Why You Shouldn’t Overlook Electrolytes During Exercise

Ever since your days on the high school sports team, you’ve likely been instructed time and time again to drink your electrolytes any time a sweat bead drips from your forehead. But those repeated reminders over the years may not have made the nutrients — or what they actually do for your health — any less mystifying. 

Minerals with an electrical charge, electrolytes dissolve in water and play a handful of roles in the body, including balancing your pH level, moving nutrients into and waste out of your cells, maintaining heart rate and rhythm, and stabilizing blood pressure, according to the National Library of Medicine. The main electrolytes are sodium, potassium, calcium, chloride, magnesium, bicarbonate, and phosphate.

You generally don’t need to look at your electrolyte intake under a microscope, except for one occasion: exercise.