankly, many athletes don’t know where to begin to try to understand this stuff, let alone how to use it!

If that sounds at all familiar, this article is for you. Keep reading, and you’ll learn the sports nutrition basics you need to hit the ground running. You’ll also learn which PowerBar® sports nutrition products do what, and how to use them more effectively. In addition, you’ll come away with a better understanding of common ingredients found in PowerBar products and their performance versus functional roles.

Sports nutrition basics
Worry not — sports nutrition isn’t rocket science — but it does have a few basic scientific concepts and a handful of terms, which, if understood, will help you better navigate the world of sports nutrition.

The story really begins with the contraction of muscles. That’s what you’re doing when you are training or competing. It’s the contraction of muscles that enables you to run, jump, swim, kick, or engage in any kind of movement. Each time your muscles contract, they burn muscle fuel and they generate heat internally. It stands to reason that if you keep enough muscle fuel on hand to meet the demands of exercise, and if you avoid overheating, you’ll function better as an athlete. That in a nutshell is what sports nutrition is all about — keeping your muscles fueled and keeping you hydrated properly so you avoid becoming overheated. If you accomplish these two goals, you can delay the onset of fatigue during exercise, and that translates to better athletic performance. Fall short on these goals, and your performance will stumble, as well.

There are three basic principles of sports nutrition: Start training sessions and competitions fully fuel and hydrated, refuel and rehydrate during exercise when necessary, and promote optimal recovery after exercise.

Fueling
Whether you’re biking, running, or swimming, if endurance exercise is on the agenda, you’re burning a combination of fat and carbohydrate as muscle fuel. The less intense your pace, the more you can rely on fat for fuel. The more intense the pace, the more you depend on carbohydrate. The catch is that while you have fat stores aplenty, carbohydrate fuel stores are in much shorter supply. Carbohydrate fuel is present in your body in two forms: Glucose circulates in your bloodstream, and bundles of glucose called glycogen are stored in your liver and muscles. With carbohydrate fuel stores fully stocked, you probably have about 40 calories’ worth of circulating glucose and about 1,900 calories’ worth of glycogen. By comparison, you probably have upwards of 80,000 calories or more of fat stores socked away! The distinction in the size of your fuel reserves is important, because intense exercise of an hour or more will put a serious dent in your limited muscle glycogen stores. If you don’t do something to replenish those carbohydrates, your muscle glycogen reserves will continue to dwindle. As muscle glycogen stores run dry, you turn to liver glycogen stores to maintain your blood glucose level during exercise. But once liver glycogen stores are tapped, your blood sugar level starts to plummet, fatigue quickly sets in, and you’re forced to either slow way down or stop. Runners call this hitting the wall, and cyclists call it bonking. It’s something you want to avoid. The way to avoid it is by ensuring that you’re fully fueled going into each training session or competition, and by refueling with carbohydrates during exercise if your training or event goes much beyond an hour.

Hydrating
Thermoregulation is the term physiologists use to describe the process by which you maintain an internal body temperature range at which you function at your best. Water is critical to this process, which probably comes as no surprise. Water is, after all, the number one ingredient in your body, and none of us take too kindly to large shifts in our internal water supply. Yet, ironically, one of the primary ways you thermoregulate, or stay within a comfortable core body temperature, is to sweat. Sweating helps to dissipate the internal heat your muscles generate during exercise, but it causes you to lose the very fluids you depend on for proper thermoregulation. When you sweat, you also lose dissolved minerals in sweat called electrolytes. The electrolyte lost in the greatest concentration in sweat is sodium. If your fluid and sodium losses are not replaced during exercise, you can become dehydrated to the point where you’re unable to adequately control the level of heat within your body. This impairs your ability to exercise. In fact, with just a 2% loss of body weight due to fluid loss, you’re already dehydrated, and your athletic performance is already suffering. That 2% weight loss equates to a fluid loss of just 3 lbs (1.4 kg) for a 150-lb (68-kg) athlete. This amount of fluid is easily lost during endurance training sessions or competitions, especially in the heat or humidity. Complicating matters is the fact that you don’t begin to feel thirsty until after you’ve already lost too much fluid and your performance is suffering. The way to avoid dehydration is to start exercise fully hydrated, and to follow a hydration plan to replace lost fluids and sodium during exercise.

Recovering
We’ve established that endurance exercise depletes carbohydrate muscle fuel stores and leads to losses of fluids and sodium, both of which can impair your performance. Training and competing also tax your muscle tissue in another way, especially when resistance exercise is a key component of your workouts. The fact is, muscle tissue gets damaged when you exercise, and it requires repair. In addition, your muscle tissue is being stimulated to increase as an adaptation to your exercise workload. Muscle is made of protein, and proteins in turn are made up of biological building blocks called amino acids. It’s vital that you consume adequate protein just before or after exercise so that you have a source of amino acids for the repair and building of muscle tissue. Thus, recovery is the process of reloading carbohydrate fuel stores, rehydrating with fluids and sodium, and repairing and building muscle tissue. It’s during the recovery process that you achieve the gains from your training, and it’s the process of recovery that enables you to be ready for your next workout or event. Your body is ready to begin recovery just as soon as you finish exercising, but the process doesn’t begin in earnest until you provide the nutritional components.

PowerBar Sports Nutrition Products and Their Practical Applications

Having covered the scientific nuts and bolts of sports nutrition, it’s time to focus your attention on PowerBar sports nutrition products and how to use them to your advantage. PowerBar products are specifically designed to get you the carbs, protein, fats, fluids, and electrolytes you need — when and where you need them.

Energy Bars and Energy Bites: Before and during high-intensity endurance exercise and sports
Carbohydrate-rich PowerBar® Performance Energy bars (41–45 grams of carbs and 8–10 grams of protein per bar), PowerBar® Fruit Smoothie Energy bars (42 grams of carbs and 6 grams of protein per bar), and PowerBar® Energy Bites (26 grams of carbs and 5 grams of protein in 4 bites) are categorized as energy bars and energy bites, respectively. Endurance athletes, such as runners, cyclists, and swimmers, need to eat a high-carbohydrate diet on a daily basis in order to load up on glycogen stores before exercise, and they need carbs during extended exercise to fuel working muscles. These bars and bites are designed to deliver much-needed carbs before and during exercise. They also contain moderate amounts of high-quality protein and the bars contain essential vitamins and minerals. Moreover, these bars and bites are formulated with PowerBar® C2MAX dual-source energy blend, a 2:1 glucose to fructose blend found to deliver 20–50% more energy to muscles than glucose alone and improve endurance performance by 8%.

How to use Performance Energy bars, Fruit Smoothie Energy bars, and Energy Bites effectively:

• Consume one bar as part of a high-carb meal 2–4 hours before exercise
• Consume one bar or a handful of Bites (see chart below) as a high-carb snack 30–60 minutes before exercise
• When feasible, consume 1–2 bars or 4–9 Bites per hour during exercise that lasts for over an hour. For example, road cyclists will often pack these bars in their jersey pockets and take bites during downhill or flat stretches when chewing is feasible. Athletes involved in team sports will often have a bar or a handul of Bites during quarter- or half-time breaks, in order to recharge dwindling energy levels and to ward off hunger
• You also can consume one bar or a handful of Bites as needed between meals to meet total daily carbohydrate needs and to ward off hunger

Energy Bites Personalized Usage Chart
Body Weight	Before	During
	30–60 minutes before exercise
100 lbs	3–5 Bites	4–5 Bites
150 lbs	5–7 Bites	6–7 Bites
200 lbs	7–9 Bites	8–9 Bites

Energy bars: Before and during moderate-intensity exercise
PowerBar Harvest® Energy bars, PowerBar® Nut Naturals Energy bars, and PowerBar® Triple Threat® Energy bars provide a variety of choices for before and during moderate-intensity exercise or sports, such as climbing, hiking, and skiing (for Harvest Energy bars and Nut Naturals Energy bars), and for skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing, mountain biking, and golf (for Triple Threat Energy bars).

Choose the bar that works best for you:

• Harvest Energy bars contain a full serving of whole grains, 5 grams of fiber, and 10 grams of protein, plus essential vitamins and minerals. The slower-to-digest whole oats and natural oat bran fiber provide you with longer-lasting energy before and during exercise
• Nut Naturals Energy bars are packed with crunchy nuts and/or real fruit. Each bar provides 10 grams of protein, 3 grams of fiber, and essential vitamins and minerals. The slower-to-digest almonds, peanuts, and whole oats provide you with longer lasting energy before and during exercise
• Triple Threat Energy bars taste like a candy bar, yet provide 10–11 grams of PowerBar® TriSource™ protein, 4 grams of fiber, and essential vitamins and minerals. The slower-to-digest nuts and natural oat bran fiber provide you with longer-lasting energy before and during exercise, along with protein for building muscles

How to use Harvest Energy bars, Nut Naturals Energy bars, and Triple Threat Energy bars:

• Consume one bar as part of a high-carb meal 2–4 hours before exercise
• Consume one bar as a high-carb snack 30–60 minutes before exercise
• When feasible, consume 1 bar per hour during exercise that lasts for over an hour
• You also can consume one bar as needed between meals to meet total daily carbohydrate needs and to ward off hunger

Protein bars and Bites for strength-training workouts
PowerBar ProteinPlus® protein bars and bites are designed for athletes who want to boost their protein intake after strength-training workouts in order to support muscle tissue repair and building. ProteinPlus protein bars provide 23 grams of protein and ProteinPlus Bites provide 20 grams of protein per pouch (about 8 bites) from PowerBar TriSource™ protein, a proprietary blend of three high-quality protein sources, which include the dairy proteins whey and casein, and soy protein from soybeans. These three proteins are absorbed by the body at different rates, and thereby deliver a steady supply of amino acids to support muscle tissue repair and rebuilding. The PowerBar ProteinPlus® 30g protein bar provides 30 grams of protein and includes 3.5 grams of the muscle-building amino acid leucine.

How to use the PowerBar ProteinPlus protein bar, PowerBar ProteinPlus Bites, and the PowerBar ProteinPlus 30g protein bar effectively:

• For regular strength-training workouts, consume a ProteinPlus protein bar or a handful of ProteinPlus Bites (see chart below) just after working out to promote the repair and building of muscle tissue
• For extra-rigorous strength-training workouts, consume a ProteinPlus 30g protein bar before or just after working out to promote the repair and building of muscle tissue

ProteinPlus Bites Personalize Usage Chart
To help build and repair lean muscle with strength training:
Body Weight	100 lbs	150 lbs	200 lbs
Bites after training	3–4	5–6	7–8

Anytime bar for a low-calorie energy boost
The PowerBar® Pria® 110 Plus nutrition bar is perfect for any time you need an energy boost, but want to control your calories. Each bar provides 5 grams of protein, as much calcium as a glass of milk, other essential vitamins and minerals, and all for 110 calories.

How to use the PowerBar Pria 110 Plus nutrition bar effectively:

• Consume one bar anytime you feel the need for an energy boost while limiting calories.

Sports drinks before and during exercise and sports
PowerBar® Endurance sports drink is a convenient powder designed to be mixed with water. Mixed as directed, it provides C2MAX dual source energy blend to fuel working muscles, as well as sodium and water for optimal hydration — 34 grams of carbs and 380 mg sodium per 16 fl oz (480 ml) serving. Use Endurance sports drink before and during high-intensity endurance exercise and sports, such as running, cycling, and triathlons.

The advantages of a well-designed sports drink over water are many:

• A sports drink provides carbohydrates to fuel your muscles
• Athletes freely consume more fluids when their hydration beverage is flavored, as is the case with a sports drink
• Sodium and carbs in a sports drink cause the fluid in the beverage to be absorbed more quickly
• Sodium also helps maintain your drive to continue drinking fluids when exercising, which is crucial to meeting your fluid needs
• Sodium helps you retain the fluid that you’ve consumed

How to use PowerBar Endurance sports drink effectively:

• Drink 14–20 fl oz (400–600 ml) of water or sports drink 2–3 hours before exercise
• Drink another 8 fl oz (240 ml) of water or sports drink during warm-ups
• During exercise, consume fluids at a rate that closely matches your sweat rate. This generally requires you to drink about 13–26 fl oz (400–800 ml) every hour of exercise, preferably in smaller amounts taken frequently. However, fluid needs vary considerably. Therefore, calculating your sweat rate is the best approach to determining your hydration needs. For an easy, step-by-step guide to calculate your sweat rate and to obtain a personalized hydration plan, click on the Sweat Rate Calculator at PowerBar.com

Energy Gels before and during high-intensity endurance exercise and sports
Every PowerBar® Gel features muscle-fueling C2MAX dual source energy blend and the important electrolyte, sodium, in an easy-to-swallow gel matrix (27–28 grams of carbs and 200 mg sodium per packet). These energy gels are primarily designed to be consumed before exercise to top off glycogen stores, and during exercise along with a few mouthfuls of water to refuel and rehydrate. Just tear open a packet, squeeze the tasty gel into your mouth, and swallow. Then chase it with a few gulps of water. For an extra boost, some flavors feature 25 or 50 mg of caffeine per gel packet. And of course, caffeine-free flavors are also available.

How to use PowerBar Gels effectively:

• Consume a gel as part of a high-carb meal 2–4 hours before exercise
• Consume 1–2 gels along with water about 10–20 minutes before exercise
• During competitions or training sessions lasting over an hour, consume 1 gel every 20–45 minutes during exercise, along with a few mouthfuls of water. The combination of a gel and water is designed to be used interchangeably with PowerBar Endurance sports drink during exercise, if you are looking for a little variety
• You also can consume a gel as an on-the-go, high-carb snack between meals when access to other foods is limited

Energy chews before and during exercise and sports
PowerBar® Gel Blasts™ energy chews are a chewable version of a gel, but take the energy chew category to a whole new level. Not only do Gel Blasts energy chews feature a chewy outer shell, they offer a tasty liquid center designed to provide an extra blast of carbohydrate fuel. Each chew offers 5 grams of muscle-fueling C2MAX dual source energy blend, along with key electrolytes like sodium and potassium. These chews are designed as a tasty, high-carb source before workouts, and to refuel muscles during moderate- and high-intensity exercise or team sports. Six chews provide the carbohydrate muscle-fueling equivalent of a PowerBar Gel. For an extra boost, the Cola flavor provides 50 mg caffeine, while the Lemon flavor offers vitamin C to support your immune system.

How to use Gel Blasts energy chews effectively:

• Consume a packet of chews as part of a high-carb meal 2–4 hours before exercise
• Consume a packet of PowerBar GEL BLASTS (about 9 chews) 30–60 minutes before exercise to top-off carbohydrate fuel stores
• When feasible, consume 1–3 PowerBar GEL BLASTS every 10 minutes during exercise that lasts for over an hour. For example, road cyclists can pack these chews in their jersey pockets and use during downhill or flat stretches when chewing is feasible. Athletes involved in team sports can consume during quarter- or half-time breaks, in order to recharge dwindling energy levels and to ward off hunger
• You also can consume chews as an on-the-go, high-carb snack between meals when access to other foods is limited

Recovery products
PowerBar® Recovery bar and PowerBar® Recovery beverage are specifically designed to be consumed as soon as possible after exercise, to kick-start the recovery process. PowerBar Recovery bar provides 30 grams of carbs for glycogen restoration, 12 grams of high-quality protein for repairing and building muscle, and 8–10 grams of fat to help replenish lipid stores within muscle tissue. A 16–fl oz (480-ml) serving of PowerBar Recovery beverage provides 40 grams of carbs for rapid glycogen restoration, 6 grams of high-quality protein for muscle repair and building, and 500 mg of sodium for optimal rehydration. Consume a PowerBar Recovery bar if you feel like having something solid and satisfying. Consume PowerBar Recovery beverage if you want something light and thirst-quenching that you can easily chug.

How to use PowerBar Recovery bar and PowerBar Recovery beverage effectively:

• Consume a PowerBar Recovery bar plus fluid
  or
• 16 fl oz of PowerBar Recovery beverage
  
• Within 30 minutes after exercise
  
• Promotes a rapid recovery

Understanding ingredients
Athletes want and need to know what they’re putting in their bodies. All PowerBar sports nutrition products have on their labels something called an ingredient statement. This is where the ingredients in the product are listed in descending order of their predominance. Ingredients fall into two categories: Performance ingredients are those that actually help support your ability to perform athletically, and other ingredients play specific roles within products to improve product qualities such taste, flavor, color, stability, and nutrient delivery. Some ingredients have both performance and product quality roles.

Below is a list of some common ingredients in PowerBar sports nutrition products with names that aren’t so common. The performance and quality roles of these ingredients are identified.

Ingredient	Performance Role	Additional Effects
Maltodextrin	Carbohydrate fuel source	Improves product texture
Fructose	Carbohydrate fuel source	Nutritive sweetener
Evaporated cane juice syrup	Carbohydrate fuel source	Nutritive sweetener
Dextrose	Carbohydrate fuel source	Nutritive sweetener, Improves product texture
Whey protein isolate	Protein source
Calcium caseinate	Protein source
Soy protein isolate	Protein source
Sodium chloride	Electrolyte source
Sodium citrate	Electrolyte source	pH control, tartness
Potassium chloride	Electrolyte source
Glycerin		Maintains moisture content
Soy lecithin		Emulsifier
Tartaric acid		pH control, tartness
Malic acid		pH control, tartness
Citric acid		pH control, tartness
Sodium benzoate		Slows spoilage
Potassium sorbate		Slows spoilage
Calcium silicate		Anti-caking agent
Turmeric color		Color from a natural source
Annatto color		Color from a natural source

References:
1. American College of Sports Medicine, Sawka MN, Burke LM, Eichner ER, Maughan RJ, Montain SJ, Stachenfeld NS. American College of Sports Medicine position stand. Exercise and fluid replacement. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2007; 39:377–390.

2. American College of Sports Medicine; American Dietetic Association; Dietitians of Canada. Joint Position Statement: nutrition and athletic performance. American College of Sports Medicine, American Dietetic Association, and Dietititians of Canada. Med Sci Sports Exerc 2000; 32:2130–2145.

3. Burke L. Nutrition for recovery after training and competition. In: Burke L, Dean V, eds. Clinical sports nutrition. McGraw-Hill Companies, Australia, 2006; 415–453.


Topics: General, Pre-Workout, During, Post-Workout, Hydration, C2MAX, Recovery, Carbs, Energy, Protein, Usage

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