Supercharge Your Training and Muscle Gains with a Scientifically Based Carbohydrate Strategy
By Richard B. Kreider, PhD, FACSM, FISSN
Many bodybuilders ingest energy bars prior to and following training sessions. However, they are typically higher in protein and lower in carbohydrate than “performance” energy bars. The reason for this is that many body builders maintain a higher protein / lower carbohydrate and fat diet in order to optimize body composition changes during training. 
Consequently, they often feel they should ingest higher protein energy bars as well. However, as my recent book entitled Exercise and Sport Nutrition: Principles, Promises, Science and Recommendations [1] describes, this practice may actually impede training adaptations. The problem, however, is that there really haven’t been too many options for body builders and power athletes. On one hand, if you ingest a high protein/low carbohydrate bar prior to exercise, you won’t have the energy needed to maintain exercise intensity throughout the workout. In addition, many high protein energy bars don’t contain enough high quality protein or essential amino acids to stimulate protein synthesis. 
On the other hand, if you chose a high carbohydrate “performance bar” or “sports gel”, you typically get lots of quick releasing carbohydrates with little to no protein or nutrient density. Knowing this, the Supreme Protein product development team contacted me to help them develop a revolutionary energy bar called Raptor. The Raptor Bar has been uniquely formulated to provide the proper type and amount of carbohydrates, amino acids, and other essential nutrients that bodybuilders, power athletes, and endurance athletes can use to optimize training, performance, and recovery. It incorporates many of the nutritional strategies described in my book from our research and working with athletes over the last 20 years [1].
Whether you’re a bodybuilder, power athlete, or endurance athlete, the bar can help fuel exercise, lessen the impact of intense exercise on the body, promote protein synthesis, and enhance recovery. The following describes why body builders should consider adding the Raptor Bar to your training table and performance enhancement arsenal.
“In order to perform at a peak level of performance all day long in below freezing temperatures the Raptor bar is a must! No matter if it’s a contest or in the back country, this high-energy bar is definitely needed to maintain my strength, energy, and mental focus. I always carry a few on me for a quick meal-on-the-go so I don’t have to waste time leaving the slopes to grab something else to eat. The Raptor bar gives me the extra edge I need to perform at the highest level, without hitting a wall!
In between long days of snowboarding I eat the Supreme Protein bars so I get enough protein to speed my recovery and keep me strong for the next adventure. Fortunately both the Raptor bars and the Supreme Protein bars taste so good I actually look forward to eating them…that’s just a bonus…:)”
Wyatt Caldwell- Professional Snowboarder
Carbohydrate to Fuel Training and Recovery
The primary fuel used to power intense exercise is carbohydrate. Athletes involved in intense training need to consume enough carbohydrate in their diet to provide the fuel necessary to maintain high quality workouts and performance. If athletes do not ingest enough carbohydrate in their diet, they can’t maintain the intensity of their workouts and the quality of training is reduced, leading to slower gains, training plateaus, delayed recovery, and/or overtraining [1]. For the bodybuilder, insufficient intake of carbohydrate may also promote greater breakdown of muscle tissue during intense exercise in order to maintain blood glucose levels and therefore make it more difficult to build or maintain muscle mass. This would obviously be counterproductive for a body builder attempting to maximize gains in lean tissue.
So how much dietary carbohydrate do you need in your diet? The body contains about 80-100 grams of glycogen in the liver and 300-500 grams of glycogen in the muscle depending on the amount of total muscle mass. An intense training bout may deplete muscle and/or liver glycogen levels by 50-80%. Therefore, most athletes training 1-2 hours per day consume 3-5 grams/kg/day of carbohydrate in their diet during normal training periods (e.g., 240-400 grams/day for an 80 kg athlete) and 5-8 grams/kg/day of carbohydrate during more intense training periods (e.g., 400-640 grams/day for an 80 kg athlete). While recent studies indicate that resistance-trained/power athletes may not need to ingest as much carbohydrate in their diet as endurance athletes, they need to ingest enough carbohydrate to maintain the quality of training, enhance recovery, and prevent training staleness.
“When you’re one hundred and seventy miles into a two-hundred-mile non-stop road race, you need every nutritional edge possible. After extensively researching the major endurance bars and gels, it was Raptor that impressed me the most. I have been using Raptor bars exclusively, and they have worked great!”
Dean Karnazes, World’s Greatest Endurance Athlete
The bodybuilder is unique in that they typically train intensely for 1-2 hours one or two times per day which requires a lot of muscle and liver glycogen to fuel their workouts. However, they also typically maintain a lower calorie / higher protein diet in order to optimize body composition changes. One way for a body builder on a lower carbohydrate / higher protein diet to maximize carbohydrate availability to the muscle is to ingest 40-50 grams of carbohydrate 30-60 minutes prior to working out so that they can provide the fuel needed to maintain high intensity exercise throughout the duration of the exercise bout. In addition, ingesting 40-50 grams of carbohydrate within 30 minutes and 2 hours following exercise can help replenish muscle and liver glycogen stores. The Raptor bar contains 46 grams of a unique blend of fast, intermediate, and slow releasing carbohydrates designed to provide a prolonged release of carbohydrate to fuel the muscle during exercise as well as promote replenishment of muscle and liver glycogen following exercise. For a body builder, strategically timing carbohydrate intake prior to and following workouts can help you get the most out of your training in optimizing muscle mass gains even while maintaining a low carbohydrate diet.
“Raptor helps me reach, and maintain, a mind blowing level of intensity in the gym! I’ve never trained so hard and so long in my life!”
Dan Decker- Top Level National Bodybuilder
High Quality Protein and Amino Acids
It is well known that bodybuilders need to consume enough protein in their diet (e.g., 1.8-2.0 grams/kg/day) in order to repair tissue and build muscle during training [1]. However, the quality and timing of protein is also important [2]. A significant amount of research indicates that ingesting 3 to 6 grams of essential amino acids (EAA) prior to and during exercise stimulates protein synthesis [3-13]. The key amino acid appears to be L-leucine [14-17]. In fact, studies show that ingesting 3 grams of EAA is as effective as ingesting 18 or more grams of whey protein. Three of the EAA, called branched-chain amino acids (BCAA), have been reported to reduce protein degradation during intense exercise [18, 19] as well as minimize exercise-induced alterations in the BCAA to tryptophan ratio believed to influence fatigue during exercise [20, 21]. Studies have shown that provision of BCAA during exercise helps maintain mental alertness and lessen catabolism [22-26]. This should help minimize catabolism and fatigue during exercise while stimulating protein synthesis after exercise. Finally, glutamine has been reported to enhance cellular hydration, promote protein synthesis, and serve as a fuel source for white blood cells and thereby lessen the effects of intense exercise on the immune system [27-30].
While many energy bars contain 6-10 grams of protein, they don’t necessarily contain high quality protein rich in EAA. The Raptor bar contains 11 grams of high quality protein, most of which is Whey Protein Isolate (WPI) and Whey Protein Concentrate (WPC) fortified with an amino acid blend designed to increase the quality of the protein sources. For example, each bar contains research supported doses of EAA, BCAA; and L-Glutamine. If you ingest one Raptor bar 30-60 minutes prior to and following exercise, you will provide 21 grams of high quality protein providing levels of EAA, L-Leucine, BCAA, and L-Glutamine reported to help reduce catabolism, promote protein synthesis, delay fatigue, and support the immune system. In other words, the Raptor bar provides the right amount of protein and amino acids you need to optimize your training. At the same time, consuming Raptor bars in this way will help you maintain your energy and focus during exercise as well as help you avoid the post-training fatigue that an intense training session often leaves.
“Pre-training nutrition is just as important as post-training nutrition if you want to attack performance from all sides. The Raptor bar before training allows me to smash through walls to take my training to the next level. This is a brutally effective tool for elite athletes!”
Rodney Martin – 2008 Olympian
A Rich Source of Vitamins, Minerals, Antioxidants, and Immune Enhancers
Vitamins are needed to enhance the utilization of carbohydrate, fats, and amino acids. Minerals are needed for a variety of reasons including maintaining neural activity. Most energy bars only contain 10-50% of daily values (DV) of vitamins and minerals. The Raptor bar contains a rich blend of vitamins and minerals that provide a high level of B-vitamins needed to support carbohydrate metabolism; a rich source of electrolytes (sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium) which can help maintain neural control, fluid balance, and maintain electrolyte levels during exercise; a high concentration of antioxidants (Vitamin E, Vitamin C, selenium, alpha-lipoic acid; Co-enzyme Q10, and taurine) that can help reduce muscle injury and minimize the oxidation associated with intense exercise; and, immune enhancers (Vitamin C, zinc, L-Glutamine) that have been reported to help minimize the immune-suppressive effects of intense exercise [1]. These nutrients have been added to the Raptor bar to help you better tolerate intense training. It’s like taking a multi-vitamin every time you ingest a Raptor bar!
If the above is not enough reason to convince you to add the Raptor bar to your pre- and post-exercise nutrition program, Raptor also contains several nutrients purported to enhance exercise performance.
b-Alanine.
b-Alanine supplementation has been shown to increase muscle carnosine levels which is a powerful buffer in the muscle [31-35]. A number of recent studies indicate that b-Alanine supplementation can increase high-intensity exercise capacity [31-35]. The Raptor bar contains b-Alanine designed to help you maintain muscle carnosine levels and total muscle buffering capacity during exercise.
Phosphates. Sodium and calcium phosphate loading (e.g., 3-4 grams/day for 3-6 days) has been shown to increase anaerobic threshold and maximal oxygen uptake [36-40]. Once loaded, ingesting 0.5 to 1 gram of sodium, potassium, and/or calcium phosphates should help maintain phosphate availability during exercise. The Raptor bar contains 0.8 grams of sodium and calcium phosphates to support aerobic capacity during training. This is important for the body builder because enhancing aerobic capacity can help you recover quicker between sets of exercise leading to an enhanced quality of training and better training adaptations.
Mental Focus. One of the challenges for athletes engaged in intense training and competition is that the longer you exercise, the harder it is to maintain mental focus and concentration. The same is true for body builders who train several hours per day. It’s hard to maintain intensity and concentration towards the end of a tough training session. The Raptor bar contains good concentrations of taurine, BCAA, and choline to support mental focus during exercise.
“I eat a Raptor bar before training to sustain an ultra-high level of intensity and help prevent muscle breakdown, and Supreme Protein bars after to get high quality protein to speed recovery. In addition to the performance benefits, the bars taste absolutely amazing! With this combination I’ve never felt better!”
Leroy Dixon- 2008 Olympian
Bottom Line
It is particularly important for bodybuilders who are involved in heavy training while maintaining a high protein/low carbohydrate diet to properly time carbohydrate, amino acid, and nutrient intake around training sessions. The Raptor bar has been uniquely formulated to provide the proper type and amount of carbohydrates, amino acids, and nutrients that body builders and athletes need to optimize training, performance, and recovery. What’s in your bar?
About the Author
Dr. Kreider directs the Exercise & Sport Nutrition Lab at Texas A&M University and is lead author of Exercise and Sport Nutrition: Principles, Promises, Science and Recommendations that is available at www.prosource.net and www.ExerciseAndSportNutrition.com.
Tags: Amino Acids, energy bars, exercise, raptor bars, sports nutrition
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