You do not need a complicated protocol to get electrolyte timing right. It comes down to three moments: before, during, and after a sweaty effort.
Should I take electrolytes before exercise?
Before a long, hot, or hard session, a serving gives you a head start so you are not already behind when you begin to sweat. This helps most before early-morning training, races, sauna sessions, or anything in real heat.
During exercise
For anything over about an hour of hard sweat, sip to keep up rather than waiting until the end. Single-serve stick packs make this easy: tear one into your bottle and drink to thirst. Flavored mixes are easy to sip through a long session.
After exercise
After a sweaty effort, replace what the session took out so you recover and rehydrate properly. This is where plain water alone tends to leave you flat, because you have lost sodium along with the fluid.
How much, and how do I size it?
One Saltivate serving is 800mg sodium, 240mg potassium, and 60mg magnesium. On a long, hard effort, roughly a serving per hour of heavy sweating is a simple guide. To get a number for your own sweat rate, use the sweat sodium loss calculator.
Unflavored mixes cleanly into water or anything else, and the flavors are easy to drink during a session. Browse single-serve stick packs for training and travel, or a bulk jar for home.
