When you start in the fitness world, it can often feel overwhelming. At the gym, you see people training as hard as you can imagine, while also seeing people taking all kinds of supplements, pills and powders. You start wondering if you should be doing the same, and kind of feel weird when you arrive at the gym with just a towel and a water bottle…
Well, today you will understand why some people drink different things other than water when training, and whether or not you should be doing the same. Let’s discuss what to drink during training.
Cover the basics before supplementing
Hydration is key when doing any kind of physical exercise. When you’re dehydrated, your endurance reduces significantly, your motor and cognitive skills are affected, and you feel discomfort. It’s very easy to dehydrate when doing exercises, as you’re losing water and electrolytes by sweating.
So, as with everything in the fitness world, what you drink to fight dehydration will depend on certain things. The most crucial one is how long your training will take.
If you’re doing moderate exercise
If you’re training for a short amount of time (30 to 60 min), with moderate intensity, and favorable weather conditions, then you’re more than fine with just water. If it’s cold or room temperature it’s up to you.
For intense exercise during longer times
If your training is high-intensity and takes a longer time (more than 1 hour) then you’ll be losing way more electrolytes. To keep up with your training, a drink that helps you recover those electrolytes is the best option, and you can still have water to calm down your thirst.
For exercise that takes longer than two hours
During such prolonged workouts, your body’s glycogen levels drop, because you’ve been using them as energy. To keep up, your body needs carbs to convert into glucose, so coconut water or apple juice are the best options.
What about sports drinks or protein shakes?
Sports drinks are what most people think about drinking when training. However, these drinks contain high amounts of sugar and other artificial ingredients that many athletes don’t want.
It’s not that they’re bad, but for people who count calories or have very specific fitness goals, the added calories and sugar are something they don’t want to deal with, so they chose options with zero calories or artificial content.
If you prefer having sports drinks, know that those calories from the drink will reduce the number of calories you will be burning in your training session, so you could be sabotaging yourself, especially if you’re working out to lose weight.
Protein shakes, on the other hand, are meant to be drunk around workouts, to help out with muscle recovery, so having them while working out is not necessary.
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