Achieving your health and fitness goals requires not just a healthy diet and a regular exercise program, but adequate supplementation and recovery. We lose more than water during our workout sessions. Electrolytes are dissolved in the body water, so loss of water equates to loss of electrolytes.
During a workout, the average person will shed a whole load of electrolytes, which are vital to recovery, growth, and good health.
A huge part of ensuring your body remains in peak condition is choosing the right post-workout drink. The best post-workout drink aids recovery, builds muscle, and helps you to grow stronger. The newer post-workout drinks also do more- some reduce inflammation as well.
The experts say your post-workout recovery drink can be just as important as the workout itself.
But what to drink after a workout? This is a question asked by so many. Here’s what you need to know.
During a grueling workout session, you sweat. Your body can lose up to a quarter of its water in just one hour of exercise.
The natural reaction is to chug a lot of water to counter dehydration. But, water isn’t always enough to replenish what you’ve lost. There’s a reason professional athletes are rarely seen drinking water on the sidelines.
Loss of water leads to a loss of sodium and chloride. This is an important adaptive mechanism in our body, just to avoid sodium in the blood from rising too much. Hence, replenishing water via a post workout drink is not enough. You need other salts as well.
Dehydration is a huge factor in muscle cramps, dizziness, and general fatigue following a tough workout session.
Your number one priority is to replace what you’ve lost and avoid dehydration if you can, by keeping up with fluid intake. However, the fluids you lose also contain other important minerals, including major electrolytes as discussed above.
There are three main electrolytes carried out of your body via sweat during a workout. These are:
Others, such as magnesium and phosphorus are depleted by consumption. The harder the workout, the faster these are consumed. All three of the major electrolytes dictate various body responses that control cellular activities. Your body’s cells use electrolytes to communicate with each other and act as signals.
A great after-workout drink can ensure you never lack when it comes to electrolytes.
What should I drink after a workout?
Countless expert advice exists on the internet, about what the best recovery drink should be like, although definitive clinical studies on comparing these recovery drinks are lacking. Below are some commonly used post-workout drinks with the “value” they provide in terms of recovery.
Research has shown that consuming chocolate carbs could aid in muscle recovery. As far as muscle recovery drinks go, this is one of the best particularly if it is rich in protein (e.g. whey powder mix) added to the carbs.
Consuming carbs following exercise helps your muscles to replenish lost glycogen. Plus, milk is rich in a protein called casein, which is necessary for building healthy muscles.
Orange juice contains a huge number of nutrients, including vitamin C and potassium in addition to a small amount of magnesium. It is relatively quickly absorbed unless rich in sugars (which at times, it is based on the type of orange juice) and can work as a good post-workout drink.
Experts also recommend combining orange juice with protein powder to give it that extra boost.
The favorite of the professional athlete, it’s not uncommon to see the pros chugging popular “ades” on the sidelines. While considered as one of the better hydrating options as compared to water, their ability as a post workout drink is now questioned. These are typically rich in artificial colors and additives such as high fructose corn syrup, which make them substandard as recovery drinks.
In recent years, conventional sports drinks have been replaced by natural options such as whey and soy milk or electrolyte powders for optimal results.
In recent years, green tea has become a popular post-workout drink. Its ability to help you relax after a workout is invaluable as it slows down your heart rate particularly if an athlete is engaged in a high intensity workout.
While it may not be the best recovery drink for all the workouts, the compounds within green tea are known for increasing metabolism, which can boost post-workout calorie burn.
The importance of electrolytes cannot be overstated. The problem with most post workout beverages is they either come with several side effects / ingredients you don’t need or they don’t provide you with everything you need.
The wrong post workout drink will lead to a delayed recovery and prevent you from achieving your workout goals.
MAGNAK Electrolyte Formula aims to be the best thing to drink after a workout by providing athletes with a healthy option that provides all the essential electrolytes needed to achieve their next PR. This includes magnesium, which is often called the “missing” mineral and plays a key role in muscle physiology, performance and recovery.
So, why should you make MAGNAK your recovery drink of choice?
Muscle cramps are a huge obstacle to recovery and often strike a few hours after the workout. Cramps are a common sign of dehydration or electrolyte deficiencies in athletes, particularly that of magnesium.
MAGNAK contains all your essential electrolytes, plus the missing mineral magnesium to help you avoid muscle cramps during workouts.
Hard workout schedules require fast recovery. The faster you recover the faster you can help your muscles grow. And faster growth means faster progress.
Rehydrating and replenishing glycogen with both carbs and protein is important.
The problem with energy drinks and milk carbs is they’re prone to causing bloating, which is not only unpleasant but often comes paired with stomach cramps. These symptoms can stop a workout regimen in its tracks.
MAGNAK is gentle on the stomach by being low in osmolality and comes with no uncomfortable side effects to optimize your training. This means it is absorbed faster in a dehydrated state getting those electrolytes and water into your system when and where you need them quickly.
You will never reach your potential without the right post-workout drink. Advance your training, build muscle, shred fat, and enhance endurance using MAGNAK premium electrolyte powder.
Contact us if you want to learn more about MAGNAK and or if you have any questions regarding how you can improve your post-workout recovery.
