If you’re sweating and dripping after a workout, you’ll know it’s time to stay hydrated.
However, it is important to understand exactly what sweat is made of before reaching for a water bottle. Because sweating alone will lose more than water. You also lose electrolytes. Exchange of these major minerals will help you stay hydrated more efficiently and maintain peak performance.
Here’s what you need to know about the science behind sweat:
Why sweat?
Sweat is your body’s natural cooling system. When you’re feeling the heat, whether it’s hot, spicy food, nervous situations, or intense workouts, your body will sweat and sweat.
“In general, we sweat and help regulate our temperature in hot conditions,” says Paul Falcone of MS, the lead scientist at the body. “When water in the sweat evaporates, it cools the skin.”
Your skin contains millions of sweat glands, and quart sweat evaporates from the skin every day.
What do our bodies lose from sweat?
“Sweat is primarily made from water and electrolytes and is an essential mineral within the body,” explains Falcone. Sweat may also contain traces of urea, uric acid, ammonia, vitamin C, and other substances.
The main electrolytes that you lose when sweat is sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium. These electrolytes serve a variety of important purposes within the body and help to maintain proper functioning of the nerves, muscles, heart and brain.
In Falcone, electrolytes are so important that their levels are strictly regulated within the body to ensure that basic processes are not destroyed. Therefore, when you are sweating during longer workouts, it is important to replace the lost electrolytes in addition to water.
How to replenish what’s lost when you sweat
Water is essential for hydration. There’s no surprise.
However, drinks like Beach Body Performance hydrate can help you refill both liquids and electrolytes, especially when increasing strength, during longer training, to maintain a higher level of performance.
This is because, together with all other duties, electrolytes play an important role in hydrating beverages by helping the body absorb water more effectively and maintain optimal balance of liquids. Adding Beachbody performance to a water bottle can help refill these electrolytes, allowing you to rehydrate more efficiently.
“Electrolytes help drink osmotic pressure, which means it makes it easier for your body to absorb water,” explains Falcone. Because of this focus on osmotic pressure, beachbody performance is more beneficial for hydration than just water.
To ensure an ideal balance of electrolytes, Beachbody Performance hydrates are formulated with a scientifically backed combination of electrolytes and carbohydrates to help optimize hydration, improve endurance and begin muscle recovery. *
“Carbohydrate-electrolyte drinks have been demonstrated to support endurance in clinical research,” says Falcone. “Carbohydrates provide fuel to working muscles, and electrolytes support several body processes that are necessary for exercise.”
To get the most out of Beachbody Performance Hydrate, it is best to drink it during or after workout. Mix one 8 ounces of water every 30 minutes of exercise to help maintain balance in your body fluids and support your performance.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent disease.
