I’m running low on my current sports drink and want suggestions. Perhaps there’s a better one out there.
Currently I drink Cytomax. I used to get it from Performance Bicycles, but they closed their local store a couple years back. During their closeout sale, I bought three 4.5 lb jars and the last of those is about to run out. I’m not sure if any store sells it locally (maybe Walmart, according to Google), but I’d like to maybe try a different brand to see if there’s better out there.
I have tried Accelerade before and didn’t like it quite as well as Cytomax. Mostly because it left an even bigger residue in my Camelbak. Either one was fine for hydration. So any suggestions?
PS Any suggestion of Gatorade or Powerade will be sneered at before being ignored.
I don’t tend to buy fancy sports drinks. For my money, there are different goals one might be trying to accomplish.
Before or during exercise, there is a need for energy, most often glucose. There is always a need for hydration. Adding potassium and sodium to water meets some other needs and allows hype about increasing the speed of diffusion, which is very quick in any case.
I think creatine supplementation in athletes looking to build and hydrate muscle is generally safe and effective. A diet high in protein also satisfies some needs. An occasional smoothie or drink with added protein can be helpful, improve nutrient partitioning and reduce the need for eating junkier stuff. But if you eat healthy, protein powders are a little overrated - they taste good, but you only need so much.
So I use water, daily creatine, an occasional protein drink and sometimes mix Gatorade with diet soda before a tough workout. You might scoff. But you’d have to tell me what else your drink provides. (Because you can get BCAA and L-arginine from your diet, and I only want so much caffeine. And IMHO many sports supplements contain useless crap.)
When I was doing 40-60 miles on the old handcycle, Gatorade cut with equal water and a pinch of extra salt worked fine for me.
What is your workout? Weather conditions? Refueling possible or do you need to carry an entire supply?
My workout is about 25-35 miles of bike riding. Virtually always including steep hills. I definitely need potassium on hot days to avoid cramping afterward. I always bring all my fluid with me; I have a 3-liter Camelbak, although I rarely need that much fluid. Two liters is about as much as I usually need and that mainly on hot days. I try to ride in the cool morning these days, but didn’t always do that in the past. In the past, there were days I needed all 3 liters and sometimes even more.
The weightlifting website I like sells a drink called Surge. I’ve never bought it, but I trust they know a lot about sports nutrition. The trainer Christian Thibeaudeau gives a recipe in one of his books for making something similar at home with glucose powder. But for long bike rides you’d probably want some salts too. You could also find recipes by Googling “Oral rehydration solution” since these are sometimes given to the dehydrated.
Green coconut water hits the spot sometimes. From Wikipedia, 100 g has 250 mg of potassium and 105 mg of sodium. Évian water, for comparison, has less than 1 mg of each (it’s just water…)
As for Gatorade, the lemon-lime powder is not too bad actually, I mean as a sports drink-- I would not drink it at tea.
I use Ultima electrolyte replenisher. Its a sugar-free powder and seems to have helped with my night time leg cramps after cycling 20 miles, sometimes in hot weather but usually in the early morning.
Procrastinate, mostly. But I’ve found that it’s actually not easy to even get more Cytomax. Lots of bicycle related stuff is scarce these days. I understand that’s a worldwide phenomenon.