Drinking enough water each day helps your body regulate its temperature, keeps your muscles resilient, and helps your cells, organs, and tissues perform at their optimal levels. Adding electrolytes to your water is an easy way to get more out of your water and add refreshing flavor.
Electrolytes are perfect for helping you prepare for – and recover from – sweaty workouts, outdoor activities, or just an overall active lifestyle. Simply pour a packet of the electrolytes into 16 ounces of water, shake until the electrolytes are fully dissolved, and you’re good to go!
What are electrolytes?
Quick chemistry lesson. Electrolytes are positively and negatively charged ions that conduct your body’s electrical activity. They balance your body’s pH levels, move nutrients into your cells, move waste out of your cells, and help your muscles, heart, and brain perform the way they should.
If you have too few electrolytes in your body, you’ll likely feel dehydrated, your muscles may cramp and tighten, and your risk of injury increases. Keeping your electrolytes in check helps you make the most out of every workout, recover more quickly, increase your longevity, and stay injury free!
How to use electrolytes:
We recommend taking electrolytes before, during, and after exercising – and any other time that you need an extra boost of hydration throughout the day. The amount of electrolytes you need will likely vary by your activity level as well. That’s why you’ll need to replenish your electrolytes more often when the weather is warmer.
We recommend drinking a minimum of half your body weight (in pounds) in fluid ounces of water a day (example: 80 ounces of water per day for a 160lb man) – and you can stretch your hydration further by adding an electrolyte supplement to your water.
Before Exercise:
How you prepare for exercise is just as important as how you recover. In order to get your body ready to perform its best, we suggest taking a serving of electrolytes 30-60 minutes before beginning your workout. Hydrating before your workout helps get blood moving throughout your body and prepares your muscles for exertion.
While it’s important to hydrate before all workouts, you’ll want to make especially sure to use electrolytes if you’re doing a longer workout (over an hour) or working out when it’s hot.
During Exercise:
As you exercise, your body loses water and sodium ions. Although you don’t need to chug water throughout the workout, it’s smart to have some electrolytes on hand and take periodic small sips of water.
As you sweat, your body needs to replenish the electrolytes it loses. The salt and carbohydrates from the electrolytes help you maintain your energy throughout the workout.
By drinking electrolytes as you workout, you’ll also keep your muscles resilient, maintain your performance from beginning to end, increase your overall blood flow, and decrease your odds of feeling lightheaded or nauseous.
After Exercise
Recovery is a key element of maintaining an active lifestyle. Once you finish a workout, you should move quickly to replenish the electrolytes and liquids you lost during your workout. Through replenishing the electrolytes your body lost, your muscles will recover faster and you’ll build up strength more quickly.
We also love having a post-workout smoothie chock full of electrolytes and nutrient-dense foods—banana, spinach, raspberry, and vanilla plant-based protein smoothie anyone?
Whatever you’re up to this summer, make sure to keep your electrolytes nearby, and #KEEPGOING!
