has anyone tried these things? they look like those listerine breath strip things, but instead of giving you fresh breath, they’re supposed to give you electrolytes instead. the stuff disolves in your mouth, delivering the electrolytes to your blood stream much faster than drinking sports drink. you bypass the stomach.
the company’s claim is that with these things, you can go with straight water rather than sugary sports drinks, which might upset some people’s stomaches.
i’m just curious if anyone has tried them and if they work. it would be nice to be able to go with straight water instead of gatorade on the long rides.
I’ve seen the add, but never tried them. I do like Nuun tablets sometimes when it’s really hot and i don’t want the syruppy taste of sports drink. They add electrolytes and just a little bit of flavor to your water
i have tried them, and they are rough. the idea may be a good one, but the execution is not.
they were giving them away at the ACSM conference in new orleans this year. friends and i would trick people into trying them just to see their reaction (perhaps a bit mean, but it was really funny!)
personally, i will stick to gatorade.
I tried them in the Honolulu marathon last Sunday. I carried a couple of the cassettes with me. They were actually easy to take one with my tongue & then slide it in between the tongue & check. I was advised that it’s easier to get on the go if one removes a couple of them 1st like before the event. They helped but I wouldn’t rely on them totally though I think my total enduroylyte usuage was down. . I used my endurolytes pre-race as usual & then took a couple of endurolytes at mile 16 along with a pack of cheee nips when things were kinda coming apart. Then it pulled together again. I also had used gatorade regularly along the course. I also think they might be easier to take on the run than on the bike. I’ll probably use them again as as an addition to or back up to my usual.
Barb
We received samples of this new product and were originally intrigued by the idea. With that, it’s important to dig into what’s actually in each strip and what the actual electrolyte content is. To get a feel for it, below I did a little comparison on the sodium content of the Enlyten vs Gatorade, a popular electrolyte replacement cap and a few other fluid replacement drinks:
(1) Enlyten Strip (13mg)
(1) Succeed Cap (341mg) = 26 strips
Gatorade Endurance - 8oz (200mg) = 15+ strips
EFS - 8oz (165mg) = 13 strips
Gatorade Thirstquencher/Cytomax - 8oz (110mg) = 8+ strips
To put this in perspective, if you’re an athlete that takes just (1) electrolyte cap /hour while on the bike in an IM, and you’re targeting a 6hr bike split - you’re looking at taking in 156 strips to have the same sodium content as 6 caps.
From our perspective, there may be easier options than trying to put down 150 strips if you need additional electrolyte replacement. Just my $.02.
Talked to the rep at the Honolulu Marathon expo for a bit and his claim was that since other products may sit unabsorbed in the stomach vs. the strips going straight into your bloodstream when they dissolve, you couldn’t do a one-to-one comparison of the contents for the effective electrolyte delivery (my interpretation, not his exact words).
I have no background in this stuff so dunno if that’s a load of crap or not.
a comparison based soley on content/volume may not be totally accurate here.
the “delivery system” approach that Enlyten is promoting appears to have some merit.
i’m sure there are more than a couple teams of researchers frantically striving for hard data comparing “normal” ingestion/absorption to that of the strips.
Jim,
Agreed, you bring up a valid point. With that, there is still a huge gap between what is proven science and what is speculation regarding the difference in absorption rates of a capsule (i.e. Succeed, Endurolyte, etc…) vs a sublingual delivery method such as Enlyten. Giving the benefit of the doubt to the Enlyten strips, even if we say there is a 20-30% absorption rate of the capsule and a 60-70% rate for the strips, we would still be looking at:
(1) Succeed = ~85mg (1x341mg capsule w/ an estimated absorption rate of 25%)
(1) Enlyten strip = ~8.5mg (1x13mg strip w/ an estimated absorption rate of 65%)
Even in this scenario you would need to consume (10) strips to equal the amount of a (1) electrolyte capsule and again, the above example is being generous in favor of the strips. On a personal level I’m not really for/against either as I’ve never consumed a single electrolyte capsule in any of the 6-IMs I’ve done, but for those who do use them, I can’t imagine the logistics of keeping what may be scores of these dry and consuming them on the fly.
They may really be onto something but I can’t say that I’m bought into it enough on the 1st go-around. You do bring up a very good point though…interesting discussion.
The product is really good and the taste is okay (it’s sodium folks). Helps performance and really helps recovery and reduced down time. I’ve been told the product taken through the bloodstream as it is really helps cell hydration and thus you need much less electrolyes and water than using the sugar waters. Also if you start cramping up, you can take these and your cramps go away in quick order (5 minutes or less). I saw a Buffalo Bill wide receiver make these anti cramping comments on a piece aired on CNBC that was done by the Gatorade guru and author of the book on Gatorade, Darrin Rovell
Coach K at Duke uses them for his basketball games. Watch a Duke basketball game and look at the bench at timeouts. They hand these out to the players.
Also if you want a lot of real testimonials from runners, go to the Enlyten website and click on the “who’s enlytened” section. Testimonials are on the right hand side.
Also if you are interested in trying them, you can go to the website stripup.com. They are running a special for Xmas of 20% off and free shipping. Just enter the code when you check out.
I got a sample pack in a race packet and tried them on a training run. My fingers were sweaty and I ended up grabbing half of the pack. They dissolve quick!
Dude, get a few Maggi chicken bullion cubes. One to dissolve in a water bottle to drink throughout your ride, one to suck on during your run and one to give to a fellow competitor when they are cramping up.
That just doesn’t sound good at all
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