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 drinks 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.

Choosing a Sports Drink like Vitalyte?

When working out especially, it’s important to stay hydrated. Water is the obvious choice here, but there are also a lot of sports drinks and supplements available.

Sports drinks have become very popular lately and with the rise of athletic endorsements and commercials it has defiantly had a huge impact on the way we hydrate ourselves. The great thing about sports drinks is that most of the elements to replenish your electrolytes are present, and they taste great. The downfall is that there is also sugar present in these drinks and some exercisers might think that they are doing their body good by drinking these drinks when really they are taking a step back in their fitness journey.

Replenish Your Electrolytes Fast

When do we lose our Electrolytes ?

The most common way to lose our electrolytes is as simple as standing in the sun all day, or doing a vigorous exercise. Any time we sweat we are losing electrolytes. To replace these electrolytes we must take food, drinks or supplements .

So many people out there know of sodium and chloride being among the most important electrolytes, however don't think that by putting salt all over your food will be the only way to properly replenish your electrolytes.

We must take a look at other elements such as Calcium, Magnesium, Potassium and Phosphate which are present in most common sports drinks and supplements. These sports drinks are widely available and can work to replenish your electrolytes. Supplements out there also contain these elements to replenish your electrolytes and are often more organic and natural and can also assist your body in many other different ways.

Why Stay Hydrated?

o Without adequate hydration your body will not effectively metabolize or absorb food nutrients. Water is what carries the majority of food-based nutrients into the blood stream.

o Optimal physical and mental processes are impaired due to lack of oxygen when the body is in any state of dehydration. This is to say that water tends to be the delivery system for oxygen carried in the blood stream. When hydration is not at its peak the body will have a decreased capacity for oxygen transport, resulting in diminished performance.

o Optimal muscle recovery is impaired due to hydration levels that are below the ideal level. Protein synthesis resulting in post activity muscle repair and growth is impaired by the oxygen and nutrients lacking during a state of diminished hydration.

o If you dehydrate a muscle by as little as 3%, you can cause a loss in contractile strength of about 10%, not to mention an 8% loss in speed.

An Electrolyte Balance

The term electrolyte refers to the various salts in the body, which are comprised of cations (positively charged) and anions (negatively charged), collectively known as ions. These ions are distributed throughout the fluid compartments of the body, where they regulate the electrical functions of the body, such as the central nervous system, cardiac muscle contraction, skeletal muscle contraction and neural function etc.

Sodium Chloride and Potassium Bicarbonate are examples of two of the most common salts used by your body to regulate your electrolyte balance. The following is a breakdown of how these salts are separated within the body for electrical function.

Sodium Chloride - (This Salt Is An Electrolyte That Is Mainly Extra Cellular)

Sodium = Positively Charged Extra Cellular Ion (Cation)

Chloride = Negatively Charged Extra Cellular Ion (Anion)

Potassium Bicarbonate - (This Salt Is An Electrolyte That Is Mainly Intra Cellular)

Potassium = Positively Charged Intra Cellular Ion (Cation)

Bicarbonate = Negatively Charged Intra Cellular Ion (Anion)

Extreme examples of what can happen with an imbalance of electrolytes include cardiac arrhythmia (due to elevated potassium levels) or paralysis (in the case of decreased intra cellular potassium levels), while excessive extra cellular sodium levels can lead to nausea and fluid retention.

Electrolytes = A Great Body

Most of us know that drinking water is important for staying in good shape. However, I know a lot of people that worry about drinking too much water and eliminating excess natural salt from their body when they have to rush to the washroom every 30 minutes.

Now it is possible to drink too much water, if you consume gallons per day and cut all the salt out of your diet, though this is not a likely situation for most people. All things considered then, what exactly is the right amount of water, how do we keep our electrolyte levels balanced in the process and what are the benefits of all this?

Maintaining and restoring electrolyte balance is best done through consuming unprocessed foods, with natural salt levels, and high potassium foods, such as bananas, kiwi, oranges, peaches, potatoes, dried beans, tomatoes, and wheat bran.

Sports Drinks Give Electrolytes AND Water

Not only do certain sports drinks provide you with adequate amounts of the most important electrolytes, they also provide water necessary for rehydration. Sodium and chloride are the minerals you lose most through sweat. Ensuring your sports drink includes sodium chloride in addition to other electrolytes such as potassium chloride, magnesium and calcium, helps take the guesswork out of consuming the necessary amounts of electrolytes.

As a rule of thumb, typical athletes should be consuming 4-8 fluid ounces of water every 20 minutes. Factors that influence your fluid intake are body mass, your body's tolerance, how hot it is and your sweat rate. What you want to consider is the amount of sodium in your chosen sports drink. The normal range is approximately 20-60mg per 100ml, and is vital when participating in any physical activity lasting more than one hour.