This blog will talk about our new endurance recovery supplement – Terminus. Terminus was designed with one goal in mind – to be the best endurance recovery supplement on the planet. Spoiler – it is! Keep reading to find out all about Terminus, including WHY it outshines every other endurance recovery supplement on the market.
Terminus was explicitly designed for hardcore endurance athletes undergoing intense training.
When I say “hardcore,” I’m not saying it’s just for pros or elite athletes. I’m saying that it’s for athletes;
If this sounds like you, keep reading.
Ok, so by now, you are probably wondering what makes Terminus the best endurance recovery supplement? What sets it apart? Well, let’s find out.
Replenishing glycogen post-endurance workout is not just beneficial for refueling for your next workout. Taking in simple carbs immediately following endurance exercise drives nutrients into your cells, lowers the stress/cortisol response from endurance exercise, and jumpstarts the immune system. When taken following exercise, Carbohydrates help to halt muscle breakdown as well.
Dextrose is super-fast absorbing, making it the perfect sugar to take advantage of these benefits before it’s too late. Remember, consuming simple sugars (like dextrose) after and during endurance exercise is beneficial. It’s OUTSIDE of training that these sugars can be detrimental to health. To learn more about the difference, see Endurance Athletes & Sugar: Best Friends, Enemies, or Frenemies?
The 70:30 blend is not just something we made up. It also wasn’t decided based on taste, cost, or any factor other than what we believed was optimal for recovery. A 70:30 pea and brown rice protein blend results in an amino acid profile almost identical to whey. It also makes a perfect PDCAAS (Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score) of 1.0.
Opting for organic pea and brown rice reduces the likelihood of high amounts of residual pesticides – something reflected in our third-party residual pesticide testing results, which you can see HERE.
Amino Acid | Whey Protein Concentrate (15g) | Terminus |
Alanine | 525 mg | 600 mg |
Arginine | 345 mg | 1,155 mg |
Aspartic Acid | 1,260 mg | 1,395 mg |
Cystine | 255 mg | 195 mg |
Glutamic Acid | 1,995 mg | 2,250 mg |
Glycine | 210 mg | 540 mg |
Histidine | 240 mg | 300 mg |
Isoleucine (BCAA)* | 690 mg* | 1,615 mg* |
Leucine (BCAA)* | 1,320 mg* | 3,290 mg* |
Lysine | 1,125 mg | 870 mg |
Methionine | 240 mg | 225 mg |
Phenylalanine | 390 mg | 705 mg |
Proline | 990 mg | 570 mg |
Serine | 690 mg | 660 mg |
Threonine | 675 mg | 465 mg |
Tryptophan | 195 mg | 135 mg |
Tyrosine | 345 mg | 555 mg |
Valine (BCAA)* | 660 mg* | 1,705 mg* |
Additional Glutamine | NA | 4,000 mg* |
While whey would have been the cheaper option, many people are intolerant of whey. Using plant protein provides those intolerant to whey and dairy (and vegans) an alternative source.
Additionally, plant proteins are more sustainable than whey and every bit as effective (Babault et al., 2015).
If an endurance recovery formula hopes to provide optimal muscle recovery, additional BCAA’s, namely leucine, are required. No matter the source of protein, unless additional leucine is added, recovery will likely be suboptimal. Studies have suggested that 6.25 grams of whey protein combined with 6.25 grams of leucine stimulates protein synthesis similar to that of 25 grams of whey (Churchward-Venne et al., 2012).
Additional BCAA’s have numerous impacts on recovery, including improved immune function, increased protein synthesis, better muscle recovery, and enhanced glycogen replenishment
Leucine is the most beneficial of the BCAA’s to endurance recovery. Therefore, Terminus uses a 2:1:1 ratio of leucine: isoleucine: valine and provides an ADDITIONAL 4g of BCAA’s/serving on top of an already stellar amino acid profile.
Glutamine has numerous recovery-related benefits to endurance athletes, including reduced muscle soreness (Legault et al., 2015), improved immune function (Song et al., 2015), and some studies suggest it enhances endurance and power with daily use.
Additionally, evidence suggests that when combined with HMB*, glutamine can significantly reduce muscle loss (Rathmacher et al., 2004).
Muscle catabolism is an issue for endurance athletes engaging in long-duration endurance exercise due to very high caloric needs that aren’t always met.
Terminus provides an additional 4g of glutamine/serving. In my opinion, an endurance recovery supplement has to have additional glutamine if the goal is to be the best.
*Our daily endurance supplement, T-30, contains the perfect amount of HMB to reduce muscle catabolism. To be effective, HMB needs to be taken daily, which is why we opted to put it in T-30, not Terminus.
Carnitine is an ingredient you won’t find in many other endurance recovery supplements.
Although, I’m not sure why, as carnitine has proven to have many desirable impacts on exercise recovery, including reducing soreness and cellular damage, improving muscle recovery, improving blood flow to muscles, preventing muscle loss, and even easing mental fatigue (Fielding et al., 2018).
Those are just the recovery-related benefits of L-carnitine; carnitine has been shown to improve endurance performance as well. The combination of an excellent safety profile and numerous recovery-related benefits made including L-carnitine in Terminus a no-brainer.
Each Serving of Terminus has 1.5 grams of L-carnitine.
You’ll find electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals in many endurance recovery supplements on the market, but you will rarely find them in their best forms. Instead, most companies opt for the cheapest (and most common) form of nutrients. At Ultraverse Supplements, we never go the cheap route, only the best route.
Each ingredient was researched extensively and then selected based on bioavailability, effectiveness, and evidence, not price. You can find some good examples of this in our Price vs.Value blog.
Why does an endurance recovery supplement need electrolytes, vitamins, and minerals? Because endurance exercise depletes certain nutrients leaving endurance athletes susceptible to deficiency. Additionally, endurance athletes likely have increased needs due to the demanding nature of endurance training.
Sufficient electrolyte replenishment reduces the risk of cramping, improves antioxidant synthesis, and is beneficial for metabolism.
B vitamins, as most know, are essential for energy metabolism. They’re also crucial for optimal immunity and muscle recovery.
Zinc is depleted with endurance activity, and it is common for endurance athletes to be insufficient in zinc.
Again, these nutrients are present in Terminus and present in superior forms vs. other endurance recovery supplements. Some examples of this include – zinc picolinate, methylcobalamin (B12), pyridoxal 5’-phosphate (B6), and 5-methyltetrahydrofolate (folate).
When we (my wife and I) formulated Terminus, we did so with a solid foundation of nutritional knowledge. We both have Master’s degrees in nutrition, mine in Clinical Nutrition and hers in Holistic Nutrition.
You might think this is common in the supplement world, but you’d be wrong. Many supplement companies are started by people with limited knowledge of the products (and ingredients) that they are selling.
Remember, an online certificate that you can get in 2 months is not a suitable replacement for an accredited graduate degree that takes 2-4 years to earn.
Additionally, we did so with endurance backgrounds. We weren’t just attempting to cater to a foreign and unfamiliar population to make a buck. I’ve been ultra-running for about 7 years; Casey has followed me all over the U.S. to crew at my events. We are also RD’s of five different ultra-running events in the Midwest. We are passionate about ultra-running and endurance sports. We eat, sleep, and breathe them.
We knew we needed to learn A LOT more if we wanted to create the best endurance recovery supplement on the planet. We read through countless scientific papers pertaining to endurance recovery and carefully picked our ingredients and quantities according to our interpretation of the body of evidence. We also examined and compared every endurance recovery supplement we could find from countless “big-name” and “not so big name” brands.
We checked every box on Terminus and achieved all of our goals when creating it. We ignored manufacturers when they suggested using cheaper ingredients to lower the price. And we created what we believe to be the best endurance recovery supplement ever made. If you made it this far, congratulations! Hopefully, you realize the impact Terminus can have on your endurance goals at this point. As a thank you, please use code termblog2022 for a one-time ADDITIONAL discount of 10% off any season pack of Terminus. Season packs are by far the best way to get the most bang for your buck.
See The BEST Supplements for Endurance Recovery for more information on scientifically backed endurance recovery supplements.
Now, get out there and do something worth recovering from!
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