Hydration pt. 2

So in the last post of this "mini-series", Part 1 I talked a little bit about why it's good to keep on sucking on something liquidy.  Now yesterday morning (I started writing this last Friday, but then it fell apart) I decided to be crazy and embarked on a 3 hour spin session, nothing crazy to kill you but still a sustained effort.  About 20 minutes from finishing said spin and starting cool down, I ran out of my poorly, sleep deprived mixed gatorade, it was a sad moment.  So top tips, bring enough to drink when you're going to workout.

Today's post is going to cover what to drink, and when to drink it.  Undoubtedly you have seen people around the gym walking around drinking a protein shake or after they've gone for a workout.  Now some people can actually benefit from these, but these are the people who can lift you up with one finger and bench like a brick sh*t house.  Another wards, you need to push unbelievably hard for it to actually have the beneficial results it claims.  So for us normal folks that do not look like and life like 'roid monkeys, all that protein will actually just get converted to carbs.... and then more than likely.....FAT.  So onto today's post, it's going to cover the three kinda times that hydration is important.

Water:
The simplest of all drinks, for most things it's enough.  For runs under 30 min, it's probably all you're going to need because you're not exerting a whole lot.  You should probably look at something else if you're running more than that

Sports Drinks
When people think sports drinks, it is a given that everybody thinks about Gatorade, I mean it has spawned a world full of pretenders.  What it is is water that's been hopped up with six to eight percent concentration of carbs, and your typical electrolytes (sodium, potassium and other minerals lost through sweat).  The idea behind this is that the water can be absorbed faster (up to 30%) and gives your body something to sustain itself.   This should be consumed on runs longer than 30 minutes, and passed by on those shorter as water is probably enough.  Also not bad to have before, during or after too.  Some people will find certain stuff makes them feel so good (certain gels have left a less than awesome taste).

There's a subset of sports drinks that's aimed at the endurance crowd and is similar to regular sports drinks but with more electrolytes.  This is due to the fact that you're sweating pretty constantly, but now for a longer time.

Energy Drinks
So we've all had these before, more often than not, they taste.... well less than great.  More often than not these drinks are packed FULL of sugars.  So word of caution, only have these if you have a strong stomach and you're well fed and you just need an energy boost.  You can also have other additives that will get added on and make this give you a little bit more energy.  Pass in general unless you feel like you'll be fine with a truckload of sugar hitting your system in an instant.

Recovery Drinks
These will usually give you some protein and some carbs which will help to pack the glycogen into your muscles, usually in a 1:4 ratio (protein to carbs).  These will help you recover a little better or at least give your muscles the energy to back up and hit at it again with some intensity the next day.  You usually don't need these unless they're longer workouts (More than an hour).  Otherwise, pass these by as you probably don't need the help or the calories.

Random notes

Hot and Cold
Temperature of a drink is important, not only does drinking a warm drink on a warm day suck it's not good for rapid movement of water out of the stomach

Hypertonic, Hypotonic, Isotonic....OH MY
Drink companies will use these terms and it's probably somewhat confusing for the non-scientifically inclined.

Hypertonic is when a drink is more concentrated than your body's fluids (think lemonade, salt water...etc) and it is going to be absorbed slower than normal.  So it's probably not a good solution before or during your workout.  It's usually something that's higher energy so it shouldn't be rammed into your system quickly.

Hypotonic is when a drink is less concentrated than your body's fluids (think distilled water) and it is going to be absorbed faster than regular water.  Chances are it will probably make it through your body quicker in general too.

Isotonic is when a drink is about as concentrated as your body's fluids and will therefore be absorbed faster or about the same as normal water.  It draws a nice balance between refuelling (Hyper) and rehydrating (Hypo)

Smell the coffee
Now caffeine is usually not a very good idea before your races/workouts because they're a diuretic which tends to create some problems.  But in small amounts can actually give you a little bit of an extra spark, so take in small quantities.


Kel's jolly cabinet of hydration goodies
So in this part I'll let you know about what I've used, what I've thought of them.  I have absolutely no vested interest in any of these companies, nor am I getting paid to do it.  This is for the most part stuff I have bought myself, or gotten as freebies to try out from fairs.

Gatorade
Everyone know this stuff, I used to buy them in bottles because I liked the line called "Gatorade Rain".  It was supposed to be all the awesomeness of gatorade without the funny taste. Well when I started my marathon training last year, I bought a little jar of the gatorade powder (Lime something I think) and i found it to be a lot cheaper and it tasted alright.  But then I realized that I was burning through this stuff at an astronomical rate, and that's when I decided to skip the cool flavors and go for the cheap.  I bought a giant tin of this stuff and then have been going through it ever since.  I think this is big tin number 3, or 4.  So instead of buying the bottled stuff, make it yourself, and it's a lot cheaper.

Mr. Big and Orange

AminoVital
My sister actually bought this stuff after her half marathon and I have been stealing some from her every so often.  I've actually found that it's really good for helping with recovery.  You can get them in a multitude of different flavors, this for instance happened to be grape.  If you do decide to use this, follow their instructions as if you don't mix it quite right it tastes interesting.  Other gripes that I have with it is that it's one of those "zero calorie" drinks meaning they use aspartame (cancer causing)  and it tastes gross.  I hate that aftertaste, so if you don't mind it go for it.  Lastly it's not particularly cheap, but it works awesomely. Yes that's a word

Little grey jar

SlimFast

Now most of you are probably sitting there reading if you still are at this point wondering what on earth slimfast has to do with anything.  Well actually it's got a really good ratio of carbs to protein, so much that you have that perfect ratio and it's good for those that can't stomach real food after.  Or it's also good to get it in you within that magical 30 minute window.  I've actually liked this quite a bit because it tastes alright, makes it easy to ingest stuff right away.  So ya pretty much any meal replacement will have similar ideas behind the composition, just look at the nutrition label. It's a little bit expensive to get the brandname version so I'll let you know what happens when I try out the superstore brand (Presidents choice)

The little red tin

Chocolate Milk

For those that are lazy to the point where you don't want to even mix stuff? Well grab some chocolate milk, also a great recovery drink and who doesn't love chocolate milk

High 5 Products

Now this is less so a specific product so much as a general finding with this company. I actually had never heard of this company before, and most probably like every other person in Calgary, but they are a really big sports nutrition company in the UK.  They make really good stuff for pretty much anything under the sun related to sports nutrition.  In terms of hydration, they do things like carb drinks, recovery drinks, isotonic drinks, extreme carb drinks, 4:1 drinks.  Best of all this stuff tastes awesome, it's fruity, not too sweet and goes down easily without upsetting the stomach.  Only problem is they have no distributors in NA and thus I have to sneak this stuff in with my orders of bike parts from across the pond. Oh and it's not expensive either.

Thanks for reading this GIANT post, part 3 should be coming along sometime after this, but will likely be after reading break so in a couple weeks.

~Cheers