Workout and Recovery Drinks Developed by UT's Dr. John Ivy in Consultation with Eddie Reese, UT Men's Swim Coach and 2008 Men's US Olympic Team Swim Coach
US Olympic Team Trials for Swimming, Omaha, Nebraska (June 24, 2008) - When Michael Humphrey, CEO of Austin-based Human Performance Labs, takes his seat on Sunday at the Olympic Trials for Swimming to cheer on former University of Texas at Austin swimmers Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker and Aaron Peirsol, as well as all-star American swimmer, Michael Phelps, he'll have more at stake than Texan or American pride.
As these four former Olympians seek to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, and break a few world records while they're at it, Humphrey will be preparing for the July 1 launch of his company's product, PureSport, a new, patent-pending class of performance drinks that have been a key part of the Olympic training programs for Hansen, Crocker, Peirsol and Phelps.
"We'll see over eight days, along with the rest of the world, how our products fared in the lab," says Humphrey. "I guess you could say this is the most public consumer product test ever conducted by world-class athletes in the history of sports."
"This is the best performance drink I've ever found," says Phelps, who incorporated PureSport into his training program at the University of Michigan under coach, Bob Bowman. "I've noticed a huge difference in my productivity and energy level since I started drinking PureSport. I
wouldn't train without it." Phelps won six gold medals and two silver medals at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.
Sports performance drinks are a competitive and lucrative category with Americans drinking more than a billion cases of sports drinks a year, according to Beverage Digest. But PureSport may be moving off the starting blocks with an edge.
PureSport was developed last year by Dr. John Ivy, chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin, in consultation with Eddie Reese, head coach for both UT Austin's men's swim team and the men's 2008 US Olympic swim team. Ivy developed PureSport with three factors in mind: the carbohydrate-to-protein ratio, the timing associated with drinking performance drinks and compliance with the world's major governing bodies in sports.
"The key factor in a sports performance drink is the carbohydrate/protein/electrolyte blend," says Ivy, a world-renowned expert on the role of nutrition in exercise performance. "Carbohydrates provide instant energy and proteins provide sustaining energy. That balance is critical and PureSport contains the optimal blend of carbohydrate and protein for better performance and faster recovery."
In addition to whey protein isolate, which is rich in essential amino acids and provides quick muscle recovery, PureSport includes Maltodextrin, a complex carbohydrate for long-lasting, sustained energy; sodium to replenish losses due to perspiration; magnesium to aid in the protein synthesis that helps prevent muscle breakdown; and potassium to help keep body fluids in balance.
PureSport comes in a powder form and the drinks are made by adding water, not milk, a benefit for those who are lactose intolerant. PureSport drinks do not have caffeine.
According to Ivy, another critical factor with respect to performance drinks is when you drink them and that's why he created two complementary performance drinks. PureSport Workout is used prior to and during exercise to improve endurance and reduce muscle tissue damage while PureSport Recovery is used within 30 minutes of completing a workout to speed the storage of muscle and liver glycogen and promote muscle tissue repair.
"When you exercise," says Ivy, "the muscles become very sensitive to certain hormones and nutrients, and you can initiate many highly desirable training adaptations if you make sure the correct nutrients are present. This increased sensitivity of the muscles only lasts for a limited length of time, so the element of time becomes absolutely crucial. If you miss this window of opportunity, there's no way you can stimulate the muscle adaptations to that extent until after the next bout of exercise."
Reese incorporated an early version of PureSport into the training sessions of everyone from his swimmers to friend Roy Spence, of Austin advertising agency, GSD&M, who took the drinks on his much-publicized walk across America.
"In every case, their endurance was better, their recoveries were quicker, they had less post-workout soreness and three of my swimmers broke world records this year," said Reese. "I've been at this a long time; the drinks were definitely a factor."
Humphrey, a seasoned Texas businessman, came on board in late 2007. "The science was there, the results were there and the product was there and tasted great," says Humphrey. "The only thing left to do was to make it more widely available. Our goal is to make PureSport accessible to everyone who wants to enhance how their body deals with strenuous activity, whether that activity is competing in a triathlon, running on a treadmill, cleaning out the garage or chasing after your kids."
Available in grape, fruit punch, lemon lime and banana berry, PureSport Workout and Recovery formulations will be available beginning July 1 at CATZ Sports stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Texas, at RunTex stores in Austin and Georgetown, Texas, and online at www.puresport.us
A case of 20 oz. bottles (24 servings) and a 3-lb. tub (54 servings) of the PureSport Workout formula will retail for a suggested $55 and $43, respectively. A case of 16 oz. bottles (24 servings) and a 3-lb.tub (19 servings) of the PureSport Recovery formula will retail for a suggested $60 and $33, respectively.
The US Olympic Team Trials for Swimming will take place in Omaha from June 29 through July 6.
About PureSport
PureSport is a brand of patent-pending performance drinks, made by adding water, that feature the optimal carbohydrate-to-protein ratio of 2:67-to-1. Created by Dr. John Ivy, chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education at the University of Texas at Austin, in consultation with Eddie Reese, head coach for the men's 2008 US Olympic swim team, PureSport is available in two formulations: PureSport Workout, which is used prior to and during exercise to improve endurance and reduce muscle tissue damage, and PureSport Recovery, which is used within 30 minutes of completing a workout to speed the storage of muscle and liver glycogen and promote muscle tissue repair. Among the athletes and coaches who are working with PureSport performance drinks are world-class swimmers Michael Phelps, Brendan Hansen, Ian Crocker and Aaron Peirsol; coach of the University of Texas men's swim team and the men's 2008 US Olympic swim team, Eddie Reese; coach of the Longhorn Aquatics swim team, Randy Reese; and University of Michigan swim coach, Bob Bowman. PureSport Workout and Recovery formulations are available in grape, fruit punch, lemon lime and banana berry flavors at available at CATZ Sports stores in Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York and Texas, at RunTex stores in Austin and Georgetown, Texas, and online at www.puresport.us. A case of 20 oz. bottles (24 servings) and a 3-lb. tub (54 servings) of the PureSport Workout formula will retail for a suggested $55 and $43, respectively. A case of 16 oz. bottles (24 servings) and a 3-lb. tub (19 servings) of the PureSport Recovery formula will retail for a suggested $60 and $33, respectively. For more information about PureSport performance drinks, please visit www.puresport.us.
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