John Myers
The sun is shining, the first few kilometers fly by while running. On the small hill, you will start sweating and you will be thirsty. At home you down a glass of tap water: but is this the best choice as a sports drink?
This is important with sports drinks
If your sport is just a bit of exercise and your activities are limited to leisurely cycling, walking or a few laps in the bathing lake, you don’t need to worry about sports drinks. Tap or mineral water is completely sufficient as a thirst quencher. For those who train intensively and ambitiously, good sports nutrition always includes the right drinks. Sports drinks replace minerals lost with sweat, provide energy during long training sessions, and are ideally well tolerated. After exertion, they promote regeneration. Alcohol should definitely be taboo: it is unsuitable for replacing the fluid lost through sweat and, according to studies, delays muscle recovery. However, if you drink alcohol-free wheat beer after exercising, you are not doing anything wrong – on the contrary, the isotonic drink is well suited for this.
Isotonic, Electrolyte, Energy: what does it mean?
Isotonic means that a liquid has the same concentration of solutes as blood plasma. Minerals and carbohydrates are particularly well absorbed by the body in this form. Electrolytes in drinks take advantage of this: magnesium, potassium, and sodium are dissolved in water in an easily absorbable form. Such mineral drinks usually contain glucose or other sources of carbohydrates, but they are also available without sugar. The composition differs greatly depending on the product. This also applies to energy drinks, which often contain caffeine, vitamins, colorings, and sweeteners in addition to a lot of sugar. They are generally not recommended as sports drinks.
How should a good sports drink be composed?
According to nutrition experts, only 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrates and, depending on sweat production, 400 to 1000 milligrams of sodium are required as ingredients. You don’t necessarily have to buy a powder or concentrate for this, you can make your own sports drinks: simply mix two parts mineral water with one part apple juice and add a pinch of table salt if the water is low in sodium. After training, you can draw from the full and mixed vitamin-rich sports drinks: Our power drinks recipes provide you with suggestions for delicious mixtures. Strength athletes should not forget a sufficient protein content in order to achieve optimal muscle growth and accelerate muscle regeneration.
How much and when should you drink while exercising?
With loads of up to an hour, the body can normally do without liquid intake. Exception: It is very hot or you drank very little before training. For training sessions lasting several hours, you should start drinking before you get thirsty. How to avoid dehydration. However, don’t drink gallons of water or you’ll flush too much sodium out of your body. This in turn can have a performance-reducing effect. Too many sports drinks can be poorly tolerated and lead to stomach problems.
