Electrolytes are often hailed as a game-changer for athletes — and for good reason too. Even mild dehydration can significantly impact energy levels and performance. These vital minerals help maintain hydration, support muscle function, and optimise athletic output.

But when is the best time to take electrolytes — before or after your workout? Let’s take a closer look and how and when to take these powerful minerals for peak performance.

What are Electrolytes?

Electrolytes are minerals that carry an electric charge. They are the unsung heroes of your body's performance and are essential for a wide range of bodily functions, including:

• Balancing fluid levels inside and outside cells
• Maintaining a steady heartbeat
• Regulating blood pressure
• Transmitting nerve signals throughout the body
• Helping muscles to contract
• Strengthening bones and teeth
• Supporting metabolism

Common electrolytes include sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride, and phosphate. While it is possible to get these essential minerals from a balanced diet, if you’re exercising, you may need additional electrolytes to perform at your peak for longer.

Many people opt for powders or tablets to boost their electrolyte levels, but these products often contain harmful ingredients that can make us susceptible to digestive health problems. Perple offers an all-natural alternative to electrolyte products that leverages the power of real food ingredients, scientifically proven to enhance performance.

View Perple Endurance Mixes

Before, During or After? It Matters!

Electrolytes are crucial for maintaining optimal hydration and performance during workouts, but it’s important to note that they are not a direct source of energy. They do however help the body to produce and use energy.

The specific amount of electrolytes you need depends on factors like the intensity and duration of your workout, your sweat rate, and your overall health. It's essential to listen to your body and adjust your electrolyte intake accordingly. 

Let’s take a look at the times you could take electrolytes to enhance your performance.

Pre-Workout Prep

If you're planning a long or intense session (over an hour), prime your muscles for a workout by taking electrolytes 30-60 minutes beforehand. This helps pre-hydrate your body and ensure proper electrolyte levels from the start.

Replenish Throughout

It’s important to replenish electrolytes throughout your workout. With our Endurance Mixes, we recommend consuming at least:

• Exercise of 1 to 3 hours: 50ml Perple Endurance Mix added to 200 - 300ml of water per hour.
• Exercise of longer than 3 hours: 100ml Perple Endurance Mix added to at least 400ml water per hour.

Recovery

During exercise, you’ll lose a lot of the natural electrolytes as you sweat. If you’ve done a particularly intense workout, or a class like hot yoga where you’ll sweat a lot, taking electrolytes is essential. It helps your body rehydrate efficiently and aids energy production. This combination promotes faster recovery and prevents dehydration, ensuring you're ready to tackle your next workout.

When Do Electrolytes Make a Difference?

Electrolytes are more effective when your body is depleted and needs them most. Let’s take a look at specific situations where taking them can make a major difference to your performance and recovery.

In Hot and Humid Conditions

Hot and humid weather intensifies the body's need for electrolytes. When temperatures soar, your sweat rate increases dramatically, leading to significant electrolyte loss. This depletion can cause dehydration and even heat-related illnesses such as heatstroke. By replenishing electrolytes, you safeguard your body against the negative effects of heat, ensuring optimal hydration and performance in hot weather conditions.

During Intense Workouts

Intense workouts push your body to its limits, resulting in significant sweat loss and electrolyte depletion. These crucial minerals are vital for muscle contractions, nerve function, and maintaining fluid balance. Replenishing your electrolyte stores after intense exercise in particular is essential for optimal recovery and to prevent hindering your next workout.

Debunking The Myth: Electrolytes and Cramps

While many ultra-processed sugary sports drinks or maltodextrin-infused energy gels often strip away important minerals, some add sodium, claiming that if you don’t replenish what was lost through sweat, you will suffer cramps. 

Electrolytes are vital for maintaining proper muscle function. When you sweat heavily during long workouts or in hot climates, you lose crucial electrolytes like sodium, potassium, and magnesium. However, this depletion does not lead to muscle cramps. 

There's a strong body of evidence to refute this. In particular, research by T. D. Noakes raises the neuromuscular control theory of exercise-associated muscle cramps (EAMC) which suggests that cramping occurs when reflexes that normally inhibit the actions of a “cramp generator” – somewhere in the central nervous system, likely the spinal cord – become quiescent.

Training, stretching and feeding are what prevent muscle cramps. Not electrolytes. 

Perple was born out of a need for change and to challenge the false claims and artificial ingredients commonly found in most energy and hydration products. Get to know what you're putting in your body with Perple and why it's so important.

Why Perple?

Unleash Your Potential: Naturally Powered Workouts

Forget about energy drinks — taking electrolytes could be the secret weapon that takes your workout to the next level. But remember that electrolytes themselves are not an energy source, and electrolyte powders and tablets may contain nasties that you’d be wise to avoid.

Ditch the junk and embrace peak performance with Perple.

• Discover our Sports Drinks for 60-90 minutes in the gym, dance studio, Peloton, football training and other team or solo sports.
  
  
• Discover our Endurance Mixes, perfect for 90 minutes+ in running and cycling in the great outdoors.