Effective Ways to Support Fluid Balance and Maintain Performance

Progress requires work. Hard work.

Hard work means sweating.

Sweating means the loss of water and electrolytes, two finite resources critical to sustaining performance and realizing long-term goals.

But slamming salt all day is not the answer. By understanding when and how to supplement with electrolytes, a more nuanced and efficient approach to performance can be implemented.

This is not about the latest wellness trend. This is about actual science to inform efficient and effective ways to support fluid balance and maintain optimal performance.

What We Will Cover

What Electrolytes Do

When You Actually Need Electrolytes

Tailoring Electrolytes to Training

Hybrid Training

Hybrid Even Protocol:

Short Efforts in the Heat

Hybrid Even Protocol:

The Bottom Line

What Electrolytes Do

Simply put, electrolytes are minerals that carry an electrical charge. This charge allows sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride to support core aspects of human function.

Electrolytes are involved in hundreds of physiological functions, from transmitting nerve impulses and driving muscle contraction to regulating fluid balance and hydration

Beyond simply "hydrating," electrolytes support rehydration by helping the body retain fluids and maintain appropriate ratios of water to salts. Both are essential for sustaining performance, particularly during long sessions or in hot environments.

When You Actually Need Electrolytes

Just like most supplements, electrolytes can be found in everyday food, especially sodium and chloride. Under normal conditions, diet alone is often sufficient.

Supplementation becomes necessary when physiological demand exceeds baseline intake.

Fluid balance is one of the primary benefits of electrolyte supplementation. As fluids and minerals are lost through sweat, performance starts to suffer. Hydrating with electrolytes helps to preserve output and support prolonged performance.

Electrolytes become essential when:

• Sessions last longer than 60 minutes
• Sweating is heavy and constant
• Sweat is "salty"
• Training in high heat and/or humidity
• Hard sessions stacked close together, and fast rehydration is required
• Long training days with limited rest
• Training at high altitudes

Tailoring Electrolytes to Training

Proper hydration is built on the foundation of electrolytes and water. By following specific protocols, optimal training can be further supported, and goals can be realized.

It is important to note that before supplementation even begins, a baseline must be set. Water is a must throughout the day, not just around training time or when the weather gets hot.

To set this baseline, drink half your body weight in water in fluid oz each day.

That is for everyone. Not just Tom Brady. Not just elite athletes. Everyone.

Once that is established, then electrolyte supplementation protocols can be applied.

Here are two examples:

Hybrid Training

Hybrid training combines running and loaded and bodyweight work, often with little to no rest. Training and competitive events can average over 95 minutes. Sweat loss is constant, and fatigue stacks fast.

Needless to say, without proper hydration, completing them can be a brutal undertaking.

Hybrid Even Protocol:

Before Events and Long Training Sessions (90 to 120 minutes)

• Consume 16 to 32 fluid oz.
• Supplement with at least 500 mg of sodium.

During the Event and Training

• Consume ~4 fluid oz every 15 minutes
• Consumption goal: 12 to 16 fluid ounces.
• Supplementation goal: consume at least 500 mg per hour.

Completion (Rehydration)

• Consume at least 50 fluid oz of water (assuming a 33 fluid ounces /hr sweat rate) ***
• Supplementation: 500mg to 1g of sodium.

Short Efforts in the Heat

Shorter events, like a 5k race, require something different. Sweat loss is high, but duration is short, lasting under an hour. Duration changes, so the protocol must change with it.

Hybrid Even Protocol:

Before the event (90 to 120 minutes)

• Consume 16 to 32 fluid oz.
• Supplement with at least 500 mg of sodium.

During the Event

• Consume water as needed, if at all.

Completion (Rehydration)

• Consume at least 50 fluid oz of water (assuming a 33 fluid ounces /hr sweat rate)
• Supplementation: 500mg to 1g of sodium. ***

***This is based on a 150% rehydration rule. If you don't know your sweat rate, dry yourself off and step on a scale to find out roughly how much weight you have lost at the end of the event. For every 2.2lbs lost, 1.5 liters should be consumed.