Hitting the wall during exercise?
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Have you ever hit the wall? Cyclists, especially regulars at long gran fondos, know it well. It gives you no way out, it strikes when you least expect it and leaves you stranded without an ounce of strength in your legs.
Hitting the wall is just the worst form of an energy slump, which can take different forms depending above all on the conditions and the type of physical activity. At best, we will be forced to reduce the intensity of our effort so as not to jeopardise the result entirely. In the worst cases, stopping, resting and refuelling is the only solution if we want to finish the activity without breaking it off abruptly.
The body's energy reserves, as we have pointed out several times, are not unlimited, but they can be trained, and not only that: the different sources available to the body can complement each other, vary in the proportion they contribute and act in synergy so that the whole machine, the body, lasts a little longer.
An untrained body, regardless of the type of physical activity, will tend to use "refined" fuel when needed. Put simply, it will draw on its carbohydrate reserves, the fastest but also the smallest in the body. The better trained the person, the greater the contribution of fat to energy production: the body will be able to spare its available carbohydrates more and more effectively, using them only, or mainly, for the occasions when they are truly indispensable, such as submaximal or maximal muscle contractions lasting a few seconds.
The last energy resort is protein, in particular the so-called "glucogenic" amino acids, i.e. those that can be converted into intermediates of the energy reactions that use carbohydrates.
All this makes it clear that our body is not a set of watertight compartments isolated from one another, but rather a set of connected tanks that work together both when emptying, i.e. when we need energy, and when filling, i.e. when we eat. This reasoning explains why it is difficult, to say the least, to change the body's fat percentage by following diets that exclude, or almost exclude, a particular macronutrient while leaving the calorie balance unchanged, without even including exercise in the equation: our body is made to adapt and will do so in any way it can to maintain a state of balance.
Anyone who plays sport, especially long-duration sport, whether at medium-high intensity or at lower intensity for a longer time, knows that eating regularly is an essential condition for preventing major slumps. Food, whether semi-liquid or solid, should be spread out during exercise at intervals that keep energy stores always topped up, without needlessly overloading the digestive system and so jeopardising the rest of the activity. How should you go about it? We could reel off figures and statistics on gastric emptying or the digestion times of a given macronutrient but, since this is a very broad field and highly subject to differences between individuals, activities and so on, we will rely on the common wisdom of "little and often", which holds absolutely true here too.
Eating something highly digestible and fast-acting, yet also practical and tasty, is no simple matter. VOLCHEM knows this, which is why it has worked hard to formulate a specific bar that can provide just the right amount of long-lasting energy without causing any difficulty for a system, the digestive system, that is already potentially under stress from physical exertion.
PROMEAL ENERGETICA meets all these needs and adds new flavours to a product already widely appreciated by many.
Available in almond and cocoa flavours, and now also in berry and orange, PROMEAL ENERGETICA is a bar made with almond paste and added corn maltodextrins. This formulation provides medium/slow-release carbohydrates combined with a good amount of protein and the many positive qualities of the almonds themselves, such as their richness in mineral salts and polyunsaturated fatty acids; the result is a product that is very easy to digest but also releases energy over a long time, practical to use because it has no coating, and highly palatable, unlike equivalent products that, especially at extreme temperatures, change texture and organoleptic properties, causing unexpected problems.
Gluten-free and suitable for people with lactose intolerance, it is also useful in vegetarian diets and contains no preservatives.
Hitting the wall is just the worst form of an energy slump, which can take different forms depending above all on the conditions and the type of physical activity. At best, we will be forced to reduce the intensity of our effort so as not to jeopardise the result entirely. In the worst cases, stopping, resting and refuelling is the only solution if we want to finish the activity without breaking it off abruptly.
The body's energy reserves, as we have pointed out several times, are not unlimited, but they can be trained, and not only that: the different sources available to the body can complement each other, vary in the proportion they contribute and act in synergy so that the whole machine, the body, lasts a little longer.
An untrained body, regardless of the type of physical activity, will tend to use "refined" fuel when needed. Put simply, it will draw on its carbohydrate reserves, the fastest but also the smallest in the body. The better trained the person, the greater the contribution of fat to energy production: the body will be able to spare its available carbohydrates more and more effectively, using them only, or mainly, for the occasions when they are truly indispensable, such as submaximal or maximal muscle contractions lasting a few seconds.
The last energy resort is protein, in particular the so-called "glucogenic" amino acids, i.e. those that can be converted into intermediates of the energy reactions that use carbohydrates.
All this makes it clear that our body is not a set of watertight compartments isolated from one another, but rather a set of connected tanks that work together both when emptying, i.e. when we need energy, and when filling, i.e. when we eat. This reasoning explains why it is difficult, to say the least, to change the body's fat percentage by following diets that exclude, or almost exclude, a particular macronutrient while leaving the calorie balance unchanged, without even including exercise in the equation: our body is made to adapt and will do so in any way it can to maintain a state of balance.
Anyone who plays sport, especially long-duration sport, whether at medium-high intensity or at lower intensity for a longer time, knows that eating regularly is an essential condition for preventing major slumps. Food, whether semi-liquid or solid, should be spread out during exercise at intervals that keep energy stores always topped up, without needlessly overloading the digestive system and so jeopardising the rest of the activity. How should you go about it? We could reel off figures and statistics on gastric emptying or the digestion times of a given macronutrient but, since this is a very broad field and highly subject to differences between individuals, activities and so on, we will rely on the common wisdom of "little and often", which holds absolutely true here too.
Eating something highly digestible and fast-acting, yet also practical and tasty, is no simple matter. VOLCHEM knows this, which is why it has worked hard to formulate a specific bar that can provide just the right amount of long-lasting energy without causing any difficulty for a system, the digestive system, that is already potentially under stress from physical exertion.
PROMEAL ENERGETICA meets all these needs and adds new flavours to a product already widely appreciated by many.
Available in almond and cocoa flavours, and now also in berry and orange, PROMEAL ENERGETICA is a bar made with almond paste and added corn maltodextrins. This formulation provides medium/slow-release carbohydrates combined with a good amount of protein and the many positive qualities of the almonds themselves, such as their richness in mineral salts and polyunsaturated fatty acids; the result is a product that is very easy to digest but also releases energy over a long time, practical to use because it has no coating, and highly palatable, unlike equivalent products that, especially at extreme temperatures, change texture and organoleptic properties, causing unexpected problems.
Gluten-free and suitable for people with lactose intolerance, it is also useful in vegetarian diets and contains no preservatives.
