Is is a good idea to take in sugar during your exercise training session to improve athletic performance? How does it pertain to power, and endurance? These are the big questions of the day! Should you, or shouldn’t you ingest sugar during your aerobic, or anaerobic fitness training session?

There has been a recent study completed in Copenhagen, Denmark that showed sugar consumption during exercise increased endurance, and power.  The study was published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, June 2009.  There were two groups of men studied. Group 1 was given a solution of 6% sugar to consume during an extended endurance training session. Group 2 was given an artificially sweetened drink to consume during their leg of the endurance exercise.

The sugar supplemented exercise leg had 14% more power, and a 30% greater time to exhaustion. Therefore, if you want to improve athletic performance, it is important to consume sugar throughout your training session. This is especially true for endurance training workouts. Therefore, taking in carbohydrates throughout your endurance training session will increase power, and endurance.

Now the whole key towards increasing  aerobic performance is your bodies ability to preserve stored sugar in cells. Ingesting sugar during your training session will do this. Also, taking a caffeine supplement  30 – 60 minutes prior to exercise will  cause a preservation of stored blood sugar in cells.

I would even like to take this one step further, and say consume carbohydrates (sugar), and protein together during an endurance training session. By adding protein with the sugar you will benefit in 3 distinct ways:

1. Decrease the muscle damage that occurs.
2. Prevent next day muscle soreness
3. Increase speed and endurance

Ingesting protein immediately after your workout will aid in the healing of damaged muscle cells.

There is quite a bit of scientific evidence to suggest that aerobic exercise program performance, and recovery is significantly improved with the ingestion of sugar, and protein during a training session. Give it at try and watch your aerobic exercise performance skyrocket.