Some commercials that really motivate me to go and exercise hard are the sports drinks ones.  Yah know the ones where the people are black and white and the only thing standing out on the screen is the vibrant color of the sports drink and the buckets of sweat covering their bodies?

It makes the training look pretty bad ass, but lets take away the marketing and ad campaigns for second and take a look at what these drinks actually do for your body.

The first thing you should know is that sports drinks help to hydrate and nourish your body by replenishing lost fluids after you exercise.  These special drinks have specific ingredients added in order to make sure you get the fuel you need.  Besides the main ingredient, which is water, most sports drinks also contain carbohydrates and electrolytes (sodium and potassium).

The added carbs will help fuel your muscles and the electrolytes will help replace what is lost from your sweat.

The sodium also plays a nice little trick on your body.  It will help you retain water and make you thirsty, causing you to drink more.  How is that “nice”?

Well other than making you run to the washroom to empty your bladder,  it will force you to keep drinking which will cause you to stay well hydrated.

Where these drinks really stand out is when your exercising for 45 -50 minutes.  Because the carbohydrates can easily be absorbed by your body, it will provide your working muscles with the energy they need that plain water doesn’t provide.

If you sweat a lot and find that you need a quick boost to finish off your workouts with a bang or just need a change from the rusty old water fountain, pick up a sports drink and see how it works for your body.