Welcome to my weekly summary of the latest research from the world of sports science!
Under-fueled? Sleep-deprived? Lifting and running in the same week? This week’s roundup looks at how to manage real-world training challenges—with research on how strategic carb blends and protein speed up recovery, how caffeine helps rescue cycling performance after sleep loss, and how combining strength and endurance can actually improve your form and fatigue resistance—read on.
Combining Carbs and Protein Helps You Recover Faster
This study looked at how different drink mixes affect recovery after a glycogen-depleting ride in 10 well-trained male cyclists. Over five hours, they consumed either maltodextrin alone, fructose alone, a 1:1 maltodextrin–fructose blend, or that same blend plus whey protein. Liver glycogen was higher after five hours with fructose, the dual-carb mix, or the dual-carb plus protein compared to maltodextrin alone, while muscle glycogen rose at a similar rate in all groups. Adding protein boosted insulin, glucagon, and amino acid levels—laying the groundwork for muscle repair without slowing fuel reload.
My thoughts: When you train, your body burns through carbohydrate stores. After you stop, it prioritizes refilling those glycogen stores before using nutrients for muscle repair. If you eat only protein, much of it will be converted into carbs first—a process called gluconeogenesis—before being used to rebuild muscle. This is why a balanced post-training meal, or a protein powder with some carbs (like Blonyx Egg White Protein Isolate), makes sense. This study backs that up and goes further, showing that combining more than one type of carb works best. Yet another nudge toward real-food recovery after training.
Caffeine Restores Performance in Sleep Deprived Athletes
This study tested whether caffeine could offset the performance drop from poor sleep. Nine active men completed three high-intensity cycling tests: after a normal night’s sleep with placebo, after just four hours’ sleep with placebo, and after four hours’ sleep with caffeine (5 mg/kg). Sleep loss alone reduced time to exhaustion, altered breathing patterns, increased blood acidity, and lowered muscle activation from the brain. With caffeine, performance, breathing, and muscle drive returned to near well-rested levels, and excess acidity was reduced.
My thoughts: Last week we covered a study showing creatine can partly protect cognitive performance when you’re sleep-deprived. I joked you might be better off with a coffee—and now, here’s the evidence for training performance too. Caffeine not only perks you up, it can bring your breathing, muscle drive, and endurance back to well-rested levels. Bottom line? On those mornings when the kids wake you at 5 a.m., a strong coffee—and maybe some HMB+ Creatine—could be your best workout insurance.
Believe it or not, Strength and Endurance Aren’t Enemies
This review revisits the long-standing belief that strength and endurance training cancel each other out. Known as the “interference effect,” the idea was that endurance work—especially high volumes—blunted strength or power gains. But the review shows this mostly applies to elite athletes chasing explosive power. For most people, including endurance athletes, adding resistance training actually boosts their running or cycling economy, power reserve, and what they call "physiological resilience"—your ability to hold form and pace when fatigue sets in.
My thoughts: This was interesting to me because the current paradigm is that you can’t get stronger or more powerful if you’re also doing endurance training with the same muscle groups. While my own training experience tells me this is mostly true, I’ve also seen noticeable increases in both power and endurance—when the training is dialed in properly. It likely comes down to cross-benefits: build more leg power, and running at the same pace becomes less demanding.
That said, how you go about building that power matters. Trying to combine heavy squat sessions with 10K runs is a recipe for injury and slow progress. I recommend following the off-season model used in rugby—go hard on weights for a stretch, then return to running. Your next season will thank you.
That’s all for this week! If you learned something new and are curious to know more, head over to the Blonyx Blog or my growing list of weekly research summaries where I help you further improve your athletic performance by keeping you up to date on the latest findings from the world of sports science.
– Train hard!
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