One of the major changes that has happened in the sports nutrition industry this past year or two is the rise of hydration supplements, although there is more to this than brands simply adding it to their arsenal. Hydration products can be used across the day, and when it comes to a workout or any form of exercise, you can throw it in your bottle and sip it throughout. This crosses over with amino acid supplements, as those two can be had during exercise or intra-workout, and like hydration, they aren’t that expensive.
The team here at Stack3d finds itself day-to-day deciding between a hydration product or a more traditional amino acid supplement for use during a workout, and with our stash primarily made up of what’s just hit the market, it’s often hydration. There are now brands that have hydration as their sole intra-workout solution, but also some that offer both, leaving it up to fans to pick between the two types.
We thought it would be interesting to provide some details to support what we’ve seen, and gone through all of the new supplements shared here at Stack3d that were for the amino category and for hydration over the past year. We are specifically talking supplements, so powder and capsule format, not beverage, which brings another dimension to the conversation, but after going through everything, we found that there have been 25% more innovations in hydration compared to that of amino products.
By innovations, we mean any completely new supplements or reformulation for the hydration or aminos spaces — based on their primary purpose, not counting an amino hydration hybrid as two — and you can read into that how you will. Most brands have had amino acid products on the market for years, so it’s not a great reflection of that legacy and longevity. It is still an extremely interesting number that we suspected would be as substantial as it is, and we certainly felt it’d be worth sharing for brands that have yet to add a hydration supplement or are thinking about it with all of the action going on there.
