Fitness Junction

This week:

• Knowledge Corner: The Best Beverage for Fitness

• Monthly Challenge Update: Daily Planks

• Meme Center: It's so damn hot!

Knowledge Corner: The Beverage Hydration Index

Do you know what common beverage is the best for hydration? Is it a sports drink? Coca-Cola? Maybe just plain water? Good news is, research is exploring this very question and attempting to establish a beverage hydration index (BHI) that ranks the hydration quality of different drinks.

So what is the ‘one beverage to rule them all’? Turns out, it’s milk! According to a 2016 randomized controlled trial, both skim milk and whole fat milk were shown to be superior for hydration. The only beverage tested that performed better than milk was an oral rehydration solution (e.g., Pedialyte).

While this study points to oral hydration solutions as the most effective, milk will give you the most bang for your buck. Walmart prices milk between 2-3 cents per ounce whereas Pedialyte is 16 cents per ounce. So, unless you have one of them money trees growing in your backyard, milk is the best choice.

Is getting this particular about hydration effects a little picky? Sure. Water will suffice for most people. If you are training hard though, beverages like milk will increase H2O retention and provide carbohydrates for replenishing glycogen (stored energy in the muscles) – all at a cheaper cost than the big-name sports drinks and medically recommended hydration solutions. Moreover, milk has protein! Bottom line, if you want to maximize thriftiness and get more nutrients than plain water, you could drop the Gatorade and go for good ol' fashion milk.

Trivia

What is the average distance ran by an NBA player each game?

• A. 1.5 miles

• B. 2.5 miles

• C. 3.5 miles

• D. 4.5 miles

March Challenge: 2min Plank Every Day

Oh man, we missed another one! Way she goes. Still, knocked out a solid 12min of plank time this past week.

Meme Center

Deciding to follow the beverage hydration index recommendations in between sets of burpees....

Trivia answer: B. 2.5 miles. Not as much distance covered as the average tennis match (3 miles) but quite a bit more than your average baseball game (.04 miles).

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