The Reason Behind the P90X Recovery Drink

There are a lot of questions about the P90X Recovery Drink. People want to know if they really need it. Why is there so much sugar in it? Isn’t all that sugar bad for you? Can’t I just use a protein drink? Etc. These are frankly all good questions, so I put together a discussion of the science behind recovery drinks in general

Aerobic vs. Anaerobic Exercise

I previously discussed this issue when I talked about heart rates. To quickly summarize though, aerobic exercise is when you are exercising below 80% of your maximum heart rate. At this level, you are basically doing what most people consider cardio exercise. You are using oxygen to create energy. You will be able to talk and exercise at the same time.

With aerobic exercise, you are primarily using fat as your energy supply. Think of carbs as the kindling to get the fat, which are the logs, burning.

With anaerobic exercise, your heart rate is above 80%, and you are using carbs as your primary, and possibly only, energy source.

Carbs Are Only Stored In Muscle

The heading isn't totally accurate, but mostly accurate. For the purposes of muscle energy, carbs, specifically glucose and glycogen, are stored in muscle for immediate anaerobic energy needs, as well as the kindling for burning fat. While it is safe to assume that a person has a virtually unlimited supply of fat, they have a very limited supply of carbs.

The amount of carbs stored in the muscle varies by the individual, however the average person should have about an hour’s worth of carbs available for anaerobic exercise.

Carb Crashes

You might have heard of a carb crash, where an athlete collapses during exercise. You might see a marathon runner or triathlete just collapse. Someone lifting weights might just sit down and pass out. This is because they ran out of sugar to power their muscles. Also, the brain runs primarily on carbs, so this is why they are incoherent as well.

This is why they provide Gatorade or similar drinks only during longer runs or competitions. While distance athletes are engaged in aerobic workouts, if they go on long enough without taking in any carbs, they will eventually run out. This is also why someone doing P90X or Insanity may become weak or nauseous during a workout.

P90X and Insanity Deplete Your Carbs

Insanity’s interval training has you workout anaerobically for extended periods of time. P90X is essentially circuit weight training, which means that you are in an anaerobic state for long periods of time as well. All of this means that you are burning up the sugar/carbs in your muscles for an hour or more at a time. This is why Tony Horton and Shaun T sometimes recommend that you have recovery drink during your workout; to replace the burned up carbs. If you have a very hard workout, you might burn up your carbs even before they hour.

This is Why You Need Carbs/Sugar

When you look at the ingredients of the P90X Recovery Formula, you find that it has 39 gms of sugar. The reason for all of the sugar is that simple sugar is quickly absorbed into the blood, and can quickly replenish the burned up sugar in the muscles. If you don’t replace the sugars, you will drag, and also be slightly mentally impaired until your body breaks down stored fat into sugar. Breaking down fat takes a relatively long time.

Protein Drinks are Not Good for Recovery

As you can see, you need carbs for recovery, not protein. Protein is in the P90X Recovery Drink as it is absorbed later and does help with muscle building and repair. However, protein is absorbed in the small intestines, and it takes about 30 minutes before the protein is absorbed into your blood. Either way, it will not replace the carbs in your muscles will not satisfy your immediate energy needs. Protein has its place in muscle repair, but not as a recovery drink itself.

Even more important is that studies indicate that when you have a lot of carbs within 2 hours of working out, it increases your glycogen synthesis and storage. This means that you will be able to workout longer and harder in future workouts.

Recovery Drinks Fill The Purpose

While the P90X Recovery Drink is built into the P90X Nutrition Plan, you don’t necessarily need it after every workout. If the workout is not strenuous, then you can skip the recovery drink. I would say that if you are going to look at alternatives to the P90X drink, you need to make sure you are looking are making the right comparisons. For example, some recovery drinks advertise 30 servings for $30. However, they only have servings of 110 calories, so it is actually $30 for 15 servings since the P90X recovery drink has 220 calorie servings to adhere to the P90X Nutrition Plan.