As a performance coach, I care about athlete’s recovery as much as I care about their performance. My motto is, “An under-recover athlete is an injured athlete”. That is why I always search for the most effective, and safe modalities that can help them bounce back from strenuous practices and workouts.

Over the last several years I learned about nitric oxide and its effect on long-distance performance. We know dietary nitrate has been proven to have a range of beneficial vascular effects that could be beneficial (Satnam and Webb 2013).

Also, clinical studies with nitrate have shown to enhance endothelial function, suppress inflammation, and inactivate reactive oxygen species (Satnam and Webb 2013).

However, I always wondered why we don’t pay more attention to what we eat after workouts to help us in recovering more efficiently by promoting blood flow throughout the body, supporting cardiovascular and endothelial health, and targeting inflammation from exercise.

Strenuous exercise-induced changes to muscle function have been investigated by many research groups, and a lot of focus has been on acute performance. But in real life, athletes need to maintain peak performance over longer periods and to do so, muscle recovery and muscle function, both mechanically and metabolically, have to be addressed.

If ATP levels (energy levels) cannot be maintained, intense muscle contraction cannot relax as usual. The contraction/relaxation cycle of the muscle shortens and slowly diminishes, leading to fatigue. When muscles experience physical micro-damage, they are flooded by breakdown components and inflammatory mediators. However, this is a normal, healthy part of the healing process from over-exertion and the rate of recovery depends on resolving the production of these inflammatory mediators and allowing the next wave of inflammatory signals to induce healing responses.

Efforts to accelerate the resolution phase of muscle healing post-exertion have focused on reducing the overall inflammatory mediator release.

Antioxidants were thought to exert some benefits by oxidative stress associated with inflammation, but application of antioxidants has brought mixed results –  decreasing  exercise-induced inflammation too quickly can actually slow recovery.

But most antioxidants are also anti-inflammatory, and in general, these molecules, whether naturally occurring in foods or from supplements, have been associated with better recovery, partly, but not wholly, by an effect on speeding resolution by lowering inflammatory mediators. Nutrients with these properties are found in ginger, turmeric (as curcuminoids), and other polyphenols in berries and vegetables.

Natural compounds that influence nitric oxide metabolism have been shown to improve circulation, and certain types of muscular performance, especially repeated exercise bouts with short rest periods. Thus, ingestion of nitric oxide mediators before exercise has merit to improve performance and delay expression of inflammatory mediators, one mechanism to improve recovery.

But again what about post-exercise? Improving circulation after exercise by hot baths, massages, myofascial release and mental relaxation techniques (which themselves affect nitric oxide production), offer improvements in recovery via improved local circulation. Removal of inflammatory mediators and metabolic waste products such as lactic acid and nucleosides more quickly and provision of additional nutrients, including anti-inflammatory compounds, are important ways nitric oxide agents can improve recovery.

Timing of these nutrients is key – during the recovery phase immediately after exercise is when benefits are expected to be greatest.

Using natural sources to supplement the body’s nitric oxide (N-O) process, such as red spinach, red beets and L-arginine should be present during the immediate critical post-exercise recovery.

In addition, Aronia berry stimulates N-O and, in turn, improves cardiovascular and endothelial health. A study conducted by Varela et al., showed that Aronia berry extract effectively induces N-O synthesis.

Ongoing research on natural sources to supplement the body with nitric oxide for recovery continues. For now it should be quite understandable why I decided to create this essential blend to support athletic recovery and mediate a healthy inflammatory response due to exercise.

As you know faster recovery maintains top performance, improves training effects, all of which are desired goals for any athlete across the globe.

Remember, an under-recovered athlete becomes an injured athlete. ®