What are electrolytes?

Electrolytes are minerals that we use in our bodies. They have an electrical charge that is either positive or negative. Due to this, in physiology, they play important roles in physiological reactions. 

They are in our blood, urine, tissue, and body fluids. Due to this, they play an important role in balancing our bodies’ water and moving nutrients into or out of our cells. They also play vital roles in our never cells, muscle contraction, heart contraction, and our brain! 

Examples of these are Sodium, calcium, potassium, chloride, phosphate, and magnesium. We can get them from the foods you eat and the fluids you drink.

So how do they work? 

Our bodies are able to pass electrolytes between the extra cellular environment of our bodies into the cellular environment, such as the sodium potassium pump which passes sodium (Na+) and potassium (K+) across the membranes through types of diffusion. OR our bodies will use the electrolytes to produce an act, such as calcium release in muscle contraction.

Electrolytes are simply little charged minerals in our bodies that do a whole bunch, but in the context of health/fitness help in:⁣
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1) fluid balance by helping move water and nutrients in and out of our cells through concentration gradients (high to low) or with little pumps (appreciate my art work please). ⁣
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2) Muscle contraction! Yay! ⁣
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Sodium is what gets a bad rep here since high sodium diets are common, and can impact those with high blood pressure. I cannot reiterate enough if this is you talk to your doctor 👏🏻⁣
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But sodium actually helps us a whole bunch when we are working out a ton or losing fluid + salt via sweat. Electrolyte supplementation is simply a way to replace this!⁣

Much like our miss view on carbs, electorates AREN’T necessarily good or bad but needs are dependent on activity levels. The RDA is ~500mg/day, but during heavy endurance or sweaty exercise we can need up to 300-500 mg per HOUR. So yes my mom isn’t going to need as much sodium as me in an ultra, or a heavy long GA summer lift.⁣

⁣So simply @liquidiv is that. A solid mix of sodium, potassium & glucose that helps our body maintain fluid balance + take water up into its cells. It’s just a really good tasting product that gets the job done 🤟🏻⁣
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I drink one each morning per workout and if I am sweating a lot a second after. Some days I drink none. Just depends on the day!⁣

⁣DOCLYSSFITNESS always saves you 25% (www.liquidiv.com). But as always there are endless brands to shop & you can get salt in via diet as well. ⁣
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So hopefully you learned something! Do you use electrolytes? 👇🏻