Recover

I'm a fan of experimenting in the kitchen.

One of the things I commonly do is to see if I can create homemade versions of designer "performance" products that do roughly the same job at a fraction of the cost.

Homemade recovery drinks are easy.

2 small boxes dry milk (~8 cups)
1 "jar" of dry gatorade drink mix
1/4 cup L-Glutamine
1/4 cup BCAA's.

Dissolve in water and guzzle immediately after a bout of strenuous exercise, and partner, you're on your way to getting recovered.

The Glutamine and BCAA's are available fairly cheaply in bulk. This makes about twenty-five 1/2 cup servings with roughly 220 calories per serving and a 4:1 carb to protein ration commonly heralded by research drinks. This trumps chocolate milk because the bonus L-Glutamine and BCAA's aid in the recovery effort...and because I like the taste better. As listed, I believe it'll give you about 2.5g of both L-Glutamine and BCAA's per serving. You could easily double the amount of both in the recipe without worry of going overboard--but this is roughly the ratio you'd get in something like Endurox.

Some sites that sell Endurox claim in the nutrtion information that it has added L-Arginine. I'm not sure about this as Endurox's own website doesn't substantiate. In my humble opinion, I'd take the Arginine before the workout and leave it out of the recovery drink anyway, but do as you will.

The 25 servings will probably last almost a month, and it'll cost probably $10-$15 bucks to make, especially once you buy some bulk aminos. Compare to Endurox which goes for a month's supply at $60 (maybe $40 on sale).

And yes, maybe the quality of protein in Endurox is a little higher--but I really think the key in a recovery drink is the simple sugars and not so much the character of the protein.

Have a protein shake after you get out of the shower.