Recovery Drinks
by - Ryan Whitney
Recovery is essential to any athlete no matter what level you participate at. Whether you're training for the Super Bowl or just to lose some weight around your stomach it is important to make sure your body heals. Recovery drinks and foods can help you feel and perform better. After a tough workout your body needs several thing; protein, electrolytes, water, and sugar.
The type of exercise you did changes the kind of recovery drink you need. Say if you were doing long distance running you would need a drink with plenty of water and electrolytes as you would have lost a lot of both of those in sweat. You also would need sugar because your blood sugar (glucose) will have dropped. Popular sports drinks like Gatorade can be effective at replenishing your body. Simply drinking lemonade or juice can work just as well.
However If you were doing a weightlifting workout, your muscles will have been stretched and torn and you need protein to repair them. Sugar is also need, because glycogen stores will have been depleted pushing weights around for an hour or two. Products like Muscle Milk have both of these, but if you want you can purchase protein powders online or at a grocery store that will also serve this purpose. 