You Have Many Options To Choose From In The Sports Drink Market

January 8, 2009 by TreadmillsCenter 


If you have been sweating up a thirst by exerting yourself physically, whether from an intense workout session or from just plain hard work, then you will quickly find that water alone may not be enough to tame your thirst. When you reach that intense stage of needing liquids, your body must have more than water to re-hydrate and recover. As a result of this need, the sports drink market has created a wide variety of sports beverage choices to help you quench that thirst.

Back in the day, old-timers who ranched across America used to brew up batches of what they called switchel. This might have been the original sport beverage and contained a mixture of molasses, vinegar and water, and was used during the intense physical exertion the ranchers experienced during haying season. For most people, their workouts have changed since that time, and fortunately so have the products on the market.

There are many energy sports drinks on the sports drink market these days, but you won’t find vinegar and molasses enumerated on the ingredients list when you check the label of your favorite sports drink bottle. But, today’s sports beverage formulas do have some of the same basic elements that are in the old-fashioned recipe. Carbohydrates are supplied by sugars in the drink and electrolytes are supplied by various minerals such as sodium, magnesium and potassium.

This combination of carbohydrates and electrolytes found in endurance drink mixes essentially provides the same benefits to today’s athletes that the ranchers got from the switchel. The bottom line is that these extra ingredients give the body what it needs to re-hydrate quickly in order to replace the rapid loss of moisture from the body due to the physical exertion.

Every manufacturer of a sports beverage knows how important it is to keep an athlete’s body from becoming dehydrated. When dehydration occurs, performance is reduced. In addition, consuming the electrolyte sports drink formulations help to assure that the body does not become overheated which can cause problems and add stress to the cardiovascular system.

Even though many of the advertisements for sports beverage products put a lot of emphasis on the restoration and the balancing of electrolytes, many doctors say that the most important benefit in these recovery sports drinks comes from the carbohydrates. It is the carbs from the sugars that help to feed the muscles during the workout, help to replace energy stores, and help to delay fatigue, all of which improves endurance.

The three major brands of sports beverage drinks on the sports drink market are Powerade, Gatorade and Allsport and if you compare the ingredients listed on their labels, then you will see they are basically the same. The major difference is in the ratio of carbohydrates to electrolytes in the mixtures, as well as some other proprietary ingredients in the various formulations.

Coffee, colas as well as tea might be an excellent way to get you up in the morning however thay simply have empty calories. There is no realy value in terms of nutrition and the majority of physicians will not advocate it and tell you to stay away from them if you wish to lose weight as well as build your muscles in your body. What you requre is a drink that gives you proteins, nutrients as well as keeping you hydrated. You require sports drinks that are primarily set up to do the job that doesn’t over burden your system with calories that are not necessary.. You will be amazed at the varieties on the market and you can click here for more information: Bodybuilding Clothing and at Body Building also Organic Bodybuilding Supplements

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