Adapting to High-Heat and High-Intensity Workouts

An athlete must gradually adapt to high heat and humidity. When exposed to these conditions it is important to understand that "being thirsty" may not necessarily be the only sign that the young athlete's body is becoming dehydrated.

Have your body adapt to the weather conditions - The human body needs time to become acclimated to increased high temperatures and high humidity. This is even truer when it comes to the young athlete who is pushing his or her body to the limit to perform well.

Drinking fluid regularly - It is of utmost importance that drinking water before becoming thirsty is explained and implemented with young athletes. Parents and coaches should be encourage their children to drink before, during and after practice and games

Know the signs of dehydration - A young athlete that becomes fatigued or dizzy, and feels nauseous during exercise in high heat and humidity should be immediately told to stop rest and drink a sports drink like Vitalyte or water.

Make sure you have plenty of the PROPER fluids - There are many different brands of sports drinks available on the market today. Make sure you purchase the best one that will replace minerals, oxygen saturation and electrolytes to keep the young athletes safe and performing at their best. One recommendation is a popular sports drink called Vitalyte.

Sports Drinks Really Can Promote Miracles

What are the best fluids to consume for maintaining optimal water balance? The general rule of thumb is low intensity exercises like walking in mild weather calls for water only. When exercise demand is increased to moderate levels, sports drinks like Vitalyte are recommended for peak health fitness and performance. When your exercise demands are very high, sports drinks such as Vitalyte are the optimal hydration fuel. Sports drinks are comprised of a small amount of carbohydrates, electrolytes, and flavor enhancers. Thus, the higher the exercise intensity, duration, environmental conditions, and sweat rate, the more concentrated fluid is needed for replenishment. Not all hydration products are created equal. So pick the ones for the proper exercise demands, and sweat loss. Your goals should be to only replace the fluid lost. Don't over saturate yourself with fluids.


Health fitness and performance can be improved as long as you follow such simple, yet powerful, things as optimal water balance. By focusing on your hydration you can assure yourself that you are putting forth your best fitness workout performance. Drink up, and watch your results skyrocket.

A Few Strategies to Stay Hydrated

So how do you maintain optimal hydration during workout sessions? Below I have listed the top strategies to maintain optimal hydration, thus, improving your health fitness and performance.

1. Make sure you are sufficiently hydrated with Vitalyte prior to beginning your fitness workout. A real good rule of thumb is to observe the color of your urine. If your urine is dark like apple juice, you are not adequately hydrated. Very white, like water, is a sign of over hydration. However, if your urine is pale, not dark, you are most likely in water balance.

2. During exercise, pay close attention to the amount of fluid you lose. It is important to replace lost fluids during the fitness training session. Yes, you can wait until after exercise, but your health fitness and performance will thank you if you consume fluids while training.

3. Don't wait until you get thirsty. I recommend consuming a small amount of fluids prior to, during, and following intense physical activity. Your body-weight should be close to the same before, during, and after workouts.

4. The higher the exercise workout intensity, and duration, the more fluids are required for hydration. Pay close attention to your perspiration rate, and the certain weather conditions that promote greater perspiration.

Don't Get Dehydrated...Hydrate With Vitalyte!

Health fitness and performance is generally what the average fitness minded participant seeks. With that in mind, there is a very simple strategy you can use to help maximize fitness performance. After all, don't you want to get the best result from your invested time? This simple sports nutrition strategy promotes optimal hydration.

Studies reveal that 46% of fitness participants do not practice optimal hydration. The fitness participants who are not sufficiently hydrated are more likely to have health fitness and performance challenges. That is, they simply are not able to exercise at the same efficiency level someone who is optimally hydrated can. What suffers most is intensity, and duration of exercise training.

Some researchers suggest those constantly operating out of hydration balance may show a greater risk of kidney stones, infections, cancer, and other unpleasant diseases. Among all these particular health consequences there is also a decrease in athletic performance which leads to rather poor physical fitness results.

Are you drinking enough fluid to positively alter your health fitness and performance? The average sedentary human being drinks about 16 cups (men), and 11 cups (women) of fluid each day. Now the keyword here is sedentary. If you are an exercise workout warrior training at high levels of intensity, in a hot environment, you will most definitely need to keep an close eye on your hydration. According to current research studies, sedentary people have a tendency to receive enough fluid. It is the exercise participants who are really the ones at risk.

How to Define an Interval

Anthropology teaches us that each group or sub-culture on this planet has its unique customs, greetings, languages and even style of dress. Now that I have joined the wacky ranks of the running community I am finding this to be very true.

My first exposure to the language of runners was a term Carol, my running coach casually called “interval”. My naïve response was , “What the heck is an interval”?

You know that sadistic look people get in their eye when they know something you don’t and that knowledge usually has something to do with you curled up in the fetal position? Well, that is the look I got from Carol. That look was answer enough to making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and make me start to question my desire to become a runner.

Interval training, as she explained it, is bursts of intense exercise followed by periods of moderate rest. Translation: Run till you feel like you’re going to yack, and then walk it off.

So this was day 1 running. As I mentioned in my last blog, I will be running a 5k in December and then hopefully a 10k in January or February. As this is my first day and running is not something I have ever done before, I’m trying to figure out what would be a good time for a first 5k.

Sports Drinks vs Energy Drinks

Sports drinks and energy drinks

Sports drinks are the best thing to water for their hydration and performance-boosting benefits. In general, sports drinks provide an athlete with the following benefits: they hydrate your body, provide you with a quick boost of energy from the quick-burning carbohydrates in the mix, and finally, replenish your potassium and sodium stores needed for muscle contraction through the electrolytes.

With many brands of sports drinks out there, many softball players often ask which brand provides the best benefits. The truth is that behind all the marketing hype and other additional products, Vitalyte performs the best.

Then there's also the wide use of energy drinks among athletes. Some people find it surprising, even shocking, that kids as young as eight drink these as substitute for water, but what's even more surprising is that many athletes do the same thing.

Energy drinks only work as a stimulant, giving players a temporary mental and physical boost, and nothing more than that. In fact, energy drinks can also work as a diuretic, meaning they can actually make you lose body water a lot faster. Therefore, energy drinks are a pretty bad substitute to water, even to energy drinks, when it comes to keeping your body well-hydrated.


So if given a choice between sports drinks and energy drinks, opt to drink a sports drink instead. It provides you with real benefits when it comes to you game, not just keep you alert and awake.

Hydration for Your Body's Nutrition

Endurance Sports Nutrition Tip - Hydrate Yourself

1. Start the day with a full tank of liquid.

Athletes don't eat during a game. But they do drink water and sports drinks like Vitalyte. Studies show, of which common people now know, that humans can last a month without eating but will die immediately without water for 3 days to one week. That is how important water is to our body.

Many people die of diarrhea because of dehydration. Hydration is an important nutrition component to humans, most especially to athletes involved in endurance sports. So the endurance sports nutrition tip from athletes and trainers: drink lots of water before the game.

Hydration is the key to winning endurance sports competition. And drinking water and Vitalyte before the game starts puts you in a great headstart.

2. Hydrate yourself regularly during the game.

Drink often during the game. Most endurance sports nutrition guide books will tell you the same thing. Athletes in endurance sports sweat off two quarts of water per hour especially in hot and humid weather. So, you must drink at least four up to eight ounces of water every fifteen to twenty minutes. Sports drink may also replace water.


Here's some tip that endurance sports nutrition guide books may not have told you: to know when it is time to gulp on your water or sports drink bottle, set your timer to alarm every 15 or 20 minutes within 24 hours.

Freeze your drinking bottles and then pack them up in insulated foams to keep it cool. Even if you don't sweat still do gulp down the liquid in your drinking bottle. You may not know it and may not notice it but you may have sweat more than you think of.