Perform at Your Very Best in Your Sport or Event!
BY STEVE BORN
For over 39 years, Hammer Nutrition has led the way with not only the finest fuels and supplements for athletes, active people, and health-conscious individuals, but we’re also the clear leader when it comes to support and service. As I am fond of saying—and this most definitely echoes Brian’s sentiments from Day One—a company can produce the best products around, but without superior-quality customer service, and without top-level guidance on how best to use the products to enjoy maximal benefits, the person using those products will never get the full value out of them.
Specifically, when it comes to informational support, our knowledge resources are without peer in the supplement/fuel business. And if it were only our 5 Secrets of Success that we offered, we’d still be light years ahead of everyone else when it comes to proper fueling. But there’s So. Much. More…
Hammer FAQs and on almost every product page
Our most recent addition to our extensive knowledge base is our How to Fuel Guides, which are detailed fueling plans for your sport or event. Inside each article, you'll find specific, actionable advice so you can fuel right and feel great, no matter the sport or distance. We currently have 25 different sports/events that have their own fueling guide—more to come!—with our most popular one being the semi-all-encompassing How to Fuel Guide: 3-6-8+ Hours Protocol for All Types of Sports and Activities.
At the beginning of each of the specific fueling guides, we’ve included the following basic information that, in and of itself, will help you perform better at your chosen sport.
5 SIMPLE WAYS TO IMPROVE ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE NOW
While there are numerous steps that you can (and should) take to optimize athletic performance, here are a couple of super easy ones. Start with this right away, and you’ll experience noticeably rapid improvement in your endurance and overall exercise performance.
1) Stay properly hydrated all day long. With approximately 60% of your body being comprised of water, it’s vital to maintain optimal hydration all day. Unfortunately, a lot of people—perhaps you? —live in a state of perpetual dehydration that negatively affects athletic performance and overall health. Starting now, gradually increase your fluid intake—primarily from pure, clean water—so that the total number of ounces you’re drinking daily is equal to 0.5 to 0.6 of your body weight in pounds (e.g., a 180-lb athlete should consume 90 – 108 ounces of fluids daily, in addition to what is being consumed during exercise). During exercise, drink 16-26 ounces per hour.
2) Fuel lean. It’s interesting to know how many calories you’re burning every hour during exercise; however, that amount isn’t really a factor in terms of how many calories your body can accept in return from your fuel donation. The goal of caloric intake is to consume the least amount necessary to maintain energy levels where you want and need them to be hour after hour. For the majority of athletes, this represents an intake of 1 calorie per pound of body weight hourly, with most average-sized athletes finding that 120-180 calories per hour is very much the ideal “sweet spot.” Larger athletes (200+ lbs.) can consume 200-or-slightly-more calories. And if you find that’s not quite enough calories, that’s an easy fix—you simply consume a few more. Remember, it is ALWAYS easier to fix a “not enough” problem than an “uh oh, I overdid it and now my stomach is rebelling” problem.
3) Ditch the sugar. Most fuels are comprised of short-chain carbohydrates, also known as simple sugars (glucose, sucrose, fructose, etc.) Hammer Nutrition fuels do not contain any simple sugars; instead, we use maltodextrin, a complex carbohydrate. Both maltodextrin and some simple sugars will boost energy levels quickly, which is a desirable benefit. However, simple sugars—because they are comprised of only one or two saccharide molecules—will drop your energy levels just about as quickly. Constantly feeling great for a few minutes, then fighting your way out of an energy rut for several minutes—commonly referred to as ”flash and crash”—is no way to enjoy your winter sport/activity.
Conversely, because maltodextrin is MANY saccharide molecules weakly linked together, you enjoy quick-acting and much longer-lasting energy without any wild fluctuations in energy levels. Another great thing with maltodextrin is that your body can digest greater amounts of calories—with no delay from entry to exit of the digestive tract—and make them available for energy production. You can efficiently digest up to 3x more calories with maltodextrin than any simple sugar, which basically eliminates stomach distress issues.
4) Don’t eat for 3 hours before your workouts, races, and competitions. By refraining from consuming any calories in the 3-hour period prior to your workouts and races, you put your body in the ideal physiological state to use its finite stores of muscle glycogen most efficiently, while also utilizing the vast amounts of calories from body fat stores sooner and more effectively. Adopt this practice in all your workouts and races—even the early morning ones—and you’ll start seeing massive improvements in your endurance in a relatively short time. Note: If you must have some calories prior to the start of exercise, consuming something that’s easy to digest (e.g., a serving of Hammer Gel) 5-10 minutes prior to the start—but no further out—is acceptable.
5) “Refill the tank” ASAP after all your workouts. Your body wants to reward you for your efforts in training, strengthening the immune system, rebuilding muscle tissue, and storing more minutes of readily available fuel (glycogen) in the muscles. All you have to do to enjoy all of these endurance-enhancing benefits is supply your body with the materials it needs right away—ideally within the first 30 minutes after exercise (the sooner, the better)—meaning complex carbohydrates and high-quality protein such as found in Recoverite and Vegan Recoverite.
Numerous athletes and active people have already benefited greatly from the information and easy-to-follow guidelines in these How to Fuel Guides. Now it’s your turn! And remember, we’re available via Live Chat, email, and phone if/when you have any questions.
We’re Hammer Nutrition, which means we’ve got you covered:
- Superior-quality fuels and supplements? Check!
- 5-Star customer support? Check!
- Unsurpassed knowledge resources? Check!
