|
Category Sitemaps
Diet
Food
Calories
Exercise
Losing weight
Diet pills
Weight loss help |
Sports Drinks, Hydration
and Energy
For any person, staying
hydrated is very important. After all, the body is made up mostly of water.
If you don't replace it when it's lost, it can cause a major problem. So,
for athletes and serious exercisers, hydration becomes an even more constant
issue. For many people, sports drinks seem like the simple answer. To
understand whether or not sports drinks really work and, if so, how they
work, there are some things that you need to
understand about your body,
though.
Sweating:
The first thing you need to know is how sweating works. Sweat is the way
that our bodies regulate their inner temperatures. If we didn't sweat, we'd
leave ourselves wide open for heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
As we all know, intense exercise makes us
sweat more. What are we actually
sweating out, though?
Well, yes, there is some water loss when we sweat. For athletes and exercise
fiends, though, it's also all about the electrolytes. Electrolytes are a
series of minerals that are also lost through sweating. There are many of
them, but a few of the ones you might recognize include
calcium,
magnesium
and potassium.
The Problem With Water:
A lot of people drink regular water to re-hydrate their bodies. While it's
great to make the effort to stay hydrated, the problem with plain
water is
that it doesn't contain those vital electrolytes. If you don't replenish
those electrolytes, you leave yourself just as open to heat exhaustion and
heat stroke anyway. That's where sports drinks can come in handy.
Sports Versus Energy:
Before we can talk about how sports drinks help with electrolyte levels, as
well as energy, we have to make a distinction. That distinction is between
sports drinks and energy drinks. Energy drinks can better be defined as
high-caffeine drinks. They're full of sugar, caffeine and other
stimulants.
Those stimulants can cause a burst of energy, sure, but they come with many
problems.
First of all, energy drinks aren't useful to drink during a
run or a work
out routine because they can take two to four hours to have any effects at
all on your energy levels. Also, though, most energy drinks are diuretics.
In other words, they pull water out of your body more than they put it in.
That can be inconvenient, since you may have to stop mid-workout to go to
the bathroom. It can also be dangerous, though, since it can cause a very
bad case of dehydration.
Sports drinks, on the other hand, are made up of much more useful
components. For example, they can contain potassium,
sodium and
carbohydrates (depending on the type of sports drink it is). Carbohydrates
are essential many athletes, since they help with
energy conversion to keep
your body fueled during the day. That's why some athletes choose to
eat
foods that contain carbs before a race.
The Three Types of Sports Drinks:
There are three main types of sports drinks available to you. They're known
as hypotonic, hypertonic and isotonic drinks. Isotonic drinks contain high
levels of carbohydrates. So, they'd be great for the athletes mentioned
above. Certain athletes don't need as many
carbs, though. Jockeys, for
instance, don't need as much of a carb boost. So, hypertonic sports drinks
would be fine for them. The third type is hypertonic sports drinks.
Hypertonic sports drinks are useful for long events, like marathons.
However, they should be used along with isotonic sports drinks for the best
results.
When To Use Sports Drinks:
The final question is when do you use sports drinks? Think of them, mainly
anyway, as a preventative measure. You should try to drink a good amount before your
workout. You can also take small
sips as you work out, in order to replace liquids lost during the exercise
routine. However, the exact amounts that you need are going to vary a bit,
depending on how intense your exercise routine actually is. A weight lifter,
for example, is going to need a different amount from a marathon runner. The
runner, in turn, is going to need a different amount from someone who is
just going for a short walk on a
treadmill in their living room. So, you
should talk to your doctor or personal
trainer about the right sports drinks
and the right amounts of those drinks to keep your body hydrated and your
energy stores stocked.
The Effects of Training Hard When
Exercising
You must seek approval from your doctor
before starting any new diet.
Please read our
Terms!
|
|
