FREAK SHAKE ENDURANCE FUEL represents over two decades of our Founder’s experience designing new products and brands for large corporations. It was essential for us to design Freak Shake products around only the safest, most rigorous peer reviewed science - not fads. Our Chief Science Advisor is a clinical professor at UC San Diego, and our Chief R&D Advisor has a PhD in plant biochemistry and ran the applied science & nutrition program at a $9B public food company for 23 years.

We drew on this team’s deep food & beverage, physical science and nutrition experience to review decades of research and have compiled over 80 peer reviewed studies supporting our FREAK SHAKE ENDURANCE FUEL product strategy… which is actually quite simple:

 

28g Carbs per Serving: High octane gas starts with simple carbs when you’re endurance training at high intensity or long duration. Our liver, muscle and blood only store enough carb-derived energy as glycogen for about an hour of work (slightly less at high intensity). We need to store this fuel and replenish it, or we bonk when muscle demands for energy exceed the availability the resources we have “in the tank”. While carbs come in many forms, nothing beats simple sugar, because it is the most rapidly accessible source of energy to fuel endurance exercise.

While we absolutely recommend Freak Shake as a pre-workout drink to help tap your peak performance, for some athletes who are training with an additional goal of weight management we’d recommend initially using Freak Shake as a carb & electrolyte replacement after exercise. Freak Shake’s high carbs and electrolytes can help accelerate post-workout recovery immediately after training. Most athletes will be in a significant calorie deficit if they exercise for at least an hour in aerobic zones, or at least 30-45 minutes in high intensity heart rate zones. Without additional carbohydrate intake, the body is typically depleted of glycogen stores in that amount of time and is primed to rapidly absorb replacement nutrients.

 

3:1 Carb to Protein Ratio: We are one of very few endurance drinks that includes just a bit of protein in addition to carbs and electrolytes. Here’s why:

This ratio is particularly important if you seek to train at peak performance again less than 24 hours after a strenuous bout. The nutrition and sports science shows a consensus range for endurance athletes to re-feed carbs at 1.2 - 1.6 g Carbs / Kg Body Mass / Hour of Exercise within 2 hours post workout for optimal recovery and glycogen replacement. For a 180lb athlete, that’s about 100 - 130g of carbs per hour of continuous strenuous exercise. However, if you combine a small amount of protein in the range of 3:1 to 4:1 carb-to-protein ratio, the same recovery benefit can be achieved with only 0.8 g / Kg / Hour or about 33%-50% fewer carbs. This synergistic carb-protein effect is a main reason FREAK SHAKE ENDURANCE FUEL fortifies with just enough protein.

If you are interested in the type of protein in your sports nutrition, we use dairy protein isolate (extracted from dairy) in a ratio of 80% casein to 20% whey protein. Both are complete protein sources, meaning they each provide all 9 essential amino acids that must be consumed because our bodies cannot manufacture them. Whey protein is the most rapidly absorbable ingredient available, and casein has the benefit of slower, but more complete absorption (less ends up passing through our digestive tracts). This blend provides a big benefit for the modest amount of protein in our Endurance Fuel. It maximizes the need to replenish some protein material to muscle cells to begin repairing and generating new muscle fibers immediately after exercise. AND it gives the body time to fully absorb and utilize all the protein you’re taking in while also minimizing the tendency to feel bloating or gas associated with higher 100% whey protein supplements.

 

3x Electrolytes compared to Mainstream Sports Drinks: As it turns out dairy milk is one of the most effective hydration sources known. In measures of cellular fluid retention and hydration balance, studies have shown dairy performs better than water, isotonic beverages, and on par with medical oral rehydration solutions. If you look at the electrolytes in milk, you’ve got sodium, calcium, potassium all in very high concentrations. We replicated this electrolyte profile in Freak Shake because endurance training is very sweaty, and we must replenish the electrolytes lost in sweat to perform optimally.

 

Fortified with Antioxidant Flavonoids for Endurance: This is where Freak Shake not only fuels, but tunes the athlete’s engine for optimal endurance. We think it’s our most unique feature.

Flavonoids are fascinating micronutrients in plants and berries and have been studied for decades. Freak Shake Endurance fuel isolates a flavonoid called epicatechin from tea. In a concentrated dose it has been shown to immediately stimulate a number of metabolic processes that benefit muscle cells and endurance. We are especially excited about what it does for mitochondria - the cellular power plants in muscle that convert our bodies’ resources into motion. Not only does epicatechin stimulate the creation of more mitochondria in muscle cells, it also helps them more efficiently utilize oxygen and fat, vital resources for endurance exercise. Increasing cellular population of mitochondria compounded by more efficient energy production which may translate to a VO2 Max advantage for endurance training where aerobic output is crucial.

The ability to utilize fat more efficiently isn’t about weight management however. For athletes who depend on aerobic fitness for performance, improving fat utilization can translate to optimal aerobic output and increased endurance. Fat is crucial energy resource especially in aerobic training zones that contribute most significantly to our endurance and stamina. Despite containing more energy than carbohydrates, fat is converted more slowly into the form of energy that muscle cells can utilize. So as we increase the intensity of exercise it becomes harder to keep up with the rising energy demand of muscle using fat stores predominantly. This is when our bodies shift to using faster-converting carbohydrates to fuel the work at higher intensity anaerobic effort. As this shift happens, our muscle cells begin to accumulate lactic acid which is a by-product of anaerobic respiration that contributes to “the burn” athletes feel at high intensity effort. By contributing to mitochondrial efficiency, epicatechin can play a part in increasing the availability of fat and oxygen to fuel aerobic output. Accessing more fat and oxygen translates to increasing aerobic output and duration before muscle cells must begin relying more on the carbohydrate derived energy stores and anaerobic respiration. Basically, happy mitochondria translates to maximum endurance!

For highly conditioned elite athletes, these aerobic adaptations will be more modest compared to athletes who are building fitness, but their benefits to muscle recovery can be significant for athletes at any level of conditioning who are endurance training strenuously…

Fortified with Antioxidant Flavonoids for Recovery: The same flavonoids that help tune our aerobic engine have exciting antioxidant benefits for muscle recovery after exhaustive exercise too. That’s because they have been shown to increase the bodies’ tolerance for the oxidative stress of strenuous exercise. Stressing muscles during exercise causes some inflammation which is beneficial to increasing endurance and strength as the body responds with beneficial physical & biological adaptations.

But too much inflammation without adequate recovery can inhibit subsequent training, or can even lead to weakening and longer term reductions in fitness when athletes chronically over-train. The antioxidant flavonoids in Freak Shake have been shown to help buffer excess inflammation, and enhance blood flow with compound effects on recovery. Athletes may be able to tolerate slightly higher levels of exertion or slightly less inflammation at the same level of exertion reducing the amount of time needed to recover from excess exercise induced inflammation. And by promoting increased blood flow during & after exercise, white blood cells as well as restorative nutrients including the carbs, electrolytes & protein, in our drinks reach muscle cells faster, while the cellular debris caused by oxidative stress of exercise is whisked away faster too.

We don’t suggest that you should simply increase your training intensity with Freak Shake on board. But there is strong evidence that our micronutrients can help accelerate recovery by buffering some excess inflammation and promoting blood flow to deliver the regenerative nutrients in our Endurance Fuel drinks. If you can recover faster today, you can train harder tomorrow!