Okay, you're either trolling me now, or you are completely brain dead. First of all, if you're going to go all copy and paste on me, then link me to a primary source full text, not someone's interpretation of a study or an abstract to a study you never read. I get a kick out of you message board e-nutrition experts. You can't debate a damn thing without linking to someone else's work. It's always Suppversity, Lyle Mcdonald, Alan Aragon, or Layne Norton's work you are either parroting back or posting a link to so they can do the talking for you. What's the matter, can't do any thinking on your own and formulate an argument in your own words?
You posted a link to an article about carbohydrate supplementation for endurance athletes that has no relevance to the conversation here or my question. A preworkout meal of ordinary food with comparable calories and macros means elevated levels of glucose, amino acids and insulin during my workout. Why do I need to spend $60 on some mystical and magical concoction of highly branched and hydrolyzed unicorn semen to do the same thing? The only scenario I can see an intra workout drink having any benefit is if someone trains so early in the morning that they don't have time for a quick meal before they hit the gym. Otherwise, a bowl of cereal and milk or jug of chocolate milk or whatever else you'd prefer with similar calories and macros would do the same thing. There is no recovery or hypertrophy advantage to be had consuming these nutrients via a supplement drink during your workout. Your money would be better spent elsewhere IMO.
Take two weight training athletes and match daily calorie, macro, and mircronutrients. Give one a preworkout (1-2 hours before training) meal of ordinary foodstuffs and give the other an intra workout drink with similar calories/macros and tell me what advantage the intra workout drink provides. If and when a body of research is formed showing a clear cut advantage to consuming these nutrients during a workout via a supplemental beverage, I'll be the first to sing its praises. Until then, I have a supplement budget to adhere to like most folks and I'd rather not piss my money away for no reason.
Look, I want to maximize my workouts and nutrition program to achieve the best gains possible, same as you. I've been at this for 20+ years and even went through the trouble of obtaining a degree in dietetics just because I had a passion for learning and wanted a more in depth understanding of physiology and nutrition science. I'm still studying and learning everything I can to continue expanding my knowledge and stay current with new developments in the field. I'm just trying to be practical here. I'm totally open to changing my thinking if someone can provide the evidence, but I've got food logs going back five years. Everything I eat weighed out on a scale and logged. I've moved meals around every way you can think of and seen no clear advantage to consuming these type of supplements versus getting these nutrients through regular food consumed around my workouts. As I said, if someone can provide a reasonable explanation as to why my thinking is flawed, I'm all ears. I only want to get the best out of my gym efforts, same as you guys, and provide my clients with the best information possible. The supplement industry neither puts money into, nor takes money from my pocket. I'll spend my money on whatever I feel benefits me the most.