Crushing the pain cave workouts has unique fueling requirements. Here is how I'm fueling my indoor workouts.
As we’re in the thick of winter, we’re seeing the majority of our Feed Athletes doing some type of indoor training. From the Peloton (which I'll admit, I enjoy at times) to powering through Zwift or Trainer Road workouts, here’s how to adjust your fueling strategy for indoor workouts.
The first thing you need to consider is cooling
You’re going to sweat a lot more inside, even if you have a fan on you. Personally, I hate the feeling of a fan with an indoor workout. But as a result, I end up with a small pond underneath me afterwards!
More sweat means more hydration
This is your first key to indoor training. I focus on more electrolytes and lower sugar hydration because I don't really want extra carbs or calories for most of my indoor workouts, due to the shorter length.
Not only will hydrating from the outset of your workout slow overheating (allowing you to perform at a higher level for longer), but it’s also key in reducing your dehydration post-workout.
My favorite 3 hydrations for indoor training are:
1. LMNT electrolytes are a new hydration brand for us and I was waiting for it to arrive before putting together this guide. What I love is the much higher sodium content to counterbalance my sweat output. It’s going to have a much more salty taste than other hydrations but many athletes love this. LMNT has 1000mg of Sodium and 0g of Sugar.
2. SOS is perfect if you are more of a sweet than salty kind of person. What's great is that it’s low calorie, yet has amazing flavors. It still has a higher electrolyte content than Skratch, but only 2g of sugar per bottle versus 19g for Skratch. SOS has 660mg of Sodium, and 5 of sugar (two scoops or sticks)
3. Liquid IV Hydration Multiplier is becoming super popular due to its very tasty flavors. It’s a bit of an in-between choice with slightly higher sugar content, (which may be why people love it so much!), without getting into the category of a high sugar hydration drink. It’s become really popular in my household. The sodium level also remains high at just under the level of SOS. Liquid IV has 500mg of Sodium and 11g of sugar.
My secret hack for hard indoor workouts is to boost my natural Nitric Oxide levels 60 minutes prior to training
If you’re on my email list and have been reading my emails, you know I've been talking about this a lot lately, so I won't go into all the science of it today, except to say it works really well.
What's nice about indoor training is that it’s a controlled environment so it’s much easier to experiment with a performance booster like Sur Alt Red or Swiss RX Nitric Oxide and see how much it helps you tolerate your higher intensity efforts easier.
Sur Alt Red is a very popular performance booster that will help increase oxygen-rich blood flowing to your muscles so you hurt less and can push harder. Sur uses the power of a beet extract known as betalains as its performance-boosting ingredient. What's nice is that all you need to do is take one to two tiny pills 60 minutes prior to your workout.
Swiss RX Nitric Oxide has a similar effect as Sur Alt Red but lasts longer (3+ hours versus 1.5 to 2 hours) and uses an amino acid first found in watermelon as its performance booster. The only downside is you’re taking a larger pill and more of them (4 to 8 capsules) 60 minutes prior to your workout.
Finally, when it comes to indoor workout recovery the main focus is going to be on rehydration. My wife swears by Quintessential Salt Water packets and I can barely keep enough at the house for her. She uses them after every Peloton workout she does.
The science is very compelling on these packets. Made with natural, cold micro-filtered seawater, this hydration product contains 78 minerals and trace elements harvested from seawater. This seawater isn't just any seawater, it’s been extracted from a plankton bloom in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of France.
I drink it straight from the packet, it has a salty taste, kind of like a taste of seawater when swimming in the ocean. If you want to avoid the taste, you can also mix it into any beverage of your choosing.
What I like about it is that it gives you a much richer, all-natural, and more diverse source of minerals and elements that your body needs that is far beyond what any powdered hydration drink can provide you. Plus I always feel great afterward. Definitely worth trying!
Enjoy your indoor training!
