DO cut your sodium intake in half seven days out from the contest. The reduction should be enough for your body to push out any extra water. Every rep you perform in a workout is dependent on sodium for the muscle contraction to occur.

Although often used interchangeably, sodium and salt are not the same thing. Technically speaking, salt is sodium attached to chloride, and salt is only about 40% sodium. The sodium ion, which is positively charged, is critical to our survival. Without adequate sodium intake, our nerves and muscles would not work properly.

The advantage is that they don’t taste salty and come in 500 mg or 1,000 mg sizes. But the cost is a little higher than regular salt, and you don’t have as much control over the dosage. You may also wonder what type of salt you should add to your pre-workout. The main difference between various types of salts is where they come from and how they’re processed. For those who aren’t chemists, that’s about 3,200 mg of sodium for a 180 lb person. However, many of these studies evaluated long-duration endurance exercises like triathlons or marathons.

One possible explanation is that the volunteers were also allowed to drink during the run, making their extra fluid stores less important. This is different than retaining too much fluid and swelling, which often occurs when you eat a meal that’s too high in sodium or take a high-sodium supplement while training. In this type of fluid retention, the fluids move into non-plasma, non-cellular space between tissues (known as third-spacing) and cause swelling. I’m still yet to meet someone who doesn’t love getting a pump when they train. Whether it’s bulging biceps after a killer arms workout, or inflated glutes after a heavy lower body day, a good pump can make even a novice trainer feel superhuman.

When you stop restricting salt, your insulin levels can drop, allowing your body to access it’s energy reserves – or fat. DiNicolantonio also notes that when you increase your salt intake to supply the body with energy, your salt-retaining hormones go down, improving the sensitivity of your fat cells to insulin. Unlike regular supplements such as pills or even caffeine products, coconut water does not come with its share of side effects. Though caffeine products provide you with a burst of energy, they can disturb your sleep cycle, especially if you are in the habit of working out in the evening.

If salt just really isn’t your thing or you can’t get over the taste, consider drinking a vegetable cocktail like V8 Juice. A glass of 200ml contains approximately 500mg of sodium, as well as other vegetable minerals. So if you’re trying to look shredded, be careful about adding salt to your pre-workout. Next, I’ll answer more frequently asked questions about adding salt to your pre-workout supplement. Another, cheaper solution is using a salt substitute containing potassium chloride. Alternatively, you could use a “low sodium” salt with sodium chloride and potassium chloride in about the correct ratio.

Consuming salt helps increase blood volume to your blood vessels, ultimately increasing cardiovascular fitness, exercise performance, stamina, endurance, better recovery, and more. Another important mineral that pink Himalayan salt contains is iron. Inadequate iron could cause fatigue, shortness of breath, and lightheadedness.

Holly King is a freelance marketing strategist and writer living in Austin, TX. A people-person to the core, she loves finding connection through food, wellness, and travel.

To illustrate, a study compared the core temperature and heart rate of men exercising to exhaustion. They performed one workout with a saltwater infusion and the other without. Adding salt to your pre-workout drink is an easy way to offset the sodium losses that occur while you what does salt before a workout do exercise. How much you sweat varies by body size, activity, and temperature. But on average, you lose a little over 1 liter of water per hour of exercise1. Adding salt to your pre-workout drink can have several advantages, including boosting performance and aiding rehydration.

When carbohydrates are extremely low, you lose even more water, since each gram of glycogen binds approximately 2.7g of water. Diminished carbohydrate levels can cause a host of side effects if sodium levels are inadequate. A lowered blood volume, which reduces vascularity and muscle fullness, is now present.