Interests: Living life as an intiatic experience, uniting with like minds and hearts to build a better, cleaner, more peaceful world, listening to the wisdom of the inner voice, communing with the elemental forces of Nature, the arts, media and communications, personal growth and development, the natural healing arts, interesting cuisines, cinema, all that expands the consciousness, betters the Self, and links me with THAT from Which I come.
Inspiration: Whitman, Thoreau, the Tao, deep meditation, spiritually anointed words carried on the human voice and the Cosmic Winds, being with those of like mind and calling.
From my experience In High School Being a Volleyball player and Football manager sports drinks are my specialty. Here are the Pro's and con's of sports drinks:
Pros: Studies clearly show that athletes (even weekend warriors and kids running around their backyards) benefit from chugging sports drinks instead of water. Why, you ask? We tend to drink 25 percent to a whopping 90 percent more of flavored sports drinks than plain old water, thus preventing dehydration.
Bonus: The carbohydrates in sports drinks help fuel active muscles, preventing fatigue and encouraging increased effort.
Cons: Sports drinks are NOT helpful when you're watching sports on TV, sitting around the pool or enjoying a fast-food burger and fries. Ounce for ounce, sports drinks have about half the calories and sugar of fruit juice or regular soft drinks -- but the calories add up more quickly than you'd think. The message is clear: If you're not exercising, drink water instead. You don't need the electrolytes, and you haven't earned the calories.
In my opinion YES the pro's outweight the con's. But I have not heard of any "green" sports Drinks, but if you do let me know!
While sports drinks offer electrolytes and as monmac mentioned carbohydrates... they do have a lot of sugar and this reduces the rate of water absorption so this prevents cells from getting properly hydrated. But that sugar does give you that extra stamina so it's not that bad afterall. To the point; sports drinks don't hydrate as effectively in comparison to water.
I haven't found anything that's equally good as sports drinks (taste-wise) but that hydrates effectively like water does. I just stick to water, and throwing in a sports drink or two every once in a while to get those electrolytes is a good combo.
The answer is clear though, water is the best choice for rehydration. But you should also consider that you will drink more of what you like and eventually get better hydration by drinking that sports drink. I guess it all depends on your personal likes.
note: Water is friendlier to the environment, you should consider the plastic containers those sports drinks usually come in. Sticking to home filtered water in a reusable bottle is best! :)
I have had good luck with ZMA as a supplemt for muscle-building. It helps to boost testosterone which can prmote lean muscle mass development. You can also try taking Tribulus terrestris to boost testosterone. There are several organic brands of tribulus around.
I would suggest ditching the gatorades & other sports drinks in favor of a postworkout shake made with whey protein and a simple carbohydrate like organic oats. You can mix it all up in a blender with either water or organic skim milk- maybe some organic fruit. If you do not like whey protein, you can substitute soy, but I prefer whey myself.