The only aspect of bodybuilding more important than training effort is attention to adequate recovery.
Recovering from your workout begins the moment it ends. Recovery—perhaps even more than the workout itself—is vital for making progress. Granite Supplements Recovery is a precise combination of:
- Electrolytes
- Carbohydrates including Cluster DextrinTM
- Essential Amino Acids (EAAs)
- Sensoril® Ashwagandha
These key ingredients protect, preserve and replenish precious muscle glycogen and help you get an anabolic / anti-catabolic jump-start on recovering from your workouts. Another great benefit: it won’t upset your stomach (unlike so many other formulas). Sip Recovery throughout your workout for best results.
RECOVERY – AROUND THE CLOCK
To prepare for battle, a warrior arms himself before stepping on the battlefield. Therefore, we suggest you start consuming Recovery 10-15 minutes before and throughout your workout to enhance recovery from start to finish. And because these sessions can be brutal (and long), we’ve added the major electrolytes lost in sweat1 to help keep you well hydrated2,3. Additionally, electrolytes help with taste4, and we’ve balanced our flavoring system with a variety of mineral salts to make sure Recovery tastes ridiculously good.
You’d be mistaken if you think we’ve just concocted a fruity drink you might sip on the beach. The meat n’ potatoes components of Recovery work their magic with carefully chosen carbohydrates, EAAs and one of the worlds best adaptogens:
- Performance Carbohydrate combination with N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine
- Essential Amino Acid Blend
- Sensoril® Ashwagandha Extract
RECOVERY: A STRATEGIZED SUPPLEMENT SYNERGY
When it comes down to it, making muscular gains is about going beyond simply recovery: Building muscle size, day by day, inch by inch, requires a net positive effect on muscle protein balance. Reducing muscle breakdown [probably by increasing insulin levels5,6] is one way that including carbs in your peri-workout7-10 recovery drink gets this done. Intra-workout carbs also reduce post-exercise cortisol11, an important predictor of muscle growth over the long haul12,13. Admittedly though, the science is actually a bit fuzzy as to the acute14,15 and long haul benefits16 of peri-workout carbs for packing on size per se, but including carbs in a recovery drink primes your muscles for restoring glycogen17,18 (see Cyclic Dextrin® below) and there’s certainly no disadvantage to intra-workout carbohydrate19.
Before we get into the details of Recovery, be sure you don’t lose sight of the big picture when crafting your intra- and post-workout strategy. Intra-workout nutrition is just one piece of the puzzle: Substantial gains may very well mean consuming more carbohydrate and/or protein (and calories!) than subjects following most research protocols. For example, supersizing your post-workout carbohydrate (e.g., with 90-100g of carbs) may8 or may not20 inhibit protein breakdown. However, a glycogen-filled muscle cell is generally a more anabolic one7 and a brutal weight training workout dramatically elevates metabolic rate21,22, and can even temporarily prohibit glycogen replenishment despite eating a high carbohydrate diet23. This may be why one study found that hard training plus massive (>350g) carbohydrate supplementation (even without additional protein!) produces substantial gains in muscle mass without increased body fat24.
Obviously, protein has its role, too. While consuming more than ~40g of post-workout protein may not further increase protein synthesis25-27, doubling this amount28,29!] creates the positive protein balance we want by blunting protein breakdown. While adding more and more protein to the diet beyond a certain point30,31isn’t a magic bullet for building more muscle, there is also little risk of adverse health effects or gaining body fat from simply from eating large amounts of protein32-34.
Given the above, we’ve created Recovery as a way to jumpstart a recovery strategy based on a sound diet replete with carbs, protein, and calories.
PERFORMANCE CARBOHYDRATE AND N-ACETYL L-TYROSINE
- Recovery contains highly branched cyclic dextrin (as 15 grams of Cyclic Dextrin®) to enhance gastric emptying35 and minimize gastrointestinal discomfort during exercise [including burping and gas, which your training partner benefit will appreciate36]. By more rapidly ushering glucose from the stomach37,38 to the small intestine and blood stream39, Cyclic Dextrin® can improve performance40-42, and maintain higher glycogen levels43, giving you a head start on recovering for your next workout44.
- To ensure sustained blood glucose during your workout, we’ve also included 5 grams of Isomaltulose (as Palatinose®), a disaccharide that produces steady blood glucose, much lower than even table sugar45.
- N-Acetyl L-Tyrosine is Recovery’s soluble source of L-tyrosine46-48, a precursor for catecholamine synthesis (e.g., noradrenaline and dopamine)49-51, thus supporting brain neurotransmitter levels52 and cognitive performance53,54. When under duress (e.g., during a killer workout), tyrosine supplementation may actually promote the aggressive mentality55 needed to drive through previous performance barriers.
ESSENTIAL AMINO ACID BLEND
- We included the Essential Amino Acids (EAAs) because it’s the dietarily essential [not the non-essential56] amino acids that trigger muscle protein synthesis57-59. Leucine (3g) sits atop this EAA stack because of its primacy in triggering protein anabolism60-62. We were sure to focus on the other branched-chain aminos (BCAAs; Isoleucine and Valine at 1.5g each) as well because the BCAAs are known to reduce muscle breakdown and post-exercise soreness and damage63,64.
- The other EAAs blended in the Recovery are based on the anabolic EAA mixture used extensively in research57,65-68, adjusted slightly to take advantage of the anabolic signaling61 and insulin-releasing69 effects of lysine and phenylalanine.
SENSORIL® ASHWAGANDHA EXTRACT
A successful training and diet cycle takes weeks of committed and continuous effort. Nobody wants to be a flash in the pan, so to speak, so we’ve included ashwagandha (Withania somnifera extract; 125mg of Sensoril® standardized for withanolide glycoside conjugates, oligosaccharides and withaferin A) to ensure Recovery has keep you adapting long after your workout. Also known as Indian ginseng, ashwagandha is an “adaptogenic” herb that’s been used for centuries in Ayurveda and traditional Indian medicine to relieve stress, promote vitality70, enhance adaptation and normalize physiological function71-73.
The age-old hype about ashwagandha’s effects may just be real, going by the small but growing body of Western scientific literature. In rodent research, this herb appears to be both anabolic to skeletal muscle74 and anti-arthritic75. In men supplementing for approximately 2 months, ashwagandha can elevate testosterone, luteinizing hormone and antioxidant status, all the while improving sperm count, motility and metabolism76-78. Ashwagandha has also relieved fatigue and improved quality of life of women undergoing breast cancer chemotherapy79. Extract from this adaptogenic plant has also been shown to reduce cortisol, resting blood pressure and anxiety70, and even have cognition-enhancing, nootropic actions80,81 – exactly what you need when “diet brain” catches up to you.
The science is starting to unveil Ashwagandha’s incredible promise as an ergogenic aid, as well. Supplementing with 1000mg of extract/day (8 weeks) enhanced performance and aerobic power in hard-training endurance cyclists82, and half that daily dose improved both aerobic, anaerobic and muscular power in college students who were not even engaged in a training program. Most impressively and important for physique athletes, a recent study found that men consuming only 300mg ashwagandha extract twice per day grew more muscle, gained more strength and lost more body fat than those taking a placebo, probably because the herb enhanced muscular recovery (reduced muscle damage) and increased testosterone83. (What more could you ask for?…)
Disclaimer: L-Tyrosine may interact with certain drugs (such as MAOIs, Levodopa and thyroid medications).
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
** Please see full Recovery documentation for citations and references.
