Rebound Technology™ – Only from Nutrena®
How can nutrition help support muscle recovery and fatigue? What blend of ingredients are optimal to repair a horse’s muscles after exercise? Is there a difference in Nutrena performance feed options vs other brands? Our equine nutritionists at Nutrena brand break down some of these most frequently asked questions about muscle recovery and how Nutrena feeds exclusive Rebound Technology can help performance horses. Because here at Nutrena, we believe what’s inside counts®.
Why is Muscle Repair and Recovery Important?
For training and performance barns, muscular performance is everything. We ask our horses to give us speed, strength, collection and stamina – sometimes multiple days in a row. These exercise demands can stress the body, increase cortisol levels, reduce muscle glycogen, increase inflammation, increase heart rate, reduce blood sugar and reduce plasma branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs). So, to improve athletic performance, we need to address muscle development, muscle recovery, and glucose availability.
How Do Ingredients Like Chromium and BCAAs Help?
Chromium
Recently FDA and AAFCO approved chromium propionate as a feed ingredient that supports glucose getting into the cells where it’s needed for energy to repair and replenish after work. Chromium is involved in carbohydrate metabolism and other insulin dependent processes that support more efficient insulin function by stabilizing insulin receptors leading to more efficient movement of glucose from the blood stream.¹ As a result, this reduces the negative impacts of exercise stress and increases the body’s physiologic ability to move nutrients into muscle cells to function efficiently during exercise and rebuild glycogen broken down during exercise.
BCAAs
Three essential BCAAs that help to decrease muscle fatigue and improve muscle recovery are Leucine, Isoleucine, and Valine. Research with BCAAs has demonstrated that Leucine infusion along with glucose infusion appears to increase whole body glucose availability, potentially increasing glycogen and protein synthesis in horses.² Providing an increased rate of protein synthesis would increase both muscle mass and muscle recovery, both of which may improve athletic performance.
In humans, BCAA supplementation prior to exercise appeared to reduce delayed onset muscle soreness and muscle fatigue as well as increased insulin response along with increased post-exercise rates of glycogen synthesis.3,4,5,6 Increased availability of amino acids and glucose demonstrated in research shows an improvement not only in protein synthesis, but also a decrease in protein breakdown.
Research-Backed Rebound Technology
Unlike other performance horse feeds, Nutrena recognized the need for chromium and BCAAs in muscle recovery and added them to their performance horse formulas. Our nutritionists formulated a proprietary, research-backed blend with both Chromium and BCAAs and called it Rebound Technology. Rebound Technology is only available in our ultra-premium ProForce® product line, designed specifically for active performance horses.
Find Horse Feed with Rebound Technology Near You
Only Nutrena ultra-premium feeds include Rebound Technology:
- ProForce® Fuel (13% Protein | 10% Fiber | 13% Fat)
- ProForce® Fuel XF (13% Protein | 16% Fiber | 13% Fat)
- ProForce® Senior (14% Protein | 17% Fiber | 11% Fat)
Sources:
- Mertz, W. 1992. Chromium history and nutritional importance. Biol Trace Elem. Res. 32:3.
- Urschel, et al. Insulin infusion stimulates whole-body protein synthesis and activates the upstream and downstream effectors of mechanistic target of rapamycin signaling in the gluteus medius muscle of mature horses. Domestic Animal Endocrinology 2014; 47: 92-100.
- Shimomura et al. Nutraceutical Effects of Branched-Chain Amino Acids on Skeletal Muscle. 2006. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/jn/article-abstract/136/2/529S/4664393 on 05 June 2020
- Van Loon, et al. Maximizing post exercise muscle glycogen synthesis: carbohydrate supplementation and the application of amino acid or protein hydrolysate mixtures. Am J Clin Nutri 2000; 72:106-111
- Van Loon, et al. Plasma insulin responses after ingestion of different amino acid or protein mixtures with carbohydrate. Am J Clin Nutr 2000; 72:96-105
- Zawadzki, KM, et al. Carbohydrate-protein Complex Increases the Rate of Muscle Glycogen Storage After Exercise. J Appl Physiol 1992 May; 72(5):1854-9
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