Recover Right: How to Match Your Recovery Strategy to Your Workout

You finished that race, workout, or training session. And you fell short.

How many times have you felt that your training has been on point, but when the day came, something was missing — you felt tired, sore, and depleted?

For many athletes, the missing piece is proper recovery. If you begin training in a depleted state, your performance, fitness and strength gains will be limited. Perfecting the type of recovery you choose is the final step in maximizing your potential. You already know that Momentous provides the highest quality protein available, but how do you know which of our products to use for your performance needs?

We've designed three distinct protein recovery formulas to fill the needs of the do-it-all athlete. Whether your sport is running, skiing, baseball, football, cycling or weightlifting, your training isn't confined to one type of stimulus, and your recovery shouldn’t be either. Your first question should be, “What is my goal?”, and your recovery regimen should fit that goal.

Endurance

You just spent four hours on the baseball field, or you just ran a 10-miler, or you skied a full day. Does your body feel like it sustained a long, hard effort? Is your goal to bounce back from this effort with improved endurance, whether that be cardiovascular, muscular or stamina? Then you should use our RedShift Endurance Recovery formula.

The high calorie expenditure and breakdown of muscle tissue from logging all those miles can make it hard to get sufficient protein from your diet.

When it comes to sports that involve continuous effort over longer distances and durations, protein replenishment is often overlooked. That’s partly because supplement companies have typically focused on tailoring their products to weightlifters and others involved in strength sports. If you’re the kind of athlete who’s eager to cut ounces or even grams from your bike frame and shoes and keep your bodyweight low, you might also be concerned about “bulking up.” However, the high calorie expenditure and breakdown of muscle tissue from logging all those miles can make it hard to get sufficient protein from your diet to enable repair and recovery. Indeed, one study found that endurance athletes need up to twice as much protein as was previously thought.

Enter RedShift, which packs a hefty punch of complete, grass-fed whey protein isolate (21.3 grams per serving). We also include just the right amount of carbs to replenish the glycogen that you deplete during each run, ride, or climb. A seminal study at the University of North Texas concluded that consuming protein and carbohydrates together after an endurance workout improved recovery. RedShift also contains D-Ribose, which further replenishes muscular energy.

Strength

What if your training includes more strength and power work, or if your athletic goals include increasing size and power? Then ArcFire Strength Recovery is the recovery tool you need. This blend not only includes the same high quality whey isolate as our other two products, but it also features L-glutamine. This essential amino acid prevents muscle breakdown (catabolism) and promotes muscular repair, and has been shown to help athletes recover their peak power ability output faster. ArcFire also contains creatine, which further aids in cellular recovery and can help produce faster muscle contractions.

Our resident Olympian, Sara Hendershot, who competed at the 2012 London Games in the women’s rowing pairs, explains how she uses ArcFire: “Sometimes I’ll run the steps at the Harvard football stadium. They’re really steep and there are 37 sections, so by the end of a session, both my lungs and legs are burning. My gym workouts also require a combination of both strength and endurance. Even though these sessions tax multiple energy systems, when strength gains are my goal, I use ArcFire to help me bounce back.”

Essential Protein

So where does our third premium protein option, AbsoluteZero, come in? For Sara, it’s not an either/or choice, but rather AbsoluteZero serves as a complement to the post-exercise RedShift and ArcFire formulas.

“AbsoluteZero is my everyday choice for mornings, evenings, and when I’m on the go,” Sara says. “It blends easily in smoothies and gives me the extra protein I need to recover. Though I’m no longer training for the Olympics, I’m still pretty obsessive about my routine and prioritize exercise every day. For anyone who’s active and is serious about their training, goals, and health, you’ve got to get the most from your nutrition and Momentous formulas are a big part of that.”

Perfecting the type of recovery you choose is the final step in maximizing your potential.

At Momentous, we’ve avoided the temptation to create a vast line of products that might overwhelm you with decision fatigue or confuse you with ingredients that require hours of research to understand.

Instead, we’ve come up with three meticulously crafted formulas that we devised with the expert input of performance engineers from NBA, NFL, and NHL teams. All Momentous products are gluten-free and use only ingredients sourced from the world's best providers, rigorously tested and certified by NSF and Informed Sport to ensure they are safe, clean and reliable.

So you can’t go wrong with any of our premium proteins, just take a minute to figure out whether AbsoluteZero, RedShift, or ArcFire best matches your athletic needs.

Author: Phil White