Osmo Nutrition

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Osmo Nutrition – focus on hydration

March 2013

The mantra ‘hydration in your bottle, food in your pocket’ is behind Osmo Nutrition’s complete exercise drink system, as having the right nutritional products is only half the battle; understanding when and how to deploy them before, during and after training or a race is key to your success as an endurance athlete. Admittedly its probably where many of us fail. How many times do you approach a training session feeling tired? How many times do you skip proper recovery due to it being too much hassle and life getting in the way?

Whereas many companies have a whole host of products that you have wade and research your way through, Osmo Nutrition have broken down the whole sports nutrition process with four easy to understand and use products.

Osmo may be a relatively new name but its one with a lot of high level product testing behind it. The founder, Dr Stacy Sims, was a triathlete who literally ran into hydration and nutrition problems at the Kona Iron Man. It was then she had a moment of realisation that sports drinks that mix hydration with energy giving carbs were not up to the job, and when she came up with her slogan ‘hydration in your bottle, food in your pocket’.

Dr Stacy Sims of OSMO

However, her breakthrough didn’t come until much later when, after completing her PhD and whilst working as an exercise research scientist, she began to work with Tour de France cyclists from Garmin Slipstream and subsequently made a name for herself throughout the pro-peloton by creating a very special sports drink which concentrated on providing proper hydration as opposed to carbohydrate energy replacement.

Obviously this drink formula is of huge interest to all of us enthusiast cyclists and which is now produced under the Osmo Nutrition brand. The focus of all of Osmo products is hydration, as Dr Sims believes that this is the biggest performance inhibitor. When riders ‘bonk’, she is convinced that often they are suffering from dehydration not lack of glycogen, and believes that with the right drinks and real food, cyclists can avoid any such loss of performance. It would appear that a lot of pro-cyclists agree with her.

OSMO Product Range

Osmo have four powdered sports drinks starting with PreLoad Hydration, which is what they refer to as a ‘hyper-hydrator’. It is designed to be used ‘only before exercise in extreme heat, intense efforts, or ultra-endurance’. Allegedly, and most appealingly, ‘it will maximise sustained power and reduce muscle fatigue while virtually eliminating the chance of cramping.’ Big claims indeed.

Active Hydration is for use during exercise and will help prolong your efforts and avoid cramping, whilst Acute Recovery is to be consumed within 30 minutes of having exercised and will help repair damaged muscles, restore glycogen and help facilitate more rapid training adaptation.

GoodNight Recovery is, as the name suggests, consumed at night to work whilst you sleep and claims to actually help you get a good night’s sleep, whilst repairing muscle damage after intense or multiple days’ efforts.

Interestingly the CEO of Osmo is Ben Capron who used to be Global Marketing Director at Specialized no less, so with the combination of excellent scientific research, pro level testing and knowledgeable bike trade marketing savvy, you can expect these products to do well.

We cannot wait to put the claims to the test, so look out for a full review soon. In the meantime here is Dr Sims walking you through the Osmo philosophy in this video.

More information can be found here Osmo Nutrition

This article originally appeared on CycleTechReview.

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