MaxiNutrition Cyclone Bars Review.

Love is Like an Energy.

pop quiz: the lyric above is from what song and artist? clue: It may have been Sinatra or Valley who went to California to make a movie.

So, for reasons I can no longer fathom, I had booked myself onto a ski touring course high in the Alps. Based at the Heidelberger Hutte at 2,264m on the Swiss side of the Austrian Alps. The Hutte is accessed from the ski resort of Ischgl. In winter, snow ensures the only way in or out of the Hutte is on foot or skis. So I knew I was in for a tough week.

The ski touring course information confirmed that food would be provided, but that I should bring snacks. Knowing that the nearest corner on which I might find a shop would be at least half a day’s walk away, I thought hard about this. What snacks would I need?

For the uninitiated, ski touring involves putting skins on your skis (so you don’t slip backwards) and walking uphill for several hours, before removing the skis and skiing back down. At altitude, in deep snow, this is very tough going, so I figured I would need strength, recovery, energy and power.

MaxiNutrition.

According to the good folk at MaxiNutrition their Cyclone Bars contain high quality protein which nourishes working muscles, allowing them to recover from exercise. The proteins break down into amino acids, which the body uses to help rebuild and grow muscle fibres.

I’m not big on muscles, but had recently been, like the rest of the UK, completely awestruck by the endurance and performance of the Brownlee brothers in Triathlons around the world. I figured, a snack that was good for tri-athletes would be perfect for me.

Their Cyclone bars contain the protein and creatine that I would need to meet my strength and power goals.

Off I went to Ischgl with a 12 pack of Dark Chocolate MaxiNutrition Cyclone bars in my rucksack. Each 60g bar contains:

• Protein: 23g; an effective way to support efficient muscle gains
• Carbohydrate: 16.5g, of which 10.2g are sugars
• Fat: 6.5g, 2.6g of which are saturates
• Fibre: 4.8g
• Creatine: 5g; scientifically proven to boost power in high-intensity training
• Calcium HMB: 1.5g; a metabolite of the essential branched chain amino acid leucine
• Glutamine: 3.3g; the most abundant amino acid in the body, where it is mostly found in muscle

Mountain Snacking whilst Ski Touring

A MaxiNutrition Cyclone bar fitted very conveniently into the strap pocket of my daypack; meaning I wouldn’t even have to stop and take off my backpack to get at my snack. This was a good thing as the instructor on the ski touring course didn’t seem to believe in stopping.

I admit I was very pleasantly surprised by the taste and texture of the Cyclone bars. I would describe them as a very dense ‘Milky Way’, but nothing like as sweet. Unlike many snack bars they weren’t crammed full of oats, honey, and fruit and, I believe, are all the better because of that.

Whilst the nutritional advice of MaxiNutrition is to consume up to two 60g bars a day – one immediately after training, one between meals; I found that periodically taking a bite kept me going. In my terms a 60g bar is four to five bites and was just about spot on snacking for a three to four hour ski tour.

I cannot comment of any of the scientific nutritional effects the bars had on my body, but I survived the course, completing every task to the full; and not everyone in the group did! I will be packing MaxiNutrition Cyclone bars again.

• Best Thing: Not sweet
• Worst Thing: Too much to eat in one go (for me)

pop trivia: ‘The Power of Love’ became a hit for ‘Frankie goes to Hollywood’ in 1984 from the album ‘Welcome to the Pleasuredome’.