You may be thinking this is another rant on magnesium, which would be a great guess, but it is not.
In fact, it is even more simple than magnesium for a missing nutrient.
I bet you have it in your house right now.
Did you guess it?
Yep, salt.
What?
You may think that I have completely lost it and what could you possibly learn about salt as an ergogenic aid. How could salt be the missing nutrient?
I was in the same boat and missed it too.
The first time I felt the difference was on my trip to Costa Rica 4 years ago. I went down to teach there per an invite from Dr. Ben House.
It was hot.
Very hot.
Plus humid.
It was also March, and my body was not ready for it as it was still winter in MN – which goes to May of course, hehe.
I soon realized that drinking water was not enough. I needed more salt. Like a good bro-science dooooode, I did the experiment where I just added more and more salt each day by adding more salt to my food.
After the 5th day in a row of doing my “salt gone crazy experiment,” I felt normal. I could train in the gym and not feel like a puddle after 10 minutes.
Wow, how could I know something and yet still miss it in practice?
The following 3 years that I went back to teach and hang out, I became known as the “salt pusher” to all the new people.
Turns out it was quite common to not consume enough salt in the heat.
Fast forward to PaleoFX 2 years ago and Robb Wolf was talking about adding more salt as a supplement.
What? Really? What was he smoking!
Then I had flashbacks to Costa Rica and my own salt experiments.
I dug into the research again. All be darn, you can lose GRAMS of sodium during exercise in the heat. While you lose other electrolytes too, sodium was by far and away the main one lost.
Maybe Robb was not sniffing glue. My buddies Luis and Tyler from KetoGains were also raving about this salt thing too.
As of 8 months ago, I started testing a simple electrolyte supplement with sodium, potassium, and magnesium.
Hmmm, I felt better and was drinking more water to boot since it tasted good.
I went to Costa Rica in December where we put meatheads through 2 hours per day of intense exercise for 4 days in a row, all in the name of SCIENCE. Then Ryan and I trained with the same protocol around the hottest part of the day once everyone else was done. I salted the piss out of my breakfast, had 1 package with 1 L water in the AM, and then the same with training.
I felt ….good. Tired, but good.
Wow, a simple idea that makes big a difference. No more missing nutrient. Robb was not insane.
This supplement is known as LMNT
Each packet has 1,000mg Sodium 200mg Potassium, 60mg Magnesium 0mg Sugar, natural flavoring, and sweetener.
Simple.
….and the citrus one is my fav as it tastes AMAZING!
Seriously, it does.
Yes, I am an affiliate for LMNT so I do make a few clams when you buy via my link above.
You know how few products I recommend, and, as always, I did my homework on this one. I bought 3 boxes with my own dinero to test out and gave them to many friends to test out too. Everyone loved them. Check them out below:
Your friend the salt pusher,
Dr Mike
PS- yes there is data to support it too. Here is one study below that looked at fluid and salt loading before exercise:
Mora-Rodriguez R, Hamouti N. Salt and fluid loading: effects on blood volume and exercise performance. Med Sport Sci. 2012;59:113-119. doi:10.1159/000341945
PPS: Check out a list of all my favorites!
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