Sport Drinks – More Effective Energy To Stay In The Game

Sports drinks in themselves are available from a range of manufacturers.  And for every brand of sport drink, there are a multitude of flavors, colors, formulas and buzz names that driven more by marketing hype than substance.  This only makes it harder to make an educated decision on which is actually best for you.

When you choose a sport drink over any other of countless bottled beverages, you are probably making the choice for more efficient physical restoration and endurance, and for a boost of energy to get through a workout, a game, or just to help you face a demanding day.

If your goal is just to stay hydrated, water will accomplish that just as well, if not better than most sport drinks; so don’t fall for any claims of “superior” or “enhanced” hydration.  Beverage companies love to use that as a selling point, but real athletes know that sport drinks are ultimately not about quenching thirst.  When it comes to simple hydration, no one drink will accomplish that any faster or better than another when compared pure water, filtered from the tap.  Sport drinks are effective for restoration of essentials and boosting energy.  Replacing essentials and refueling are the real factors that should play into your choice.

Sugar – High sugar sport drinks are not your friends.  The problem is that the majority of household-name sport drinks are loaded with sugar; some even contain more than a 12oz. can soda.  Have you ever considered grabbing a can of soda for an extended workout or before or after a long practice?  If you have, you’re not doing yourself any favors.  That’s because high levels of sugar result in an accelerated sugar rush, quickly followed by a crash, which is the last thing any athlete or fitness-focused individual wants.  There are also the potential long-term ramifications of excess sugar, which include diabetes, weight gain and high blood pressure.  Excess sugar intake is a great way to turn your body against you.

Caffeine – Highly caffeinated sports drinks provide similar downfalls as high sugar sport drinks.  While caffeine will provide that accelerated energy boost that sugar will without the calories, it will also result in an impending and hard crash.   If you workout or play late in the day, a caffeinated sports drink can also easily prevent you from getting a good night’s rest, which is just as essential for staying active and fit.

Electrolytes – If you’re getting a decent workout, your body is generating heat.  Your body will sweat in response as a natural cooling function.  Sweating is imperative to prevent overheating and maintain body function, but it’s no so great for maintaining electrolytes.  Electrolytes are important to maintain basic cell function, and are present in most of your bodily fluids.  A good sport drink will contain sufficient electrolyte quantities in order to restore what is lost naturally through sweat.  Maintaining adequate electrolyte levels will enable better cell function, which is needed for muscle endurance, among other bodily capabilities.

Carbohydrates – Carbohydrates are an essential energy source for your body.  Calories from carbohydrates fuel the body and are burnt off from activity.  Like electrolytes, carbohydrates must be maintained at adequate levels so the body can fuel basic function.  Serious athletes must restore carbohydrates before and/or after a workout for the sake of naturally maintaining and boosting energy, rather than the simulated method that results from excess sugar and caffeine.

Using this information when selecting a sport drink can help you make a better choice, and prevent you from relying on a product that can ultimately betray your performance and body.    Remember, the more educated you are as an athlete and a consumer, the more manufacturers will understand the importance of supplying a more effective sports drink that benefits you naturally.

Sport Drinks – Are They Important

When an athlete has been training or after they have taken part in a competition, they will require a sport drink in order to rehydrate their bodies. It will also act to restore any loss of electrolytes, carbohydrates or other nutrients that may have been lost during the intensive activity. This is very important in order for the body to function properly and continue performing. The replacement of electrolytes and water is of particular importance as this helps the body get the required rehydration that it needs. By doing this, it will help delay muscle fatigue. Equally important are carbohydrates, which are used mainly as fuel for the body’s exercising muscles.

Let us look more closely at how the nutrients in a sport drink can help restore the body’s balances:

The human body can become dehydrated in a number of ways. They can be caused through diarrhea, vomiting, starvation, excessive drinking or from exercises. Athletes who are continuously exercising their body through sports can risk dehydration through sweating if they do not rehydrate their system. This is the reason why a sport drink is very important, as it rehydrates and replenishes lost electrolytes in the body. These sport drinks will include minerals such as magnesium, calcium, sodium fluoride and potassium. If they are unable to obtain a sport drink, they can also provide replenishment through homemade substitutes.

Carbohydrates form an important part of the ingredients in a sport drink. They help to replenish the loss of carbohydrates that occur during intense exercises. This is because the body will burn carbohydrates at a rate of 3 to 4 g per minute. Therefore, if an athleteís training lasts for over two hours, they would lose a very large portion of their carbohydrates. If this is not replenished, their performance will start to deteriorate from a lack of energy. Another reason why a sport drink is very effective, is that most athletes will not eat before starting an intensive sport, and the only way they can obtain the carbohydrates is through a sport drink taken before, during or after the event.

Making sure that the athlete’s body receives these replenishing fluids quickly will depend on two main factors. The first being how quickly the sport drink is emptied out of the athletes stomach, and the second will depend on the small intestines rate of absorption. This is where the different types of sport drinks will be effective by quickly or slowly replenishing the nutrients. This is because they will have different concentrations of sugars and salt. There are three major types of sport drinks, which are isotonic, hypertonic and hypotonic. A fluidís osmolality can be measured by the number of particles in a solution. When it comes to blood plasma, it will have a number of different particles such as glucose, proteins and sodium, while at the same time, it has an osmolality of between 282- 330 Osm/Kg. Therefore, if you replenish your body with drinks that have a similar level of osmolality, it is called an isotonic fluid. This means that once it has emptied from the stomach, it will get absorbed by the small intestine at the same rate as water. Isotonic sports drinks typically contain between 6% and 8% carbohydrate levels.

In sports drinks that are hypertonic, the concentrations of sugar and salt will be higher than that of the human body and will cause the stomach to empty at a much faster rate. It will also increase the absorption rate of the small intestine. This happens as a result of higher levels of electrolytes, in particular from the sodium and potassium, which will reduce the body’s output of urine.

Sport Drinks – Hypotonic Sports Drinks

Lastly, hypotonic sports drinks would have sugar and salt concentrations that are lower than the human body, and will be effective for less strenuous exercises where the body has not dehydrated too much. This is particularly useful for those situations where fluids have been lost through sweating and the athlete only needs to replenish lost electrolytes without too much concern for carbohydrates.

If you try to replenish a dehydrated body with a low osmolality fluid such as water, it will cause the osmolality in blood plasma to decrease. This will in turn reduce the athleteís thirst, preventing them from drinking enough fluid to replace that which the body has lost. This situation is also known as water intoxication, and it is extremely rare. To avoid this, many manufacturers of sports drinks will use a similar ratio of electrolytes and replenishing fluids that are found in the body. It is very important to make sure that you know whether the sport drink is isotonic or hypotonic. This is so that you are not consuming large amounts of fluid that have very low concentrations of electrolytes, which would lead to water intoxication.

The reason why sports drinks are more effective at hydrating your body, when in reality they do not hydrate better than water, is because you will drink larger volumes from a sport drink then you would from water. This is because the sport drink has a sweet flavor that is more appealing, and it will not quench your thirst, driving you to drink more. In the case of water, it is very bland and after drinking small amounts, it loses its appeal, and at the same time, is more effective at quenching your thirst. Unfortunately, athletes stop drinking water before their bodies are able to be replenished simply because their thirst gets quenched too fast. Because sports drinks have such an appealing flavor, they are able to be more effective and replenishing an athleteís body.

There are many manufacturers and brands of energy drinks that you can find in your local food stores and health shops. Each brand will have its own benefits, but in general, most of these sports drinks will have a concentration of carbohydrates that range between 5 to 7%. It is advisable that you drink a sport drink before doing any exercises so that your electrolyte levels do not drop too low from sweat that is lost when exercising. You can also replenish yourself during and after training by drinking one of the top sports drinks.