Hydrate with enough pure water. Gatorade does not replace electrolytes; it hops the body up on sugar and high fructose corn syrup as well as refined versions of sodium chloride. A pinch of unprocessed Celtic sea salt in that water will supply the body with the trace minerals it needs and allows the water to better permeate the cell walls.
Get adequate rest between training sessions and unless all the other factors in your environment such as nutrition, work/relationship stressors and rest cycles are optimal 80% of the time, moderate exercise is best for those of us who are not professional or elite level competitors (even so, many of them are over training!). Fatigue and pain (the body’s idiot light) are signals that we need to back off, not tough it out to get stronger. This really archaic thinking simply won’t get anyone to the levels they want to get to. Low levels of exercise during rest time (known as active recovery) often helps recovery between sessions.. That means moving at levels which don’t require open mouth breathing; this will stimulate the parasympathetic system, which is anabolic (builds up) in nature. Fitness and wellness should be sensible, fun and invigorating, not a test of how far we can go for how long on the least amount of good food.
References and additional reading:
Chek, Paul; You Are What You Eat CD Series, Chek Institute, San Diego, CA 2002
Chek, Paul; How to Eat, Move and be Healthy, Chek Institute, San Diego, CA 2002
Chek, Paul; Nutrition and Lifestyle Coach, Level 1 Certification Course, Chek Institute, San Diego, CA 2002
Chek, Paul; Program Design Correspondence Course, Chek Institute, San Diego, CA
Rubins, Josh; Low Calorie Diet and Weight Loss, PTontheNet, June 20, 2007
Quinn, Elizabeth; Preventing Overtraining – When Less is More, About.Com: Sports Medicine
