Skratch Labs Hydration Drinks

Tom Wigginton • May 20, 2014
Skratch Labs Hydration Drinks

Guest Post by Allen Lim, PhD.


Why Sports Drinks are Important


A Little Primer on the Logic Behind Sports Drinks:


1) You sweat whenever you are doing something that makes you really hot like working out or mowing the lawn in oppressive heat.


2) Sweat has fluid and electrolytes like sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride.


3) While all electrolytes are important to your body’s function and performance, sodium is by far the most important electrolyte, because a decrease in your body’s sodium concentration – something called hyponatremia – can have some extremely negative consequences that range the gamut from just not feeling well to seizures, excessive urination, incontinence (that’s when you soil yourself), and even death.


4) There is anywhere from 200 mg to 1000 mg of sodium in a liter of sweat (Our Exercise Hydration Mix contains 620 mg of sodium per liter).


5) Since sweat has both fluid and electrolytes in it, drinking water alone to replace the fluid you lose when you’re sweating can be really dangerous since this is the quickest way to decrease or dilute your body’s sodium concentration. So if you’re exercising and you find yourself peeing a lot and feeling really sick, you may be hyponatremic and you’ll need to rehydrate with something with a lot of salt in it or just eat salty foods with whatever your drinking.


6) In theory, the best thing to drink when you’re sweating is your own sweat. But drinking sweat tastes gross. This is just my personal opinion cause I’ve tried it. Also, I’m pretty sure that if I gave someone a glass of sweat to drink that they’d be pissed and throw the glass at me. Finally, it’s hard to capture all the sweat you lose when you’re sweating unless you have one of those cool suits from the movie Dune that recycles your sweat and urine.


7) Sweat does not contain artificial colors, artificial flavors (or any flavoring agents for that matter), sugar, artificial sweeteners, preservatives or other strange ingredients that you need to take an organic chemistry class to figure out.


8) Most sports drinks contain water, electrolytes, and some form of sugar to provide a small source of energy to help maintain blood sugar and fuel working muscle. Unfortunately, most sports drinks also contain artificial colors, flavoring agents, artificial sweeteners, preservatives as well as other strange ingredients that you need to take an organic chemistry class to figure out.


9) My experience is that most sports drinks don’t contain enough electrolytes, have too much sugar, and that all of the excess ingredients make people sick when they drink too much of it.


10) Without the fruit, citric acid (i.e., lime), and sugar our Exercise Hydration Mix tastes just like sweat (Again, I’ve tried our mix without any fruit and it is nasty). But with a little bit of fruit, citric acid, and sugar our Exercise Hydration Mix tastes clean and light. So here’s the plug – if you are sweating a lot and need something to rehydrate with that replaces what you lose in your sweat but you don’t want a bunch of excessive ingredients and you don’t want to drink your own sweat, give our Exercise Hydration Mix a try. And if you don’t think it’s better than your own sweat or the sports drink you get at the gas station, let us know and we’ll make it up to you.


For more information about exercise science, nutrition and other fun facts to know and tell, visit Skratch Labs online at www.skratchlabs.com.


This post originally appeared on February 15, 2012 on www.skratchlabs.com

You might also enjoy these posts . . .

The Cardio Habit - Making It Stick

By Tom Wigginton • June 5, 2025
How to create a cardio habit and turn it into a cardio lifestyle. We’ve talked about why cardio matters . You’ve got a handle on tr aining zones . And you’ve seen how we program your cardio training to maximize efficiency and results. But knowledge alone doesn’t build consistency. Cardio becomes the life-changing ingredient in your life when it becomes routine. So let’s talk about how to get started and how to make it stick —even if you don’t love it, even if your schedule is full, even if you’ve tried and failed before. This article is written mostly for the dabblers . The key is to get started, keep moving, and eventually create a new identity for yourself as someone who finds joy in their daily cardio habit. And to be clear, this isn’t about becoming a pro athlete. It’s about living longer, living better, protecting your independence as you age, and showing up for the future you want.

Cardio for Life: From Daily Dabblers to Podium Seekers

By Tom Wigginton • May 30, 2025
How to build a cardio plan that matches your goals—whether you're in it to win it or just want to feel 10 years younger. Nobody wants to rust out too early and yet, not everybody wants to race either. Most people fall somewhere in between. Maybe you’re not chasing a podium, but you are chasing longevity and quality of life. Or, maybe you’re not training for a triathlon, but you do like to enjoy a long hike without needing three days to recover. Or maybe you are chasing podiums, glory, and fame! In any case, that's great! In part 1 of this series, we talked about Why Cardio Matters . In part 2, we talked about gauging your effort levels by Decoding Your Training Zones . If you haven’t read those, you will find them helpful. Whether your goal is vitality , confidence , or competition , there’s a cardio plan that fits. The trick is structuring it smartly based on what your body needs and your life allows.

Decoding Training Zones: What They Are and Why They Matter

By Tom Wigginton • May 23, 2025
How you can train smarter to live longer, live better, and stay active and independent — maybe into your 90s or 100s. In our previous article, Why Cardio Matters , we talked about the benefits of doing cardio (like living longer) and introduced you to a few terms that might have been new: Zone 2, VO₂ Max, and lactate clearance. We also offered a general recommendation for how much cardio to do weekly. This article takes the next step: breaking down how the intensity you work at affects the benefits you get from each training session. The science of exercising is rich, complex, exciting, and overwhelming. Besides the fact that it is indeed complicated, it’s made worse by having acronyms for everything, buzzy catchphrases, and intimidating fitness personalities. This is where I’m going to try to make this easier to understand, convey why you should care, and encourage you to add cardio to your daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal lifestyles.

Why Cardio Matters: Fitness, Longevity, and What Most People Miss

By Tom Wigginton • May 16, 2025
“Doing cardio.” What even does that mean? For some people, it’s hopping on the rower, bike, ski erg, treadmill, or elliptical and checking the box for however long Tom said to do it, then sneaking out before anyone asks questions. Others train for sanity. It helps manage stress, clear the mind, and release a flood of feel-good chemistry. Also in this category are people who actually just love to run, bike, swim, or play sportsball purely for the fun. And then there are those training for performance—to win races, set PRs, and push personal limits. All of this is cardio. And yet, when you zoom out and look at the data, it becomes clear that cardiovascular fitness does something that has a very measurable outcome: it extends your lifespan . And while we’ve all heard that cardio is good for your heart, most people don’t realize just how deep that benefit runs. And as in the case of so many other aspects of life, the broader public often benefits from the insights that trickle down from elite performance research. So whether you're reluctantly doing cardio or chasing a vibe, you’re tapping into the same physiological systems that turn podium-seekers into podium winners.
How to Select the Right Weight for Each Lift

How to Select the Right Weight for Each Lift

By Tom Wigginton • May 9, 2025
Question: “How do I select a weight for an exercise, and when should I go up?” We get this question literally several times every single day. And the answer isn't just “go heavier.” The answer is: it depends. Heavier is better—when heavier is appropriate. Sometimes you should go lighter and move faster. Sometimes you should go longer with the same weight. Sometimes you shouldn’t lift at all. Smart weight selection is about clarity, context, and responsiveness. Here’s how we think through it: 1. Is the Movement High-Quality? Before anything else, we ask: Are you doing the movement well? This is Phase 3 work— movement mastery . If you’re still learning the pattern, ironing out inefficiencies, or rebuilding capacity post-injury, weight selection should support technical precision. That means: Moving in clean lines Feeling the right muscles Owning each rep from start to finish
Strength Training and Prostate Cancer: What the Research Says — and How to Get Started

Strength Training and Prostate Cancer: What the Research Says — and How to Get Started

By Tom Wigginton • May 9, 2025
A prostate cancer diagnosis can feel like a loss of control. Treatments like hormone therapy or radiation are often necessary and effective, but they can come with side effects that chip away at quality of life — fatigue, muscle loss, weight gain, anxiety, and more. But there’s a growing body of research that points to something powerful you can control: your strength. Strength Training as a Therapeutic Tool Over the past decade, studies have consistently shown that regular, structured exercise — particularly strength training — can improve outcomes for men with prostate cancer. Here’s what the science tells us:
Show More