Sports Drinks and Your Workout
July 6, 2009 by Kris Jones
Filed under Weight Lifting
Today’s blog involves two very important and common questions involving sports drinks.
Should you choose Gatorade, Powerade, Vitamin Water, or another sports drink over water for your workout?
It depends on your workout intensity. If you’re involved in a very intense workout for over 45 minutes, you should have a sports drink because your body is losing electrolytes (sodium, potassium, carbs, etc.) The amount you drink should be around 25 ounces per hour of high intensity workout.
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Which sports drink is the best?
I’m not going to name names but rather ingredients. The key is to look for 15 grams of carbs (sugars) and 100 milligrams of sodium per 8 ounces. This will give you the energy needed for your muscles for up to 2 hours of high intensity exercise.
I like to integrate water and sports drink if I have them available. Too much sports drink makes me feel “water logged” because I did to ingest a lot of liquids when working out. I try to ration as much as I can but when I’m thirsty, I have a hard time trying to limit my liquids. My favorite sports drink is red or dark blue Gatorade. Orange and yellow aren’t bad either.
