4 drinks for athletes: energy, hydration and recovery

As an amateur, experienced or professional athlete, you know it: your lifestyle can strongly impact your sports performance. And the drinks you drink, in preparation for the effort, during the effort and afterwards, for recovery, are part of the optimizations you can make to boost your results, physical and sports. What drinks to drink as an athlete, what aspects to promote as an athlete to improve your performance? Specialized in the development of well-being drinks, we share our research with you.

Summary

Energy boosting drinks

Mugicha, a drink to promote hydration

Green Tea to Promote Fat Loss

CBD Herbal Teas for Recovery

FAQ Sports Drinks

When practicing sport, to increase your performance, you may be tempted, just before and during practice, to consume energy drinks.

These generally consist of:

• Water: to hydrate your body;
• Carbohydrates: to nourish your body and give it quick fuel to burn;
• Sodium: to replace minerals lost through perspiration;
• Caffeine: to boost/energize your body.

Make your own energy drink at home

Red Bull, Monster, Powerade, Gatorade… There are many energy drinks on the market and they can seem more chemical than natural. It is true that they are generally composed of synthetic ingredients and many additives. Making your own energy drinks for exercise may prove healthier.

Here is our suggestion for a homemade energizing recipe based on grape juice:

• 400 mL of grape juice : Grape juice is the juice richest in carbohydrates and contains as much glucose as fructose. In addition, it is very well tolerated by the digestive system during exercise. It also provides antioxidants to limit the oxidative stress generated by exercise. It is diluted in mineral-rich water to limit its high concentration of sugars, both in terms of taste and hydration.
• 600 mL of still mineral water rich in minerals.
• 1.2 g table salt .

During and immediately after exercise, the biggest challenge for your health and well-being is finding a drink that promotes hydration.

For this purpose, we highly recommend that you discover mugicha . Mugicha is the Japanese name for barley tea or barley coffee. It is made from an infusion of roasted and crushed barley and can be drunk cold or hot.

Mugicha is very **rich in minerals ,** and in particular in sodium, potassium and calcium, which makes it a very interesting drink for the sportsmen and sportswomen among you. Since sodium and potassium are lost in sweat, it is essential to consume drinks rich in water but also in minerals. This promotes better rehydration!

Consume mugicha to better hydrate yourself:

• During exercise to supplement your minerals, especially when the exercise is long-lasting (more than one hour of exercise);
• After exercise, to promote your rehydration and relaxation: mugicha will promote your post-exercise relaxation because this drink does not contain caffeine.

🌾 Since 2022, we have been offering you 100% organic mugicha, raised and prepared in France . It is crushed in our workshops in Yvelines and you can purchase it in its aluminum box or in refill bags to limit your waste as much as possible.

Do you practice sports in particular with the aim of refining your figure and feeling better in your body? During and after practicing sports, you may be tempted to consume a drink that accelerates fat burning.

Without necessarily being a miracle cure (there isn't one), green tea could be the drink that accompanies you during and after sport. Indeed, green tea has special properties that stimulate the metabolism and thus facilitate the burning of fat . For example, it has the ability to inhibit catechol-O-methyltransferase, an enzyme involved in the production of heat in the body (or “thermogenesis”), which ensures its function as a fat burner.

Consume green tea:

• During exercise to hydrate yourself, stimulate fat burning and energize you: green tea drinks contain not only water, but also caffeine (theine) which will boost you;
• After exercise, to promote your rehydration: it will be less interesting for relaxation purposes since it contains caffeine which risks keeping you excited.

After practicing sport, it is a question of both rehydrating the body and giving it something to relax and respond to the small pains that you may feel following a sports session, such as muscle aches.

With this in mind, we invite you to discover CBD herbal teas. Cannabidiol is a molecule that has many benefits, including analgesic, anti-inflammatory and relaxing properties. Perfect for relieving yourself after intense sports practice!

🚩 The consumption of products containing more than 0.2% THC is prohibited in France and even more so in the context of sport in France. Since French CBD-based products are limited to a concentration of 0.2% THC, it is authorized to consume them as part of regular sports practice. If you are followed by a sports doctor and are playing at a high level, we recommend that you confirm with him that the consumption of CBD-based products containing a little THC does not pose a problem.

When developing this article on suitable and recommended drinks for athletes, we conducted several researches. We share the results of our research with you below.

How much water should you drink as an athlete during exercise?

For events lasting less than three hours, you should drink half a litre to one and a half litres per hour, depending on the environment – ​​the hotter it is, the more you sweat, the more you should drink! If the effort lasts more than three hours, count on half a litre to one litre per hour.

What are the important points when choosing your drinks as an athlete?

When choosing a drink to drink as an athlete to improve your physical and athletic results, there are different aspects to consider. Moreover, note that each athlete and each sport is different.

Sporting objective

When choosing your drink as an athlete, you must ask yourself about your goal. Why do you practice sport: to get in shape, to improve your sports performance, for the challenge? Depending on these goals, you can choose one drink rather than another!

Sport practiced

Depending on the sport and the effort practiced, you will not have the same needs for your hydration and for your recovery. For example, if the effort is more than 1 hour, it is recommended to drink drinks enriched with carbohydrates and salt to provide the minerals lost when you sweat - while water will suffice in the context of a shorter effort.

Practicality

A third aspect is to question the practicality of the drink, especially if you have to drink it while you are playing sports. It is therefore difficult to take out your thermos of very hot water while you are playing sports… you risk burning yourself and you will not be able to absorb much liquid! In the same vein, you will like a drink that is easy to transport. Consider investing in an insulated bottle!

🚩 Beware of doping

Last important point when choosing your sports drinks: think about the question of doping. Which molecules are prohibited in your sport? Do the drinks you enjoy contain them and in what quantities? Are you allowed to consume them before, during and after practice?

What active ingredients are of interest for energy drinks?

Energy drinks to promote sports practice are mainly composed of water, sugar and caffeine, whether synthetic or natural. Caffeine is, in fact, the main source of stimulant in these drinks. It can be accompanied by other substances such as taurine, ginseng, guarana or vitamins and minerals.

Caffeine

Caffeine is a molecule that acts as a psychotropic stimulant. It is present in several plants such as coffee, tea, cocoa and mate and takes the name of the plant from which it comes (caffeine, theine, mateine, etc.). Its consumption should be limited

Guarana

Guarana is a plant from the Amazon that contains a high concentration of caffeine. It is therefore used for its natural caffeine intake. Guarana seeds contain 2.5% to 7% caffeine, which is 2 to 3.5 times more than in coffee beans. This makes it an award-winning ingredient for finding a stimulant effect.

Taurine

Taurine is a neurotransmitter found in many animals, including humans, but most notably in bull bile, from which it gets its name (and that's why Red Bull is called Red Bull!). It is sometimes added to energy drinks to prolong the effect of caffeine.

Ginseng

Ginseng is a medicinal plant used to invigorate the person who consumes it. Originally used to stimulate the immune system, ginseng can also accentuate the stimulating effect of foods and plants such as coffee and guarana. This is why it is often added to energy drinks.

Vitamins

B vitamins are used to stimulate the metabolism of energy production. This metabolism works to transform ingested calories into energy. However, the amount of these vitamins often exceeds the recommended nutritional intake per day.

Minerals

Salt loss through sweat can be considerable. This is why it is a good idea to drink drinks rich in minerals if the duration of the exercise exceeds one hour.

Your lifestyle, and in particular your diet, are important levers in optimizing your physical and sporting performance. This is why choosing your drink as an athlete is important. Beyond water, there are different interesting drinks to stimulate your body according to your goals. A source of hydration and relaxation, mugicha is very interesting to discover.