Tuesday Tip: Do you need electrolytes? 💧
Electrolyte drinks are all over social media at the moment: tablets, powders and expensive little sachets promising ‘better hydration’. But does your 45-minute workout really require a this? Probably not!
Electrolytes are minerals including sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium and magnesium. They help regulate fluid balance and are involved in nerve signals and muscle contractions. They are essential but that doesn’t automatically mean you need to buy a supplement. Your body is great at keeping these minerals within a narrow range, and most of us replace what we lose through ordinary food. For everyday life and a typical gym class, walk, run or workout, plain water is usually absolutely fine. Electrolytes become more useful when losses are genuinely high; prolonged or intense exercise (over 90 minutes), very hot conditions, unusually heavy sweating, endurance events, or significant fluid loss through vomiting or diarrhoea. Just because you sweated that means you need them, we all sweat during exercise!
Also sodium is the main electrolyte lost in sweat, but many of us already consume enough, if not too much, in our diet. Regularly adding more ‘just in case’ isn’t better and can be damaging , particularly if you have high blood pressure, kidney or heart problems. Some products are also rather high sugar. So after your workout class, drink some water and eat your usual balanced meal. You almost certainly don’t need a brightly coloured drink, a salty sachet or a monthly supplement subscription to recover!
Electrolytes aren’t nonsense but they are marketed as necessary when they really aren’t. Save them for when the duration, heat or sweat loss genuinely warrants them. As a personal note- I’ve not taken any electrolytes at all during this hot summer and I do tonnes of exercise a week teaching classes (and had no ill effects!).
Save your pennies! Save your blood pressure and and if you are using them encourage you to drink by making your water taste nicer then
go for squash instead.
Happy Tuesday 🤗
Xx
Every Step Fitness 