So many people have recently changed their minds in regards to nutrition around their workout. Previously, I was one of the shake before shake after brigade; Rushing to get to the changing rooms and grab my shake straight after that last weight was dropped (carefully replaced on the rack, my bad!). Now people don’t seem to be shying away from their intra workout shake and are even including plenty of carbs to ensure that are getting the full benefit of the hard work that they are putting in in the weights room. Previously Dextrose, Maltodextrin and Vitargo were the more common items to pop into your shake but now there is a new contender for the top intra workout carbohydrate... Cyclic Dextrin!
What is Cyclic Dextrin?
Cyclic Dextrin is made up of multiple molecules of dextrose whose chemical structure bonds them together in the shape of a ring. To be fair, we have mentioned dextrose here and in theory Cyclic Dextrin isn’t too different when you compare it to Malto dextrin. However, Maltodextrin’s structure is arranged in a linear fashion as opposed to the ring, and this is what sets cyclic dextrin aside from the rest when it comes to intra workout performance.
Why?
Well first off from personal experience of trying other intra workout carbs with my shake, I have found that many of them will bloat me and cause a detrimental effect on my workout. Cyclic Dextrin was the first intra workout carb that did not do this. In fact, it allowed me to get even more of a pump than normal and so I looked into the reason for this. It turns out that Cyclic Dextrin passes through the stomach a lot quicker than the other carbs mentioned and this short gastric transit time is what causes the lack of bloating when using Cyclic Dextrin. Cyclic Dextrin also provides a lower spike in blood glucose meaning that you get a more sustained energy release and as the blood isn’t focused on digesting it is more focused on giving you Arnie’s favourite thing…
‘ZEE PUMP’
I have had clients on different amounts of intra workout supplements depending on their goals.
I would recommend that your average person looking to build muscle should start on about 20g Bodybuilding Warehouse Pepto Pro and 25g Cyclic Dextrin as an intra-workout mix and monitor their recovery ability; upping the cyclic dextrin if we need to. My intra workout amounts during my off season (weight around 89-90kg) is 25g Bodybuilding Warehouse Pepto Pro mixed with 60g Bodybuilding Warehouse Cyclic Dextrin. Yep that is a monster amount of powder to pop into my shaker but I make sure that I am constantly topping up the shaker with bottled water throughout and usually go through around 2 litres of water during my workout.
One last benefit…
One last benefit…
What I have noticed is that due to having spot on nutrition during my workout, not only am I able to train more, get stronger, leaner and more muscle mass, but what I really love about it, I don’t have to stress about blood sugars getting low post workout with that oh so debated ‘post workout window’ rushing to get my shake, I stretch, chill and get home before munching on my post workout oats & whey.
By Ollie Matthews
