Can recovery really be that easy? Pouring yourself a glass of cocoa after crossing the finish line? Some studies seem to confirm this, the most recent of which was carried out at the Human Performance Laboratory at Indiana University in 2013. The scientists examined whether and how well a chocolate drink promotes recovery after sport - in comparison to water and special recovery drinks.
For the study, nine cyclists had to complete an ergometer test to exhaustion over several days and then consume one of the drinks. The same test was repeated four hours later. The results of the study sound like a slap in the face to the manufacturers of the nutritional supplements: cyclists who consumed cocoa in the post-test either rode just as well or better than those who did not.
or better than the athletes who drank special regeneration products. The cyclists who were only given water performed the worst.
So are recovery drinks completely unnecessary? Sports scientist Clemens Hesse from the Rhineland Olympic Training Centre, who is intensively involved in performance enhancement in combination with various foods, takes a more nuanced view. He says: "Firstly, you never know exactly what interests are behind the studies. In the USA, a real trend has broken out around cocoa milk drinks as a recovery drink, and there are clear interests of the dairy industry behind this." Secondly, some of these studies did not use real recovery drinks, but simple sports drinks. "Anyone who also has problems with lactose has to do without the milk magic," says Hesse. Despite these concerns, it remains undisputed that cocoa drinks also have a positive effect on recovery. But what makes cocoa so effective?
You can find the test results of these products in the PDF download below:
- Active 3 Protein Regeneration Turbo
- AM Sport Competition
- Dextro Energy After Sports Drink
- Energy System Recovery Drink
- Hammer Nutrition Recoverite
- High 5 Protein Recovery
- Multipower Re-Charge Drink
- Powerbar Recovery
- Sponser 50:36 Pro Recovery
- Squeezy Recovery Drink
- Ultra Sports Refresher
- Vitargo Gainers Gold
Downloads:
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