Running gel supplements: the energy you need

Let’s discover maltodextrin gel among the energy products for athletes

Are you looking for a quickly assimilated product that can give you all the energy you need during your run? Would you like something easily digestible, perhaps with a neutral flavour, because your stomach is stuffy during a race? The running gel supplements are just what you need.

Every runner knows that when they run they consume glycogen, a glucose polymer that the body uses as fuel during physical activity. Usually with a medium intensity 90 minute workout the natural reserves are consumed, increasing the duration and intensity of the effort, then the reserves run out. At this point replenishing nutrients becomes essential to maintain high performance and not give in to tiredness. Consuming carbohydrates while running can help minimize glycogen depletion.

Why choose running gel supplements

Under stress, many athletes are particularly sensitive at the gastric level. Energy and carbohydrate preparations must, therefore, guarantee excellent assimilation without the need to take too much water and maximum digestibility without any annoying return of taste.

Over the years, particular polysaccharides derived from the process of hydrolysis from starches have been developed maltodextrins. Rice, potato starch, corn and wheat, through certain industrial processes, are treated with acids and enzymes that modify their chemical bonds, obtaining chains of variable lengths of glucose molecules which have particular, very useful characteristics for sportsmen:

• sthey are a pure energy source since they do not provide other nutrients
• they don’t weigh you down
• they are easily digestible
• they are soluble and almost tasteless
• they keep blood sugar stable

To obtain easily assimilable compounds with less use of water, we worked, in particular, on the osmolarity of the preparations compared to human blood. Osmolarity is the physical quantity that measures the concentration of solutions, calculating the total number of molecules and ions present in a liter of solution, this can be:

• hypotonic, less concentrated than another
• isotonic, equally concentrated
• hypertonic, more concentrated than the other

When to take a gel supplement

Running gel supplements have a viscous consistency, are equipped with a strong concentration of easily assimilable carbohydrates, salts and amino acids and are sold in convenient single-dose packages. With gel preparations, integration as needed is quick and immediate. To give yourself a recharge of energy, simply extract the practical package from the pocket of your shorts or shirt, tear off the top part and quickly suck the contents, thus avoiding sudden and dangerous drops in sugar levels.

When choosing the right supplement it is important to take into account above all your physical prowess and the type of training or competition you intend to do, but also the taste and type of packaging of the supplement. Better to opt for a single dose that is practical to use, easy to take and carry in your pocket and perhaps without a cap to screw on and off which wastes time.

In competitive competitions or training, it is good practice to take a gel every 10 kilometers. The packs usually contain around 24-28 grams of carbohydrates, so you can think of integrating from 30 to 90 grams of carbohydrates every hour.

ISOTONIC GEL by Sprintade® to overcome limits

Sprintade® is a line of 100% Italian products, born from long research processes and made entirely in Italy, with the aim of making high food technologies and innovative and highly concentrated formulations accessible to everyone, professionals and amateurs . All Sprintade® products guarantee maximum assimilation speed and convenient, easy-to-transport formats.

ISOTONIC GEL it is an energy preparation based on fructose-1-6-diphosphate and maltodextrins with chains of different lengths which guarantees excellent and very rapid assimilation to respond to tiredness with an extra dose of energy.