Best Energy Drink Powders For Football ( A Guide)
Be it football or any outdoor sport, they require a lot of energy. So where do you get that needed kick of energy before a game? Energy drinks!
Football doesn’t only require you to be physically ready, but also mentally prepared. Energy drinks can guarantee an elevated performance that can push you to the limits.
But among the brands in the market, it’s best to stick with powdered energy drinks as they give you more control on when do you want to consume your beverage and how much you can oingest within a serving, not to mention their superiority in being travel-friendly!
And speaking of brands, I think that Zipfizz, Mixt Energy, and Advocare Spark Energy are the best bets if you’re going to play football at any given moment.
So what makes energy drinks a good beverage for football players? What ingredients should you avoid and look out for? If you’re curious, I suggest reading until the end to find out!
Contents
What to look for in an energy drink?
Despite a handful of studies that indicate a negative result when one consumes an energy drink during any physical activity, the success rate greatly depends on the caffeine content, sugar content, and supplements that make up a serving of any energy drink.
Picking the right amount and number of vitamins, minerals, and even amino acids can guarantee better results for its users.
Caffeine content
Caffeine is the primary energy supplier of most energy drinks. It’s known to increase one’s focus and alertness while enhancing cognitive functions and reaction time as well as your physical performance.
Football is an extremely physical sport where you run and may collide with the ground or other players just so you can take the ball and score.
While higher caffeine doses can positively affect your physical performance during the game, the downtime after your game and even long-term effects may say otherwise. Thus, it’s important to know how much caffeine can you handle by determining your caffeine tolerance.
Knowing how much of this substance should you ingest within the whole day also prevents you from other adverse side effects such as caffeine dependence and eventually, addiction. Moreover, the FDA has issued a 400 mg daily recommended daily intake for adults while young individuals are discouraged from ingesting this stimulant.
You can also refer to this table to know more about the positive and negative effects after you ingest caffeine:
| PROS | CONS |
| Lowers risk of Parkison’s and Alzheimer’s disease | Insomnia |
| Promotes weight loss | Dehydration |
| Reduces risk of type II diabetes and strokes | Jitters |
| Lessens the possibility of developing cancers | Headaches |
| Protect your liver and heart | Abnormal Heartbeats |
Sugar content
Sugar mainly exists in energy drinks as a primary flavor agent and energy provider since it is a carbohydrate. However, consuming sugary energy drinks before or during a football game can be detrimental to your performance as it may lead to a sugar crash.
Furthermore, excessive sugar consumption can lead or trigger underlying complications such as:
- Development of type II diabetes.
- Increased risks of heart diseases.
- Weight gain and obesity.
- Dental problems.
- Reduced energy levels and brain fog.
On a personal note, I don’t think that a beverage with high sugar content should be available for any Football player before or during their game as it can cause counterproductivity due to the threat of a possible crash. This occurrence can also be life-threatening if your blood sugar levels recede below 70 mg/ dL.
The American Heart Association has also recommended a limit for sugar intake where women can ingest up to 24 grams of sugar a day, while men can have as much as 36 grams. If you don’t limit your sugar intake, you can also be dependent or even get addicted to this nutrient, further worsening any adverse side effect that has surfaced.
Thus, I personally think that your brand of choice should be sugar-free, where artificial sweeteners replace table sugars in order to remove the possibility of a crash. Studies also show that they possess little to no calories and retain the ability to sweeten any drink without the side effects brought by their natural counterparts.
The most popular artificial sweeteners are sucralose and aspartame, which are also FDA-approved!
Other Ingredients
An appropriate energy drink for a Football player, or for any athlete, must have the appropriate vitamins and minerals they can utilize before or during their match. These supplements are known to further elevate your performance and ensure that your body remains in a good state despite the strenuous activity.
The first on this list must be Taurine, which is also a common ingredient in most, if not all, energy drinks in the market. It’s known to remove impurities that may cause fatigue while further boosting your muscles for prolonged activities.
Guarana extract, just like caffeine, knows to stimulate your body for better performance in the field. It’s also capable of reducing any signs of fatigue that may creep up on you as your body comes down from its peak.
The B-vitamin complex is also involved, focused on making sure that every cell, tissue, and organ in your body continues to function properly. Meanwhile, the presence of electrolytes is essential as they replace what your body has been expelling and are even preventing you from being dehydrated!
Is energy drink good for football players?
Frankly, energy drinks can be good for football players.
The existence of caffeine per serving makes this possible, especially for those with 100 mg which countless studies revealed are the most appropriate amount of caffeine people should consume within the day for maximum usage. It’s also a good sign that your brand of choice has vitamins, minerals, and even electrolytes that athletes can utilize well during their games.
Granted that energy drinks are known to have high sugar contents, there are lots of sugar-free brands in the market any sports player can pick at any day. Studies also show that brands that use sugar substitutes such as sucralose function better as they eliminate the chance of sugar crash from occurring after the brand reaches its peak.
It also pays to be disciplined when consuming energy drinks so that you won’t develop dependency and addiction in the long run.
Do footballers drink energy drinks?
Yes, football players consume energy drinks!
Not only that but lots of athletes also have a serving of their energy drinks of choice before their game. Racers often see these products as energy boosters they can rely on for extra help during their match.
Notable athletes, especially those who participate in big competitions such as the Olympics, make sure to drink their brand of choice before the start of their event so they are well-stimulated and energized that are respectively provided by the caffeine and macronutrients present in a serving.
What is the best time to drink energy drinks for a football game?
You can consume a serving of an energy drink at least 40 to 45 minutes before a game in order to maximize the beverage.
It takes about 10 to 15 minutes for the caffeine from any energy drink to enter your bloodstream. It’s completely absorbed after the 40 to 45 minutes mark, where you can feel it peaking in your bloodstream.
It takes at least a day to completely remove any signs of the energy drink within your system.
You can also take a look at this Youtube video for more information:
Best energy drink powders for football
Now that you know what you will need to consider before purchasing your intended energy drink for the game, it’s time to know some of the brands that may pass the test.
Zipfizz
The American households have spoken: Zipfizz is an energy drink anyone can get behind on.
One serving of Zipfizz contains 100 mg of caffeine, 0g sugar, and 20 calories. With its 13 different flavors and 24 supplements such as Zinc and the B-Vitamins complex, Zipfizz can certainly help you hold yourself up for hours on end without making you worry about fatigue or sugar crash in the process.
This is essentially important to any athlete as it prevents your body from falling behind and can even help you perform better due to the existence of various nutrients in every serving.
You can view this Zipfizz review to know more about this infamous energy drink in a tube!
Advocare Spark Energy
Advocare Spark Energy is an out-of-this-world product, it was first promoted as a mere water supplement even though it has the characteristics and ingredients of any other energy drink.
A sachet of Advocare Spark has 120 mg of caffeine, no sugar, 15 calories, and a total of 18 supplements, which are available in 10 different flavors. Just like Zipfizz, this product can be of service considering that it cannot give you a sugar crash despite its ability to boost your energy and help you maintain your body.
Another advantage of using this product during a football game is you can take a few sips and still get nutrients like Vitamins A, C, and E among other minerals without having the need to separate them from your water intake.
Want to start your sports journey with Advocare Spark? let this review help you out!
Mixt Energy
Even though Mixt Energy is intended for the gaming community, its attributions make it an interesting product for any sports activity.
Its formula contains 166 mg of anhydrous caffeine, dehydrated caffeine that’s more concentrated than the regular kind. Along with different supplements such as some B-Vitamins, L-Taurine, and L-Tyrosine, this product may just help you reach your goal faster than you expected.
The combination of B-Vitamins, carbohydrates, other minerals, and the sugar substitutes like Sucralose enable any football player to function better as it helps the body to keep up with the physical activity and prepares it for a post-match wherein there is no sugar crash happening.
If you think Mixt Energy is the energy drink you’ve missed out on, you can check out this article to know more about it!
Conclusion
When choosing the most appropriate beverage you should consume before and during a Football game, I personally think you should stick with a powdered energy drink for a more controlled and travel-friendly drink for your game day.
A good energy drink must contain reasonable amounts of caffeine and sugar with a vast list of supplements that are essential to your physical and mental performance. Giving this much thought before your purchase enables you to pick the brands your body can tolerate and can easily integrate.
However, it’s also important to remember that you shouldn’t consume too many energy drinks due to the side effects its ingredients may bring as well as the possibly dependent tendencies you may develop over time.
