As my first blog it will be longer than most, but I wanted to give y’all some background on what I am about. Sports nutrition is an area of health that oddly has been neglected by trainers, media, and practitioners. I assume this is because athletes have always gone under the assumption that the need lots of fuel and can get it from anywhere they want because they train too much to get fat. While this is often true, its not about getting fat, its about giving your body the best sources of nutrients available and gaining the nutritional advantage over everyone else eating power bars, gels, gummies, Gatorade, and all the other crap that most athletes put in their bodies while they train.
This blog is centered around sports nutrition, but will also include random thoughts that I encounter as well as other things I feel are worthy of sharing about nutrition, and all that goes with it. Today’s post is based around electrolytes and why they are important for training.
Sports drinks are a necessity for endurance athletes and for training sessions lasting over an hour. The reason being; sports drinks deliver water, minerals, vitamins, and energy to an athlete’s rapidly depleting stores during exercise. As we begin to sweat we begin to lose our ability to perform because of the loss of electrolytes that takes place over extended periods of training. What are electrolytes? Electrolytes are ions in your body that function to carry impulses across cell membranes to other cells, which are necessary for your body to perform its functions.
There are 3 main electrolytes consisting of Potassium, Sodium, and Chloride, most of your sports drinks contain a combination of these electrolytes, which help the body perform several functions during workouts. These include; fluid absorption to keep hydrated, improving performance b providing the body with efficient fuel, and maintaining blood volume in the body.
Sports drinks are important and should be a part of any workout lasting an hour or longer, as your body can operate of carbohydrate stores for shorter workouts, but most drinks on the market are HFCS and water with some minerals added. Instead of the traditional drinks on the market try coconut water or a home recipe in the future. Coconut water contains high levels of potassium, iron, and calcium as well as 100% natural sugars. Another option that is my go to drink right now, is water, a tablespoon or so of honey, which is loaded with vitamins, minerals, and high quality sugar, and then a few teaspoons of Himalayan salt for the sodium, and other trace minerals. Get creative and see what works for you, but please try and wean off of the commercial drinks, when you train you need the best fuel available and HFCS simply is not it.
Have a great week, and check back next week for a new post.
A few last things, this is my first one of these deals, so I may post more frequent, and will most likely waver from only talking about sports nutrition because sometimes I think other things are important too.
