Electrolytes

"got to replace those electrolytes"
says the guy beside me as he slams down his sports drink.So just what are electrolytes and what good are they to us.

The human body is a complex sophisticated biological chemical machine. Nerve(neurons) and muscles cells carry electrical impulses across the membranes to operate correctly via electrolytes(fluids between cells) - brain thought patterns, heart and muscle contractions, etc. utilize electrolytes and your kidneys act as a regulator for these electrolyte concentrations.
When you exercise heavily you lose electrolytes through your sweat. The result is fatigue and a loss of performance.Sport drinks are designed to replace the electrolytes and they apparently work quite well according to studies on athletes.
However, in the name of profit, alot of sport drinks are marketed(sorry about the grammar!) to the general populous who are struggling to get into shape or maintain a fitness level far from the professional athlete.Many of the sports drinks have an excessive amount of sodium and sugar.You can find High Fructose Corn Syrup as an ingredient in some drinks as well, HFCS is under heavy scrutiny for causing obesity.
In actual fact, unless your workout is going to last over 2 hours and you plan on sweating buckets, pounding back a sports drink is doing you no good just adding empty calories with high sodium and bad sugar sources that set your metabolism into a spiral dive.
So a little research on what you ingest during your workout is worthwhile.

Not all sport drinks are created equal and don't get me started on the energy drinks(high dose sugar/caffeine that floods your system because you quaff it back as a cold beverage)...it amazes me that they are even allowed!

After all, if you go to that much work to find the time to train and commit to it on a regular basis, why would you want to sabotage all that hard work?
Stick to water.
Just my thoughts.

JC Masterson, Silent River Kung Fu, Alberta, Canada