Everything You Need To Know About Using Maurten In Your Training
By Matt Johnson
Founder of The Feed.
Why are the best endurance athletes in the world all using a new drink and gel from the Swedish company Maurten? See how their products are changing the high carb notion.
Have you heard about a new super drink going around the world of pro sports? The rumors have been swirling for over a year now. Well, that drink is Maurten and if you want to know how it works, you are in luck, we have all the details for you below:
Here's Everything You Need To Know About Maurten And How To Use It In Your Training:
Maurten (pronounced MORTON) has become the hottest new drink and gel in the endurance sports world. Just last year Kipchoge used it to break the 2-hour marathon record, Jan Frodeno won Kona Ironman with it, and countless Feed Athletes achieved personal bests, Strava Segments, and Half and Full Marathon times just by switching to Maurten.
I personally saw members of my former cycling team win stages of the Giro d'Italia and Tour de France, including 2nd place overall in the Tour de France almost immediately after switching to Maurten. Now almost all the World Tour Cycling Teams are using Maurten.
But it's not just for Pros. We see recreational athletes achieve even greater benefits than Pros after switching to Maurten.
It's also not just hype. Maurten doesn't pay any pro athletes to use their product, they just use it because it works.
How Does It Work?
The secret to Maurten is it allows you to consume a high amount of carbs without upsetting your stomach. This means you can push hard and blow past your current limits because you'll have the fuel (muscle glycogen) you need all the way to end of your workout or race.
High Carb drinks are new, and the problem all previous generations have in common is they often result in stomach distress. Maurten developed a patented Hydrogel technology that prevents this from happening.
I'm Not A Pro Athlete, Will It Work For Me?
Yes! We've seen the impact is actually much more significant for recreational athletes. Whereas a Pro might see a 1% to 2% performance improvement, we've seen countless recreational athletes tell us their Marathon dropped by over 10% after switching their fueling to Maurten.
Should I Use Maurten In My Training Or Is It Only For Racing?
When you fuel your training with Maurten you'll be able to maintain a higher level of performance from the beginning to the end of your workout (i.e. you won't fade as much) and as a result, be able to get a greater "training effect" out of each workout. Plus, you won't become as glycogen depleted post-workout, meaning you'll be able to recover faster for more hard training the next day.
How do I use Maurten in my training?
Maurten has two drinks and they are labeled based on the number of calories in each drink. The Maurten Drink 160 (160 calories) is the ideal drink for training. I use it in every workout over 45 minutes, you don't need it for workouts shorter than that. Below is a more detailed guide on how to use Maurten based on the length and type of workout.
What Makes Maurten Gels Different?
I'm sure you're familiar with gels that are more like a sticky sugary syrup. Maurten Gel is the first "real gel" which is more like Jello, not a syrup. It's the same technology as Maurten's drink, but the hydrogel is already pre-formed. There are two versions of the gel and my favorite is definitely the Caffeinated Version. Maurten has done a ton of scientific research into the performance-boosting benefits of Caffeine for athletes and studies show you need far more caffeine than you think to boost performance (300g to 400g), which is why Maurten has 100g of Caffeine per Gel.
What About Hydration?
Yes. Both Maurten Drinks also provide you hydration and one of the biggest benefits of Maurten Gels is that you don't need to take them with water (in case you didn't know, you are supposed to take a sip of water when using traditional syrupy style gels).
That said, we often see athletes looking for more electrolytes when it's hot out or they're sweating a lot, using both a traditional hydration drink like Skratch, Nuun, or SOS in one bottle and Maurten 160 or 320 Drink Mix in another bottle and they switch between the two of them.
What is Hydrogel?
Let's let Tobias the head of Nutrition Research at Maurten explain:
Where do I start?
We have made it easy with a Maurten Super Pack that will give you 6x of each of the 4 Maurten Products.