GU Roctane Energy Drink - 24 Serve

Created for high-intensity and demanding activity, GU Roctane Energy Drink Mix packs even more electrolytes and carbohydrates than GU Hydration Drink Mix.

The 250-calorie serving contains carbohydrates (maltodextrin and fructose) that use non-competing pathways to help maximize carbohydrate absorption and utilization while diminishing stomach distress. Sodium, the primary electrolyte lost in sweat, aids hydration by maintaining water balance. The amino acid taurine helps maintain heart contractility and improve cardiac output during long exercise sessions, while the amino acid beta-alanine helps promote formation of the intramuscular buffer carnosine.

When should I use GU Roctane Energy Drink Mix?

Roctane Energy Drink Mix was specifically formulated for the demands of prolonged, ultra-endurance exercise. Specifically, events lasting 4+ hours. The drink is calorically dense, since consuming enough calories during these types of events can be a challenge. Caffeine is included to increase mental acuity, increase performance, and decrease perceived effort - all of which tend to go south during prolonged efforts. Taurine is included to help combat heart and skeletal muscle fatigue - as it has been shown to help increase contractility - which is especially important during long efforts where fatigue management is a big issue. The addition of beta-alanine and histidine help buffer acid caused by going over lactate threshold, and amino acids help prevent muscle damage and aid with muscle recovery.

While the drink was formulated for the demands of ultra-endurance exercise, this drink may be particularly useful during intense workouts as well such as a workout where an athlete will be performing 4 x 15' threshold repeats for example. This kind of intense effort is one where caffeine may increase concentration and help the athlete push through the entire workout. Additionally, this type of workout is very intense and it can be a challenge to consume enough calories - making an energy dense drink beneficial and efficient. Combine that with increased buffering capacity and helping to speed recovery, the Roctane Energy Drink Mix may ergogenically benefit many athletes during intense workouts.

How can I use Roctane Energy Drink Mix with Roctane Energy Gel?

If you already use Roctane Energy Gel, you can substitute some Roctane Gel for Roctane Energy Drink Mix. This will help tailor energy intake to your needs and provide the beneficial ingredients found in both the gel and drink. While many ingredients are similar in the two products (carbohydrates, branched chain amino acids, histidine, and caffeine) each has unique ingredients which may also help improve performance (gel - vitamin E as an antioxidant; drink - taurine to help heart and muscle function, beta-alanine to help increase muscle buffering capacity). Therefore, using both products will help provide every nutritional advantage possible to athletes who demand the best from themselves and their nutrition. For many athletes, all they may need during prolonged exercise is one 21oz bottle of Roctane drink and 1 Roctane Energy Gel per hour for 340 calories and extra nutritional support to maximize performance.

What role does beta alanine and caffeine play in Roctane Energy Drink Mix?

Beta-alanine is used to supplement the athlete's diet to increase muscle buffering capacity. Beta-alanine is one of the limiting components of an abundant muscle protein called carnosine that help buffer changes in muscle pH during exercise. It has been shown that supplementing beta-alanine can help increase muscle carnosine content, and therefore increase muscle buffering capacity and the ability to minimize changes in muscle pH during intense efforts over lactate threshold.

Caffeine has been shown in many studies to increase exercise performance. Whether the performance task was short or long - caffeine helps athletes perform at their best. It can help increase performance by decreasing perceived effort as well as helping athletes maintain focus and concentration.

Why is taurine good for endurance sports?

Several studies have shown that during prolonged exercise (half Ironman and Ironman events), the ability of the heart to pump blood (myocardial contractility) is decreased, which can lead to decreased exercise capacity. Similarly, prolonged exercise also promotes skeletal muscle fatigue. Taurine helps to maintain heart and muscle function by helping with calcium handling and may help decrease fatigue in these tissues during prolonged exercise. Additionally, taurine has been shown to increase muscle function with aging, and when combined with caffeine increases performance during a 1 hour cycling time trial.

Will I get dehydrated from caffeine in a sports drink?

A key question regarding caffeine in a sports drink revolves around the well known diuretic effect of caffeine to promote dehydration. Several studies have shown that caffeine ingestion during exercise does not influence weight loss, sweat rates, urine output and plasma volume compared to water alone. This may be due to decreased kidney blood flow during exercise which is proportional to exercise intensity, which minimizes urine production. Therefore, it appears that caffeine will not lead to diuresis if consumed during exercise - and will not contribute to dehydration.

Nutrition

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Ingredients:Maltodextrin, Fructose, Sodium Citrate, Natural Flavors, Taurine, Leucine, Citric Acid, Valine, Beta-Alanine, Tartaric Acid, Potassium Citrate, Malic Acid, Fruit and Vegetable Juice (As Color), Isoleucine.