Chocolate milk helps you to recover after exercise
New studies have found that low fat chocolate milk is the ideal post-workout drink, beating water and traditional isotonic sports drinks.
Chocolate milk was found to a wide variety of benefits helping to burn fat and build muscles.
The athletes that were testing the low-fat chocolate milk found that it helped to boost power and performance too.
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Researchers from the University of Texas investigated the benefits of chocolate milk as an exercise aid on a group of cyclists.
The cyclists were asked to ride for a period of 90 minutes at moderate intensity and then asked to complete 10 minute intervals riding at high intensity.
The scientists compared the cyclists’ performance times with the drinks that they were consuming and it was revealed that low fat chocolate milk helped them reduce their ride time by six minutes on average.
In a separate study that was carried out by the same team of researchers, 32 amateur cyclists took part in five spin sessions a week and each were given one of the three drinks to consume during and after exercise.
Two and a half weeks into the study it was discovered that the low fat chocolate milk had increased the participants’ oxygen uptake by twice that of those that were drinking water or isotonic drinks.
Oxygen uptake is an indicator of an athlete’s endurance level and indicates their ability to perform sustained levels exercise.
The amateur cyclists who were drinking chocolate milk also lost more fat and built more muscle mass than their counterparts.
The results of both studies can be found in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.
