Active Edge plant-based juices to boost training and sports performance

Active Edge produce a range of plant-based juices that gives you an edge, when taken as part of your training and nutrition regime, whatever your sport or training.

 

Faster recovery and less soreness

Studies show that drinking Montmorency cherry juice significantly speeds recovery and reduces muscle soreness after hard exercise.

Montmorency cherries contain high levels of anthocyanins – natural compounds with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. These compounds help reduce inflammation and deactivate harmful free radicals produced in abundance during exercise. The result, as demonstrated by a number of research studies, is quicker muscle recovery and less soreness.

Faster recovery and less soreness can enable more frequent training sessions leading to improvements in performance.

CherryActive is the leading brand of Montmorency cherry juice. It is highly concentrated, contains no added preservatives or other such additives and is made avoiding excessive heat to help protect its beneficial nutrients. It has been a little-known secret of top rugby, football, tennis, cycling and other elite sports players for over a decade.

 


Improved endurance performance

Studies show drinking beetroot juice can significantly boost your endurance performance.  This can mean competing and training at higher intensities for longer.

Beetroots are a rich source of dietary nitrates that covert into nitric oxide when consumed. Increased nitric oxide levels can lead to increased blood flow to the working muscles.  Nitric oxide also makes it easier for the “power generators” in the muscle cells (mitochondria) to produce energy.

This process can lower the oxygen cost of exercise, enabling your body to sustain higher intensities for longer and ultimately provide a natural boost to endurance.

BeetActive is a highly concentrated pure beetroot juice.  It contains no added preservatives or other such additives and is made avoiding excessive heat to help protect its beneficial nutrients. It is taken by a host of leading sports teams, including international football teams, triathletes, cyclists, swimmers and runners.

 
  

 

Fuel for intense or prolonged activity
All Active Edge concentrated juices contain fast-acting carbohydrate, at levels shown to boost athletic performance when taken during intense or long-lasting exercise.

A 30ml serving of CherryActive, BeetActive, or PomegranateActive each contains over 25g of naturally-occurring carbohydrate (a mixture of fructose and glucose), which can keep  exercising muscles loaded with energy-giving glycogen.

EFSA (European Food Safety Agency) has recently adopted the health claim:

Carbohydrate solutions can contribute to the improvement of physical performance during high intensity and long-lasting exercise in healthy trained adults (interestingly they define high intensity exercise as that greater than 65% VO2 max and long lasting as at least an hour).

Recommended usage is up to three servings per hour (one serving = 30ml Active Edge concentrate) or one serving every 20 minutes during high intensity or long-lasting exercise.

Choose from cherry, beetroot or pomegranate concentrates.  Note that cherry and beetroot have additional sports performance benefits above.

 
 

 

Improved sleep quality

Good quality sleep can contribute to better post exercise recovery, as this is when the body’s complex repair processes are most active. However, many active people, whether regular gym goers or professional athletes, may suffer from exercise-induced insomnia in the form of prolonged sleep onset latency.

Several studies show that drinking Montmorency cherry juice can improve the quantity and quality of sleep.

Montmorency cherries are one of the few known food sources of melatonin, a natural compound produced in the brain’s pineal gland, to control the body’s natural sleep cycles and circadian rhythms. Many athletes have low levels of circulating melatonin, which may be a cause, or contributor, to their sleep problems. Inflammation may also play a part in insomnia. Montmorency cherry’s anti-inflammatory properties may also therefore play a part in aiding a good night’s sleep.

Recommended usage:  30ml CherryActive (with a little water) in the evening or two CherryActive Sleep Formula capsules half and hour before bed (these also contain magnesium, lavender and chamomile, as well as Montmorency cherry (all ingredients researched to improve sleep quality).

 

 

 

Protection from infections and downtime
Active people, whether keen gym-goers or professional athletes, can be more prone to respiratory infections and other illness, due to their heavy training.

Intense training sessions can cause oxidative stress, which is implicated in muscular fatigue, a low immune response, respiratory and other infections and reduced sports performance.

Oxidative stress is caused by an overload of free radicals, a natural by-product of metabolism (like exhaust fumes from a combustion engine) and are produced in increased quantities during intense or prolonged exercise.  These highly reactive compounds can cause damage to body cells, including muscle and immune cells.

Antioxidants are compounds that deactivate these damaging free radicals and are found in abundance in fruit and vegetables.  When an athlete’s training loads lead to an overload of the antioxidant system, a state of oxidative stress can occur.

Maintaining a high antioxidant diet therefore helps prevent oxidative stress, stimulate and protect the immune system and therefore help optimise an athlete’s training programme.

Antioxidants are found in abundance in fruit and vegetables.  However, particular fruits and vegetables, the “superfoods”, have significantly higher ORAC values than regular ones.

ORAC (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity) is a laboratory test that measures the antioxidant levels in food.   The higher the ORAC score, the better a food may be in defending our cells from free radical damage.

For example, the table below shows a typical “5-a-Day” fruit and vegetable intake, with an ORAC score of 1,790 units. This is compared to the ORAC score of a 30ml serving of CherryActive concentrate with a measured ORAC value of 8260 units.

To maintain a high antioxidant diet, therefore, it is important to consider the quality as well as the quantity of fruit and vegetables consumed

Typical 5-a-Day Food Portions

ORAC Units*

Medium Banana (80g***)

650

Watermelon (80g)

113

Fresh Tomatoes (80g)

294

Garden Peas (80g)

480

Cooked Carrots (80g)

253

Total for selected 5-a-Day

1790

 

CherryActive Concentrate (30ml)

8260**

 

*Source: ORAC of Selected Foods – 2007.  ** Source: ORAC CherryActive Concentrate, Brunswick Laboratories.  ***80g is the standard portion measure for the 5-a-Day programme.

Active Edge produces a range of concentrated juice products, all rich in antioxidants, which may help boost antioxidant defence against free radicals and downtime during intense athletic training programmes. CherryActive, BlueberryActive, BeetActive, PomegranateActive.

Recommended intake to increase antioxidant status- 30ml-60ml Active Edge concentrated juices during training programme, including rest days. Dilute with water, add to smoothies, natural yoghurt or other food and drink recipes.

 

 

  Professional sport comments

Daniel Bibby – England rugby 7s player.

After a tough day’s training, my body needs that extra help to repair the damage and I believe that CherryActive aids with this

Holly Dixon – GB age group triathlete.

CherryActive is an amazing product because it massively helps speed up my recovery! I am also using BeetActive prior to training to try and improve my endurance and VO2 MAX. It has definitely helped improved my running!

Jack Schofield – GB age group triathlete

I drink CherryActive every evening before I go to bed to maximise sleep and recovery. It allows me to feel fresh each day and take the edge off the DOMs. I also use BeetActive in the build up to big competitions to maximise my performance.

Tunde Okunniwa, CrossFit athlete. 

I use the BeetActive and CherryActive product ranges mainly. BeetActive provides me with a rich source of dietary nitrates, these are key to enabling me to work at higher intensities for longer during training and competition. I use CherryActive after my sessions as it helps me to recover faster with less muscle soreness.

Amy Kilpin – GB Age Group Triathlete

Having used CherryActive since my nutritionist incorporated it into my nutrition programmes, I have not been ill or injured once, despite completing the most intense training periods of my life. It is without doubt the best product I have ever used and is instrumental in optimising my recovery and keeping me super fit and healthy.

 

Jessica-Jane Applegate MBE – Paralympic swimmer

CherryActive is great at helping me recover from my heavy training sessions, during competition it is excellent to assist my recovery between heats & finals to enable me to compete at best in finals.

 

 

 

Sports Performance Research Links:

Montmorency cherry juice reduces muscle damage caused by intensive strength exercise.
Recovery facilitation with Montmorency cherries following high-intensity, metabolically challenging exercise.

Influence of tart cherry juice on indices of recovery following marathon running.

Efficacy of tart cherry juice in reducing muscle pain during running: a randomized controlled trial.

Efficacy of a tart cherry juice blend in preventing the symptoms of muscle damage.

Montmorency cherries reduce the oxidative stress and inflammatory responses to repeated days high-intensity stochastic cycling.
The Effects of Montmorency Tart Cherry Concentrate Supplementation on Recovery Following Prolonged, Intermittent Exercise.
Montmorency tart cherry (Prunus cerasus L.) supplementation accelerates recovery from exercise-induced muscle damage in females.

Effects of powdered Montmorency tart cherry supplementation on an acute bout of intense lower body strength exercise in resistance trained males.

Effects of chronic beetroot juice supplementation on maximum oxygen uptake, velocity associated with maximum oxygen uptake, and peak velocity in recreational runners: a double-blinded, randomized and crossover study.

Dietary Nitrate Supplementation Improves Exercise Tolerance by Reducing Muscle Fatigue and Perceptual Responses.

Influence of a montmorency cherry juice blend on indices of exercise-induced stress and upper respiratory tract symptoms following marathon running

 

Effect of tart cherry juice (Prunus cerasus) on melatonin levels and enhanced sleep quality

Pilot Study of the Tart Cherry Juice for the Treatment of Insomnia and Investigation of Mechanisms


Effect of beetroot juice supplementation on aerobic response during swimming.

Beetroot Juice Supplementation Improves High-Intensity Intermittent Type Exercise Performance in Trained Soccer Players