Balancing your fluid intake when exercising is crucial to getting the most out of each session. However, you can overdo this, which can result in gastrointestinal discomfort and hyponatraemia.
Why it is important to balance your intake?
The amount of fluid you consume during a session can affect your overall performance. If your body’s total water levels drops below normal, it can cause your body temperature and heart rate to rise. It can also result in early fatigue levels.
However, trying to compensate this by consuming too many fluids will not only leave you feeling discomfort, but it could as result in low blood sodium levels also known as hyponatraemia. You will experience dehydration that can be life-threatening, which is why it is important to strike a balance.
The benefits of balancing your fluid intake
Knowing which fluid solutions will be suitable for your workout is beneficial to protecting your health. A hypertonic solution has a higher osmolality (less water), which can be dangerous to consume during training or a match.
It's best to avoid such fluids during hot days as it can result in diarrhoea and dehydration. Drinks that have a balance that is more or less the same osmolality as blood plasma is referred to as isotonic i.e energy drinks such as Energade are regarded as isotonic. When there is lower osmolality (more water) then it is referred to as hypotonic i.e. energy drinks like Powerade and Lucozade.
What type of fluids you can drink to boost your performance?
One of the fluids you can include in your workout regime that can protect you against the risk of hyponatraemis is consuming drinks that contain soduim such as Lucozade and Powerade.
You can also include carbohydrate-containing energy drinks that prove to be a great source of fuel for muscles when exercising. Always remember to strike a balance of drinking enough fluids.
The general rule of thumb is to consume no more than 30-60g of carbohydrates per hour to prevent gastro-intestinal discomfort. Some examples of this is the PVM energy drinks, Octane 4.0 or Octane XTR are good sources for fluid balancing.
Most sports drinks that are available in store already have this solution prepared for you but try not to over-use this.