sports drinks... worth it?

nadams

Thanks for all the replies, guys. The terrain I have to work with is quite hilly, so there's no way I could go on a ride and have it be all flat. There's lots of places where you have to pedal hard to the top, but then you have a nice break coming back down. I also enjoy single track mountain biking, where you can oftentimes go for 10 minutes without pedaling (after getting to the top, of course)

bikezappa- thanks for the orange trick. why would you not swallow the pulp, though? Is it just too hard to digest when you're riding? I usually carry a patch kit, money, a few links of chain, and a chain breaker in my bike pack. It's a smallish one, so there's not much room for anything else.

I really do love to bike, but finding the time is always the problem. It's always nice to get away every once and a while and find a cool trail to ride on.

Thanks again guys,

Nadams

Airplay355

I'm a football player and we use gatorade throughout the game. Not straight gatorade though. We add alittle of the powdered stuff to our water coolers for the potasium to prevent cramps and to replenish salt and electrolytes. The sugar is the reason we water it down. I've never had a problem with my stomach after drinking gatorade during a game. Try watering it down if you don't like the extreme sweetness.

We also use orange slices at halftime and the mini snickers bars. The orange slices work very well but I'm not sure about bananas. The potasium in them should help prevent cramps but the consistancy of a banana isn't something I'd want in my mouth when I was riding a bike. Maybe thats just a personal preference however. We usually eat our bananas pre-game with non-watered down gatorade.

dragon1952

If you're just thirsty water is tops. However, if you're exercising enough to start sweating profusely stuff like Gatorade is better....like people have stated already...because it replaces electrolytes. I used to lift weights all the time and I'd take this 20 oz drink with me that contained complex carbs (maltodextrin) , vitamins, minerals and amino acids. I used to swear by that stuff. It gave me energy as well as fluids and fed me at the same time.

brody05

Heres a perspectie from a medical point of view without big words.

When one sweats from exercise they lose not only fluid but electrolytes, mainly salt (sodium or Na+), this plays a vital role in how the body maintains its natural state (homeostasis), including fluid balance and electrolyte balance.

Regardless of how much salt ect you have in your diet in a healthy person the kidneys will get rid of what it doesn't need, unlike calories which gets converted to energy and what is not used is stored as glycogen. The body can not manufacture sodium, only maintain what is put in and out.

An electrolyte is an ion that dissociates in water, ie NaCl is sodium chloride, this becomes Na+ and CL- (one atom takes the proton from the other resulting in one being slightly more positively charged than the other), potassium (K+) is another important electrolyte, these play vital roles in the depolarisation cells throughout the body, in particular the cells of the heart. When you look an an EKG you are looking at the electrical system, this is basically the Na+ and K+ moving in and out of cells of the heart causing them to contract. An imbalance of these can cause decreased cardiac function, varying degree's are minor symptoms associated with fatigue or lack of endurance to coma and death.

These imbalances can cause lethal arrythmia's and cardiac arrest (went to a very fit male in his 20s recently that is now deceased which happened during his common running exercise).

Muscle cells require energy to 'run', the energy runs sodium potassium pumps which pump the Na+ and K+ in and out of the cells as they contract, this energy is accuired from metabolism processes that require oxygen which is carried in the blood, when muscles are use more (ie exercise) the Na+ and K+ pumps are running more as the cells are contracting more, the demand for energy production exceeds the available oxygen so energy (ATP) is converted without oxygen, this is a far less effecient way (by about 10 fold and create a byproduct - lactic acid), that is why we burn more energy as exercise reaches a certain cresendo. The point I am trying to make is it is the sodium and potassium that is responsible for how effective the cells are at doing the job ascked for them, this includes skeletal muscle and cardiac muscle, so electrolytes are very important, sweating loses a lot of electrolytes as well as water, if it is as important to replace one, it is as important to replace the other.

Water is an essential component of ones diet as is many other substances, in todays day and age with fast foods and chemicals that just weren't around 100 years ago ther is a lot of malnutrition out there. If it were me exercising I would personally go with the sports drinks, they have their benifits whether some want to believe it or not, at the end of the day, your body will use what it needs, better to have it and not need than need it and not have it.


Sorry for waffling on a bit but I figured those that want to try and anderstand a bit more can. I hope I have put in in an understandable text.
Brody
(Paramedic and Trainer)

bikezappa

The orange skins are difficult to chew after being in your bike pocket for over an hour. The inside of the orange is however very fresh and tasty. Nature has the best packaging. Some oranges don't have as much juice as others. Experiment to find the best orange for you, I think the thin skinned oranges were the best for me.

If you are in a bike race you don't have the time to breath and pedal and chew the skin all at once. I spit it out. Your choice.

I never broke a chain during a ride, but I have had many flats that the patch kit couldn't fix, I needed the spare tube. I would get a bigger bag and add a spare tube and M&M's.

You can spend a lot of cash of fancy gels and sports drinks and bars. You pay your money and make your choice. That's America.

The cheapest way to reduce a pound of weight during a ride is to carry only one water bottle and take a big dump before the ride.

brody05

The only reason you will lose a pound with that method is by being dehydrated, as soon as you rehydrate the body will hold onto that water and the pound will be regained as quick as it went off. The body maintains water balance very well, if you are dehydrated thirst centers are activated and will stay that way until the body reaches its desired tonicity from ingestion of fluids and food.