Best Sport Drink for Energy and Hydration

Whenever you workout hard, it is very important to be sure that your body stays well-hydrated through your entire exercise session. Making sure your hydration level is good throughout will protect your system from getting overheated and will also protect your entire cardiovascular system. A simple way to make sure that your body has the right hydration is to consume a good sport drink which provides some added essential ingredients, in addition to the fluids.

The other components in a good energy sports drink are a combination of electrolytes and carbohydrates. Making sure that you have both of these important elements in your sports beverage will assure that your body can quickly and efficiently re-hydrate. This will allow you to continue your workout at a good intensity level and will also help increase endurance.

The main purpose for putting that small amount of carbs into a sport drink is to give your body an easy way to replace the glycogen, which supplies energy to the muscles and is depleted during exercise. The right level of carbohydrates is six to eight percent.

Before the days of the numerous sports beverage options, such as we see in the marketplace today, many athletes simply carried a sugary soda that they had allowed to "defizz." In fact, there are many who don't want to spend the money on what they see as "designer" drink and still hit the gym or the track with a flat bottle of soda at their side. The problem with these kinds of "makeshift" energy drinks is that the concentration level of carbs is simply too high.

Any type of drink, whether a sport beverage designed specifically for the purpose, a soda, or a home-made concoction made following free drink recipes, is likely to cause upset and stomach cramping during workouts if the sports beverage contains more than eight percent carbohydrates. Unfortunately, in order to pander to the palate, some of the energy sports drinks on the market go over this limit, and sometimes by a considerable amount.

But carbohydrates are important. At the proper concentration level, they help the body to absorb the fluids and re-hydrate itself about 30 times faster than by drinking plain water. This is really helpful in situations when you have been pushing your limits and need to restore your hydration quickly. But, when there is too much sugar in the sports drink mix, it can interfere with the process and can actually slow down the absorption of fluids.

Any quality sports drink also contains the electrolytes that your body loses through the process of sweating. Electrolytes are minerals and the four most commonly used in an electrolyte sports drink are sodium, calcium, magnesium and potassium. The sodium is also very beneficial in helping your body to regain the necessary hydration levels for continued performance.

In general, a quality sport drink that is well-balanced will give your body a minor boost of energy, will help you maintain energy for good endurance, and will also facilitate the absorption of fluids. It is better than drinking tap water. You should drink a sports beverage, such as the Cytomax sports drink, during any intense workout and after the session as well. It is also best to drink small amounts of the electrolyte sports drink during the entire workout whenever possible.