Inside the Formula: Why Unmatched INTRA Is Built Different

When we designed the Unmatched intra-workout, we didn’t want just another flavored amino drink with a few generic ingredients tossed together with some flavoring and call it a day. We wanted to put together a true performance formula with sound clinical evidence that works, something that fuels and hydrates muscle tissue, prevents muscle loss, sustains endurance, and accelerates recovery while you’re still training.

Every ingredient had to serve a purpose. Every dosage had to be justified. And every component needed to create sound synergy—not redundancy.

In the trenches, we have observed that our last reps and miles were as strong as the first, and that’s what INTA can prove to you. Theres a reason why our Co-Founder, Kris Gethin, has used Vitargo® as his carb of choice since 2005. He observed the world’s best bodybuilders carb loading with it while backstage at the Mr. Olympia and found out they were also fueling their workouts and recovery with it. Now, over 200 Olympic athletes from around the world have used Vitargo® to fuel their Olympic medals.

Kris used it as fuel in many of his Pro Natural Bodybuilding shows, during all his Daily Video Trainers, IRONMAN Triathlons, Ultra-Marathons and Spartan Races.

Due to Kris’s loyalty to the Vitargo® brand, we are the first and only company given the pleasure of partnering with Vitargo® and including them in our Unmatched line-up as INTRA.

Here’s the breakdown of how we approached this formula from a formulator’s perspective, and why each ingredient was included in the final product for Unmatched INTRA.

Fermented Essential Amino Acids (EAAs): The Foundation of Muscle Growth

Most athletes know that BCAAs trigger mTOR and the anabolic switch—but without a complete spectrum of essential amino acids, muscle protein synthesis can’t reach full potential or be sustained. We have included a full blend of Fermented EAAs to deliver all nine amino acids your body cannot synthesize on its own, ensuring continuous support for muscle repair, growth, and adaptation during training. Clinical research repeatedly demonstrates that EAAs stimulate muscle protein synthesis more effectively than BCAAs alone—both during the workout and extended even after it ends. So, it’s crucial to optimal performance and recovery for every cell of your body to have a steady supply of amino acids.

By supplying these critical building blocks in real time, intra-workout EAA supplementation can help reduce muscle breakdown, preserve lean tissue, and sustain performance intensity from the first rep to the last. When amino acid availability stays high, recovery effectively begins while you train, and recovery dictates performance.

Fermented Glutamine: The Recovery Workhorse

Under everyday conditions, glutamine is considered “non-essential.” But during intense training or caloric deficit, it quickly becomes an essential component to anyone’s regimen. Your muscles are the body’s largest reservoir for glutamine, and during prolonged exercise, those stores are rapidly depleted, which can slow recovery as well as weaken immune defenses.

We strategically included fermented L-Glutamine to ensure the maintenance of cellular hydration, gut barrier integrity, and immune resilience. These vital, silent pillars of recovery can allow your body to adapt and rebuild efficiently between sessions so that you can train at a high-level day in and day out. Glutamine also pairs synergistically with EAAs, maintaining the optimal cellular environment where protein synthesis and tissue repair take place.

In some European countries, Glutamine is administered to burn victims to help heal tissue trauma. When we train hard, we induce trauma, so we need to do whatever we can to heal, hence why we include glutamine within INTRA.

Electrolytes: The Overlooked Performance Drivers

Did you know that a small 2% drop in body weight from fluid loss can critically impair strength, endurance, and even cognitive function? One important thing to know though is that hydration isn’t just about water intake. Electrolyte balance and the timing of intake is vastly more important than just water intake alone.

Combining water intake with effective dosages of electrolytes will set yourself up to perform and function at your best during the most intense training sessions. Our comprehensive electrolyte matrix, which includes sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium, replaces key minerals lost through sweat and keeps nerve signaling, muscle contraction, and hydration in sync. These minerals support optimal performance at the cellular level, ensuring your muscles fire efficiently and fatigue is delayed as long as possible.

Proper hydration also means fuller muscle pumps, sharper cognitive focus, and steadier power output deep into your workout. Because intra-workout hydration isn’t about quenching thirst—it’s about maintaining peak physiology.

Taurine & Coconut Water Concentrate: Hydration, Performance, and Cellular Balance

While electrolytes are a key and effective backbone of proper hydration, two additional components we have included, taurine and coconut water concentrate, also crucially play an essential supporting role in ensuring your muscles stay primed for performance during every phase of your training session.

Let’s look at each.

Taurine, one of the most underrated performance-enhancing amino acids, functions as a powerful osmolyte, helping regulate fluid balance inside the muscle cell. This is an extremely essential factor for strength, endurance, and sustained muscle contractility. By improving intracellular hydration, taurine can allow muscles to maintain efficiency under fatigue, support electrolyte balance, and enhance overall force production during repeated training sessions. Going past basic hydration, taurine also contributes to mitochondrial stability and can even help reduce oxidative stress generated during intense training. When combined with a fast-delivering carbohydrate like Vitargo® and a full electrolyte matrix, taurine can effectively amplify muscle fullness, endurance, and training longevity.

Shifting over to coconut water, this component which is naturally rich in electrolytes such as potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium, has a mineral profile closely mirrors the electrolyte ratios lost through sweat, helping to restore plasma volume and support proper nerve and muscle function. It also works closely and synergistically with the other electrolytes included in this blend. Coconut water concentrate in Unmatched INTRA, not only enhances hydration efficiency and natural electrolyte diversity but it also supports sustained endurance, cleaner contractions, and better muscular function as you continue to push through your training sessions.

Taurine and coconut water concentrate, along with the other electrolytes we have included, round out the hydration and performance foundation of Unmatched INTRA, helping you train harder, last longer, and stay physiologically primed right from the first rep.

Vitargo®: Fuel That Actually Performs

Carbohydrates are often misunderstood in the context of performance nutrition. While many intra-workout products rely on simple sugars or maltodextrin for “fast energy,” those ingredients come with trade-offs—blood sugar spikes, crashes, and uncomfortable bloating that can hinder performance when it matters most.

Vitargo® changes that entirely. This patented, high-molecular-weight carbohydrate—derived from barley starch—has a molecular structure that allows it to pass through the stomach almost twice as fast as conventional sugars and carb powders. The result is dramatically faster gastric emptying, meaning fuel gets to your muscles when they need it most, without sitting in your stomach or causing distress.

Once absorbed, Vitargo® is rapidly converted into glycogen—the body’s preferred energy currency for high-intensity training. This immediate replenishment supports sustained power output, greater training volume, endurance and a smoother energy curve throughout your session. Also, because it doesn’t cause the same insulin spikes or reactive drops in blood glucose, Vitargo® helps maintain steady performance without the “crash” which is common to simpler carb sources.

By including Vitargo® intra-workout, this translates to consistent and sustained muscle energy, reduced fatigue, and improved recovery between sets. By keeping muscle glycogen levels topped off, you maintain peak effort from start to finish—and can push through more total work before hitting a wall.

Vitargo® isn’t an ordinary carbohydrate. It’s precision-engineered, designed for athletes who understand that performance is about more than stimulation, it’s about sustaining output, rep after rep, set after set for the entire duration of your session. When used intra-workout, it bridges the gap between endurance and recovery, ensuring your energy system performs as hard as you do.

Velositol®: Doubling Down on Muscle Protein Synthesis

Velositol® represents one of the most advanced nutrient-timing technologies available today—engineered to make the nutrients you consume work harder for you. This patented amylopectin-chromium complex has been clinically shown to double the muscle protein synthesis (MPS) response when paired with amino acids or protein, unlocking a critically measurable increase in the body’s anabolic potential.

Why does this matter during training? Exercise itself is a catabolic event, breaking down muscle tissue and depleting glycogen stores. While this breakdown is beneficial for growth, by including Velositol® in an intra-workout setting—where amino acids and carbohydrates are already present—you can actively enhance insulin signaling, improve muscle cell nutrient uptake, and accelerate the shift from breakdown to rebuilding while the workout is still happening.

The chromium component of Velositol® supports healthy glucose metabolism and potentiates insulin’s role in driving nutrients like EAAs and glycogen into the muscle. The amylopectin component acts as the delivery matrix, optimizing absorption speed and nutrient utilization. Together, this combination creates a synergistic environment where every gram of amino acids and carbohydrates is used more efficiently supporting sustained energy and endurance, quicker recovery, and greater muscle growth over time.

You don’t see Velositol® in an intra-workout formula often. But at Unmatched, we are a different breed. We took a forward-thinking approach to nutrient timing that bridges the gap between performance and recovery, ensuring your body has the support it needs to perform at its peak and adapt faster.

VitaCherry®: Recovery, Reimagined

Training is, by definition, controlled damage. As mentioned above, you tear down muscle fibers to rebuild them stronger—but the inflammation and oxidative stress that follow can slow recovery and dampen performance. VitaCherry® is specifically included to change that and create the shift from inflammation to recovery.

This tart cherry extract, standardized to anthocyanins, is backed by multiple human studies showing reductions in post-exercise soreness, markers of inflammation, and oxidative damage. It also supports joint comfort and mobility, which are all critical for athletes training consistently multiple days per week as well as leading active lifestyles outside of the gym.

By integrating VitaCherry® into Unmatched INTRA, we’ve built in crucial recovery protection at the cellular level, so you can train harder, bounce back faster, and maintain consistency—your most powerful performance edge.

The Bigger Picture: Intra-Workout as a Performance System

What do you have when Fermented EAAs, Fermented Glutamine, Electrolytes, Vitargo®, Velositol®, and VitaCherry® come together? You’re left with a complete intra-workout system, and one that effectively fuels performance, accelerates recovery, and supports long-term adaptation while you push hard towards your training goals.

This isn’t flavored water. It’s a meticulously engineered nutrient system designed for athletes who understand that recovery doesn’t have to start after the workout.

For those who train with intent, who value science as much as experience, and for those who are truly committed to progress, you don’t have to wait until post-workout to start getting better.