Product Review: Vega Sport Recovery Accelerator

Disclosure: I was sent Vega Sport Recovery Accelerator free of charge in exchange for review as a Sweat Pink Ambassador.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Training for half marathons requires running, strength training, and stretching for many days each week.  A lot of times, I'll miss something on my training schedule because I'm just too sore.

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That's why I was so excited to find out about the #fuelyourbetter campaign and the Vega Sport Recovery Accelerator!

Vega, a plant-based nutrition company, has developed a new line of products called Vega Sport.  This series of products was designed specifically to help athletes prepare, sustain, and recover during training no matter what sport!

I chose to try out the Recovery Accelerator because muscle soreness makes walking around my schools (with multiple flights of stairs!) challenging.  Also, I often just want to lay on the couch and miss a run or workout when my muscles are too sore.  I don't want to overwork them, but I also don't want to miss out on anything that will help me improve as a runner.

The Recovery Accelerator comes in a powder in two flavors, Tropical and Apple Berry.  Here's more specific information about the product from the website:

"The first all-natural, plant-based recovery drink mix specifically developed to address all six key elements of post-workout recovery: muscle glycogen replenishment, muscle tissue repair and protein synthesis, hormonal support, soft-tissue repair, immune system support, inflammation reduction and rehydration"

It has a 4:1 ratio of carbohydrates to protein, which is shown to increase muscle glycogen re-synthesis, crucial to post-workout recovery.

I received the Tropical flavor to try.  Here are some overall notes about the taste/packaging of the product:

-The flavor was pretty good!  I'd probably like the Apple Berry flavor better, but Tropical wound up growing on me.

-I loved that these came packaged in a one-serving pouch.  It made taking it to the gym so simple--just fill my water bottle with 12 ounces of water, mix, and drink!

-The first time I tried it, I just mixed the drink with a straw.  I thought it was a little chalky/powdery.  THEN I tried it shaking the drink with one of those blender balls.  When I did that, there was NO CHALKY/POWDERY TASTE AT ALL!  It always worked well just shaking/swirling the drink around in a water bottle to mix.  Good stuff!

Blender ball saves the day!

I drank the Recovery Accelerator after running and after strength training (mainly BodyPump) to how it helped in those two situations.  Here's what I felt/noticed after each:

After BodyPUMP/strength training

Coming out of a BodyPUMP class, I usually feel shaky all over because of how hard my muscles worked.  Drinking the Recovery Accelerator after these workouts was my favorite time to use it!

My muscles calmed down pretty quickly after drinking the Recovery Accelerator and the shaky feeling went away!  I also noticed that I was not as sore as usual the next day, even though I should have been after the hard work.  That made walking around my schools that have a lot of stairs so much more pleasant!  I also felt able to run or work out the next day without dreading how painful my sore muscles would be. 

After a run

I was a little wary of drinking the Recovery Accelerator after a run at first because of the texture.  I don't normally like anything creamy after a run.  I'm really glad I tried it, though!  After running outside in hot and humid Florida, it helped to cool me down faster than usual.  My legs also felt great the next day, especially when I stretched while drinking the recovery drink.

I also wanted to try it after hot yoga, but I've been a slacker and haven't been in a while!  I'll be sure to update y'all when I try it :)

Overall, I definitely saw the Recovery Accelerator help me get back to a workout faster than normal.  I could tell I'd worked out the day before, but the really awful soreness wasn't there!  I'm very pleased with this product, and I plan to use it again in the future!

Make sure to check out fuelyourbetter.com to check out the full line of Vega Sport products!

Question for you: How do YOU #fuelyourbetter?  What Vega Sport product would you be most interested in trying?