Self Help

An important part of staying in top condition so that you can perform well is keeping your body fluid level up.

As you exercise, your internal body temperature increases. This triggers your body to release internal fluid through your sweat glands. As your perspiration evaporates it takes heal along with it, so that it can cool your body down.

This internal temperature regulatory system is extremely important to your health. However, if you lose too much fluid you can encounter problems. If you are doing a lot of exercise you can actually lose three quarts or more of fluid per hour. The more fluid you lose, the more your performance will decrease.

Losing too much fluid will place a strain upon your cardiovascular system, thus causing you to become dizzy, have muscle cramps, and in extreme conditions you may even suffer from heat stroke.

Professional guidelines suggest that you replace water and electrolytes (sodium, potassium and others) on a regular basis by drinking a sports drink before, during and after you exercise. Of course, the proper amount of sports drink is going to vary based upon your body weight and type, how much you sweat, your external temperature, as well as some other variables. Following are some suggestions about the type and amount of sports drink you should be drinking.

A couple of hours before you begin your workout you should drink about 18oz of sports drink. Then, 15 minutes before you start warming up you should drink another 18oz. For every hour that you workout you should drink 30oz of a sports drink. Finally, after you cool-down you should drink another 20 oz.

You should avoid drinks that have caffeine in them whenever you are re-hydrating. This is because they have a diuretic effect. It is also a bad idea to consume alcohol for the first couple of hours after you workout. They not only have a lot of calories but they also disrupt your body and keep it from cooling down properly.

Sports drinks that contain a high amount of sugar are also not a good idea since you do not want to replace all of the calories that you just burned with sugar. Furthermore, too much sugar will cause your cardiovascular regulation to become unbalanced. Therefore, you should go easy on soft drinks (even those that are labeled “diet”) and concentrated fruit juices right after you exercise.

What you want to look for are drinks that replace magnesium (~100mg per liter), sodium and potassium. These elements are important for proper heart function and for regulating cellular electrical activity.

Isotonic drinks have been designed so that they closely match your body’s natural concentrations of the necessary minerals, vitamins and enzymes. This makes these drinks easier to absorb. As such, they are an excellent choice after you exercise.

Make sure that you maintain proper fluid regulation. This is important for your overall health, as well as for avoiding medical problems and maintaining peak performance.