The Best Source Of Hydration For Cheerleaders (Hint: It’s Not Water!)

As we all know, water played a pretty big role at the Cheerleading Worlds in 2016, but not exactly in the best way possible.

Remember the wet floor fiasco? Yeah competition mats are the last thing that should be “hydrated” when our girls and boys are doing complicated pyramids and throwing double fulls.

But I want to focus on a different topic where water plays an important role: hydration under the intense Florida heat!

You see, when you’re sweating buckets and are asked to put on the performance of a lifetime, water by itself is not the ideal solution.

In fact, drinking too much water when you’ve experienced heavy sweating can lead to something called hyponatremia (an electrolyte imbalance where you don’t have enough sodium).

But sodium isn’t the only electrolyte that you lose. There are 4 others such a potassium, chloride, calcium and magnesium. As you can guess, they are called electrolytes because they help conduct electricity. And your muscles only fire & produce force when your central nervous system gives them the electrical signal to do so.

No electrical signals means no working muscles, and no working muscles means no amazing cheer routine.

While all five electrolytes are important, the two main ones athletes need to be aware of are sodium and potassium. An excessive loss in either of these can lead to nausea, muscle cramps, loss in performance and other symptoms that will have you feeling at your worst.

“No problem”, you might think. “I’ll just buy a sugar-free sports drink! It’s low in calories and it’ll keep my electrolyte levels in check!”

The Pitfalls And Dangers Of Sugar-Free Sports Drinks

While heading towards the sports-drink territory is a start, it’s not exactly an ideal solution – especially when it’s sugar-free. Here’s why:

First, glucose the preferred fuel source for you muscles so it doesn’t make sense why you wouldn’t want to be topped up on it before competing. Also, if you’ve read any of my nutrition articles on this site or in magazines, then you know that liquid carbohydrates absorb much faster than solid sources, which can be useful when you’re about to compete or train within the hour. The last thing you want is a chicken sandwich jumping around in your belly as you try and tumble across the floor.

Second, any time you increase the amount of salt you take in (whether it’s through food or through an electrolyte beverage) you need to increase the amount of water and the rate of its absorption. If you don’t do this you could end up with too much salt in your bloodstream (known as hypernatremia). This can cause diarrhea and vomiting. Not good!

Luckily, glucose actually helps speed up the absorption of water when combined with electrolytes. This is why most sports drink contain sugar in the first place instead of just being sold as bottled salt water (ew!)

The Bottom Line

Sugar-Free sports drinks are a waste of money. Sugar + Electrolytes + Water will hydrate you faster than water alone. This is a huge benefit when you’re sweating constantly.

Here’s another important fact you should remember: if your sports drink contains fructose (the sugar from fruits) then you will NOT get the benefit of rapid absorption since fructose doesn’t use the same transporter as glucose. There’s a big difference, so don’t get scammed.

“Sugar + Electrolytes + Water will hydrate you faster than water alone” (Tweet This)

The Ultimate Hydration Beverage

With all that said, I must say that it’s tough to find a good sports drink. While you want it to have some sugar, you obviously don’t want to buy a bottle that has the same amount of glucose as a bottle of soda. That’s a recipe of a muffin top, not proper hydration.

Luckily, there happens to be a drink you can buy which is 100% natural, perfectly balanced, refreshing, has just the right amount of sugar, and has proven to cause almost zero stomach discomfort unlike most sports drinks.

Oh and it also contains all five of the essential electrolytes that I mentioned above (unlike most sports drinks which only contain 2 or 3).

Can you guess what it is?

Say hello to Coconut Water!

It is by far the best beverage for high performing athletes, especially since it contains up to 10 times the level of potassium compared to most sports drinks, sparing you from agonizing muscle cramps and twitches.

Those who have read my book, The Cheer Diet already knew about this amazing drink. I constantly receive emails from athletes about how much better they feel (and perform) in summer intense heat once they made the switch to coconut water.

It’s the best kept “secret” in hydration and I urge you to try it out.

Here’s to an amazingly productive summer training session!

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