Pick the right hydration for the right situation

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“Help! I have no idea how to choose the right hydration.”

A lot of athletes are confused or just not confident in their hydration choice. If that’s you, read on

Let me break down the scenarios for you and what you should use.

(Bonus go to the bottom to get this week’s pro hack on how to make the perfect 60g of carb hydration drink!)

1) Daily Hydration

If you are sitting at your desk and hydrated or rehydrated, please don’t be drinking Maurten or Skratch Sport Hydration. It has WAY too much sugar that you don’t need at rest.

Goal: No to low sugar and a decent amount of electrolytes (200mg to 450mg of Sodium)

Great choices:

ERW: I Love ERW taste is 10/10
Gnarly: Ruby Red Grapefruit 
LMNT: Go Salty especially post-workout
Nuun: The old guard, Nuun tablets are still great
Skratch: Not sport hydration, their new Clear Hydration 
SOS: Not as Salty as LMNT, but saltier than the rest.
Momentous Hydrate: New Player in town, try it out

2) Oh shit, I need to rehydrate
You ran out of hydration during the workout or were sweating a lot (ahem, or maybe drinking too much). Now you need to rehydrate seriously. Just remember to sip, not gulp. Rehydration is the long game over the next 3 to 5 hours.

Goal: No to low sugar but way more electrolytes (800mg+)

LMNT: Also a great choice here
Right Stuff: When you can't get off the couch.
Quintessential: Lower electrolyte, but it always works
Skratch: Strong and Mighty at rehydrating you.

3) Workout Hydration (not fueling)

So you are out for a workout, and you need to hydrate. Now you need some sugar (i.e. glucose) in your hydration to absorb sodium faster. Most athletes are mistaken in choosing the low-sugar hydrations from above for their workout, instead use these:

Goal: Now you want sugar from 8g to 20g and electrolytes of (300mg and 900mg of Sodium)

Skratch: The king of workout hydration
Tailwind: Athletes are so loyal to this brand
Osmo: Optimal osmolality for rapid hydration
Untapped: Maple Aid is an Arnold Palmer in your bottle

4) Workout Hydration (Hydrate & Fuel)

Goal: Same as #3 above plus the addition of more carbs (30g to 100g of carbs)

Your workout is over 90 minutes, and you want the convenience of hydrating and fueling at the same time. The secret here is to balance the carbs in your drink with the carbs you are eating to get to at least 80g per hour.

More is not always better in your drink mix as it can upset some people’s stomach if you get crazy high. You can always get additional carbs from gels, chews, and bars.

I’m finding the sweet spot for most athletes is at 60g of carbs. Lots of fuel, but a very low risk of stomach upset. See below for how to get a 60g hydration option.

Here are your choices, ordered from highest carb to lowest carb:

Skratch Superfuel (100g of Carbs)
Neversecond C90 (90g of Carbs)
Maurten 320 (80g of Carbs)
Spring Energy (51g of Carbs)
Enervit IsoCarb (41g of Carbs)

Lower carb, but more than just hydration

First Endurance EFS: (26g of Carbs)
Neversecond C30 (30g of Carbs)
Powerbar Iso Active (29g of Carbs)

Pro Hack of the week:
I’m finding that many athletes getting into high-carb fueling are doing well with 60g carb drink mixes. The only problem is nobody makes a 60g of carb mix.

So here is how to make your own

1) Skratch 60g: Take one scoop of Lemon Lime regular Skratch Sport Hydration and add three scoops of Skratch Lemon Lime “SuperFuel”. You now have a 62g carb drink

2) Neverscond C60: Add two scoops of C30, and boom, you have Neverscond C60 and 60g of carbs.

3) Maurten 240: Take 1 sachet of Maurten 320 + 1 sachet of Maurten 160. Mix with 1L of water. Presto, you now have Maurten at 60g of carbs

Stay Hydrated!

DRG