Sports drinks have established a dominating position in the exercise world for decades. Proper hydration is not a new concept to any sort of activity, but ever since enhancement drinks were introduced there has been a debate over whether or not sports drink are superior to regular water for overall athletic performances. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on media advertisements alone to promote the use of rehydrating sports drinks. And the celebrities who endorse them further pushes the belief that such drinks must be more replenishing than plain old water. However, there are many aspects to take into consideration when determining if these types of drinks will actually be beneficial to an individual. Each person has different water
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During an extended time, your body goes through various stages of energy use and, typically, anytime after a strenuous hour of physical activity, your muscle and liver glycogen stores start to become depleted and sports drinks come in to help. After this time of prolonged vigorous training, water and the body’s ability to retain it are critical. The body losses water through perspiration and sweating, which contains salts, that is important to maintaining fluid. Because of that, if a person drinks only water after exercising half of the volume would be lost in the urine (Meier). Sports beverages provide fluids with carbohydrate, sodium, and electrolytes that can delay fatigue, enhance palatability of fluids, and promote fluid retention. Yet, those who completely rely on it risk the unfavorable effects it has to the body with its extra calories and less nutritional value than water. Hydration is always a key factor during and after workouts, but for the average workout of less than one hour, the need for anything other than water is unnecessary. Any individual during this time do not require the need to replace losses of sodium, potassium, and electrolytes because of the unlikely depletion of these stores in a short time. The fluid lost during this can be easily replaced by water, because of its purity, to help the appropriate places like muscle and
During an extended time, your body goes through various stages of energy use and, typically, anytime after a strenuous hour of physical activity, your muscle and liver glycogen stores start to become depleted and sports drinks come in to help. After this time of prolonged vigorous training, water and the body’s ability to retain it are critical. The body losses water through perspiration and sweating, which contains salts, that is important to maintaining fluid. Because of that, if a person drinks only water after exercising half of the volume would be lost in the urine (Meier). Sports beverages provide fluids with carbohydrate, sodium, and electrolytes that can delay fatigue, enhance palatability of fluids, and promote fluid retention. Yet, those who completely rely on it risk the unfavorable effects it has to the body with its extra calories and less nutritional value than water. Hydration is always a key factor during and after workouts, but for the average workout of less than one hour, the need for anything other than water is unnecessary. Any individual during this time do not require the need to replace losses of sodium, potassium, and electrolytes because of the unlikely depletion of these stores in a short time. The fluid lost during this can be easily replaced by water, because of its purity, to help the appropriate places like muscle and