Do Sports Drinks Actually Boost Endurance Performance?
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Sports drinks are a go-to choice for many athletes. Whether you're running, cycling, or hitting the gym, you've probably seen or used a drink that claims to improve performance. But do these drinks really help, or are they just hype?
A recent study set out to answer this question by testing different sports drink ingredients on trained male athletes. Let’s explore what the researchers found—and what it means for your workout routine.
What Was the Study About?
Researchers wanted to see if common sports drink ingredients—like sugar (dextrose), beetroot extract, and amino acids (arginine and citrulline)—helped improve endurance performance. They tested four different drinks on trained cyclists:
- Plain water with a bit of citric acid (Placebo)
- Water with dextrose (a simple sugar) and sodium
- The same sugar solution plus beetroot extract
- All of the above plus amino acids
Each athlete tried all four drinks in separate sessions, with a week of rest between each trial.
How Was Performance Measured?
Each participant drank 600 ml of the assigned solution before cycling. The exercise session included a warm-up, 40 minutes of steady cycling at a challenging pace, and then cycling to exhaustion.
The researchers measured things like:
- Time to exhaustion
- Heart rate
- Blood sugar and lactate levels
- Perceived exertion (how hard the workout felt)
What Did the Results Show?
Surprisingly, none of the sports drink combinations led to better performance compared to plain water. Whether athletes drank sugar water, beetroot extract, or added amino acids, the outcomes remained the same.
Some key findings:
- No difference in time to exhaustion, heart rate, or oxygen use across the drinks.
- Blood sugar increased temporarily after drinking the sugary solutions, but it didn’t improve performance.
- No noticeable change in how hard the workout felt to the athletes.
Why Didn’t These Drinks Work?
There could be a few reasons:
- The workouts were only about 50 minutes long, and most athletes had enough stored energy (glycogen) in their bodies already.
- Highly trained athletes might not see much benefit from supplements unless their energy stores are low.
- The doses of beetroot and amino acids might have been too small to make a difference.
What Does This Mean for You?
If you're a well-fed, trained athlete doing workouts under an hour, you probably don’t need a fancy sports drink. Water may be just as effective—at least for short endurance efforts.
However, if you're doing longer sessions (90+ minutes) or exercising in hot conditions where dehydration is a risk, sports drinks with electrolytes and carbs can still be helpful.
Also, beginners or those with poor nutrition might benefit more from such drinks than the elite athletes in this study.
Practical Tips for Everyday Athletes
- Stick to water for workouts under an hour—especially if you’ve eaten well beforehand.
- Save sports drinks for long or intense sessions, or if you’re training in heat and sweating a lot.
- Focus on a balanced diet. No supplement beats a good mix of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats from whole foods.
- Try different options if you’re preparing for a race—but do your testing in training, not on race day.
Final Thoughts
While sports drinks are marketed as performance boosters, this study shows they may not help much if you’re already fueled and hydrated. That doesn’t mean they’re useless, but it’s a good reminder to look at the big picture—hydration, diet, training, and rest all matter.