How you hydrate after exercise is important to both recovery and injury prevention.

It’s important to use food and drink to put back into the body what exercise takes out.

But a few recent discoveries are turning conventional wisdom on its head,  here at FitYou we want to make sure you’re up to date with the latest health and fitness news, so here are a few discoveries that will keep you informed;

A study from England's Northumbria University found chocolate milk was better for post-exercise recovery than commercial sports drinks. Researchers compared the effects of three beverages on performance in a cycling endurance test: chocolate milk, a commercially available sports drink and a commercially available fluid-replacement drink.
The tests involved nine trained male cyclists in various tests. After each test they drank one of the three test drinks during a four-hour recovery period, and then cycled in an endurance trial.
When the cyclists drank chocolate milk, they were able to cycle 51 per cent longer in the endurance test than
they did when they were given the sports drink and 43 per cent longer than when they were given the fluid replacement drink.

And if you don’t think you can stomach milk after a hard session, try coconut water. Used in South America for generations it’s just hit the Aussie market and if you believe the hype it could be the best thing for you.

Some of its reported benefits include:

350ml of coconut water has the same short term hydrating power as drinking more than one litre of water and eating one banana with less carbohydrates and fat.

Coconut water has five essential electrolytes: potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium & phosphorus.

Coconut water has 15 times the potassium of leading sports drinks and more electrolytes.

It helps to regulate blood pressure, heart function, stress reduction and cramp prevention.

It’s effective in dissolving kidney stones.

It’s a great hangover cure and very beneficial for travelers, particularly on long flights where hydration is important.