Sports Recovery Drinks–When is Water Not Enough?

Is your body getting enough fluid during your workout? And is water enough or should you be drinking sports recovery drinks? Weigh yourself before and after a workout, whatever weight you’ve lost during sports participation is all body fluid that needs to be replaced. Sweat losses of as little as 2 percent of body weight, (or 3 pounds for an average 150 pound person) can dramatically hurt your sports performance. In fact, dehydration is far more likely to slow you down than energy loss, making fluid intake, either by drinking water and/or sports recovery drinks more important than carbo-loading – and also easier.

Our brains are made up of roughly 80% water.  So doesn’t it make sense that if they were lacking in water it’s not going to function property?

You bet, at the first sign of feeling thirsty, dehydration has already started. And by then, your mental performances have decreased, you are starting to feel sleepy and irritable, not to mention you are distracted with your feelings of thirst.

When Should You Be Drinking Sports Recovery Drinks?

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A study by Dr. Jack Wilmore, an sports physiologist at the University of Texas, concluded that for sport workouts of less than an hour, nothing beats water. But if you’re working out for more than an hour, sports recovery drinks with electrolytes (sports nutritional drinks such as Gatorade or Powerade) are absorbed into the bloodstream more quickly than water therefore enabling a quicker recovery.

Sports recovery drinks are easy enough to find. Electrolyte replacing drinks have made their way from health-food and sporting-goods stores to your local corner store.  During and after a long run, Gatorade and Powerade are the sports recovery drinks that that I prefer. I usually drink Gatorade at half strength and I like how many flavors they have to choose from.  When I like the taste of what I am drinking, it prompts me to drink more without having to really think about it. By drinking Gatorade, I’ve notice a definite improvement during the latter half of a two hour plus run.

Dehydration Facts:

75 percent of North Americans are chronically dehydrated – mainly because your body is low on water long before your thirst response alerts you to drink. In other words, if you are thirsty, you are probably already dehydrated, so drink before you are thirsty.

The thirst mechanism often gets mistaken for hunger.

Were you aware that mild dehydration will slow down your metabolism by as much as 3 percent? The less you drink the slower you will burn those calories.

And a mere 2 percent drop in body fluids can trigger:

• fuzzy short-term memory,
• trouble with basic math; and
• difficulty focusing on the computer screen or a printed page

Here are five ways to make sure you’re drinking enough:

1. During sports, in particular running, you can sweat off 6 to 8 ounces of fluid every 15 minutes. At minimum take a healthy sip every 15 minutes.
2. Want to be more precise? Weigh yourself before and after sports. Each pound lost is 16 ounces of water loss. Next time, drink at least that much from your water bottle.
3. Pre-Hydrate. Drink 32 ounces or more of water during the two hours before sports and drink 16 ounces immediately before.
4. Drink before you’re thirsty. The thirst response comes only after your body already needs water.
5. Nutritional-replacement (sports recovery drinks)? Not necessary during workouts under an hour. But if you are pounding the pavement for a workout longer than an hour, bring the sports recovery drinks with you.  This will help replace those lost electrolytes and aid in a faster recovery from the strains of your workout.

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