The Ultimate Guide to Workout Drinks
There is plenty of scientific evidence that regular exercise leads to better physical and mental health. Arnold Schwarzenegger once said: “Training gives us an outlet for suppressed energies created by stress and thus tones the spirit just as exercise conditions the body”.
Fitness endurance, however, can be a struggle. This is where sports drinks prove quite useful. Healthy sports drinks offer a perfect boost to people who are pushing their limits and building strength in lengthy fitness sessions. They can help replenish your body’s glucose, and electrolyte stores much more efficiently than plain water.
Best Pre-workout Drinks to Boost Your Energy
During exercise, our energy supplies quickly deplete. A pre-workout drink can help you push up your energy levels and prolong your exercise sessions.
Pre-workout drinks usually contain at least one of these three ingredients - caffeine, creatine, and beta-alanine. They increase endurance, energy, and focus during a workout and result in better athletic performance.
Caffeine is one of the most popular ingredients in pre-workout drinks. It’s an effective stimulant that boosts energy and alertness. Studies also show that caffeine can help improve sports performance. Be careful with caffeine-heavy drinks, however. Stick to healthy pre-workout beverages instead like Hackamore Premium Energy for example.
Creatine is another favoured workout drink ingredient. Studies show that creatine “ increases strength, fat-free mass, and muscle morphology” and improves training endurance.
Beta-alanine is yet another key substance you’d often find in pre-workout drinks. It helps fight muscle fatigue. A meta-analysis on the amino-acid found that a dosage of 179 grams per workout session leads to an average 2.85% increase in physical performance during prolonged exercise.
Intense workouts require physical exertion and mental focus that are hard to sustain on a regular basis. Pre-workout beverages are a great way to help your inner fitness champion come to life.
Best Post-Workout Drinks to Rehydrate You
We workout, we sweat, and we lose valuable nutrients like vitamins, electrolytes (minerals like sodium, calcium, and magnesium), and water that need to be replenished as soon as our training session ends. Electrolytes in particular make sure that our nerves, muscles, heart, and brain work at optimum levels so they should be kept in balance.
Post-workout nutrition helps us keep our bodies in good condition. Experts recommend that we include protein, carbohydrates, and electrolyte-rich drinks and snacks to help our bodies recover after intense exercise.
Proteins
We exercise to gain muscle and strength but progress would be impossible if we don’t recover fully after a workout. Going for a protein-rich post-workout drink helps the muscle healing process and prevents the loss of lean mass.
Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are the macronutrients that assist our bodies in restoring their fuel supply. They help fight fatigue and exhaustion. Anyone who engages in intense daily exercise routines should add them to their post-workout diet.
Electrolytes
Electrolytes are essential as it comes to establishing the mineral balance of our bodies. Having a sports drink packed with electrolytes after a heavy workout is the right choice towards rapid and full fluid and electrolyte balance restoration. Do you wonder what would be a perfect example of such a post-workout drink? Stop guessing and try out top electrolyte water brands like Core-Hydration Water.
If you wish to be extra diligent with your post-workout routine, Essentia Purified Water, is further enriched with antioxidants that help fight muscle soreness.
Talking about restoring electrolytes levels we should definitely mention Gatorade. Gatorade sports drinks have long been in the spotlight when it comes to workout drinks. The formula behind the famous drink was invented to help Florida athletes stay hydrated in the 1960s. Ever since, Gatorade has dominated the sports drinks market. In 2019 Gatorade accounted for 72.1% of the sports drinks sales in the US.
In order to address the broad demand for flavored drinks, Gatorade released a number of unique post-workout drinks like Gatorade Frost Glacier Freeze, Gatorade Fruit Punch, and Gatorade G2 Grape.
Regular exercise brings a number of health benefits. It helps us regulate our body weight, build our muscle mass, and strengthen our bones. Besides that, working out improves the mood and decreases feelings of stress and anxiety. It can also improve brain health and alleviate chronic pain.
However, working out does not come down to exercising your body to exhaustion. You should plan your fitness routine wisely and take good care of your body prior, during, and after your workout sessions. In order to avoid burnout consider which sports drinks are right for you and give your body the fluids, electrolytes, minerals it needs to endure the strenuous load and to recover from it in no time.
