Help FAQs

If you do have any questions about an order, please email our team at hello@pfandh.com and they’ll be on hand to help with any queries. 

Orders from the United States are shipped from our US warehouse and generally take 2-5 days to arrive.

Orders from the United Kingdom are shipped from our UK warehouse. Orders placed before 3pm (GMT) Monday to Friday are despatched the same day. Orders shipped via standard or free shipping (Royal Mail Tracked 48) generally arrive in 2-3 working days. If you opt for Express Shipping (DPD), your order will arrive the next working day if you order before 3pm from within Mainland U.K. (NI and the Channel Islands will take longer).

Orders from Canada are shipped from our Canadian warehouse and generally take 2-5 days to arrive.

Orders from Australia are shipped from our Aussie warehouse and generally take 2-5 days to arrive.

Orders from Europe are shipped from our warehouse in Germany. Orders placed before 12 noon (CET) Monday to Friday are shipped the same day. Orders generally take 2-7 days to arrive.

Orders from Asia are shipped from our UK warehouse and generally take 4-7 days to arrive.

Orders from Central/South America are shipped from our US warehouse and generally take 3-7 days to arrive, but can take longer on occasion.

If you do have any questions about an order, please email our team at hello@pfandh.com and they’ll be on hand to help with any queries. 

Thank you for supporting small businesses like ours during this difficult time.

When your order has been dispatched from our warehouse you'll get an email with the subject line "Your electrolytes have shipped.". This should include some tracking information and a link to track your order. Please note that the postal services can take ~48 hours to update the status of your order, so no need to be alarmed if you click through and you don't immediately see any useful information.

Orders from the United States are shipped from our US warehouse and generally take 2-5 days to arrive.

Orders from the United Kingdom are shipped from our UK warehouse and generally take 2-5 days to arrive. If you opt for Express Shipping, your order will arrive the next working day if you order before midday from within Mainland U.K. (NI and the Channel Islands will take longer).

Orders from Canada are shipped from our Canadian warehouse and generally take 2-5 days to arrive.

Orders from Australia are shipped from our Aussie warehouse and generally take 2-5 days to arrive.

Orders from Europe are shipped from our warehouse in Germany, and generally take 2-7 days to arrive.

Orders from Asia are shipped from our UK warehouse and generally take 4-7 days to arrive.

Orders from Central/South America are shipped from our US warehouse and generally take 3-7 days to arrive, but can take longer on occasion.

If you don't receive your order within 7 days (or 14 days in Asia, South America, Africa and Australasia) then please email us at hello@pfandh.com and let us know your Order # and we’ll get you an update ASAP!

We do not collect taxes or duty on international orders (i.e. those outside of the UK, EU, United States, Canada or Australia). Those payments are the responsibility of the buyer and may be charged by local postage agents prior to receipt.

We do have a shop at our HQ in the New Forest, UK. You can find us at Old Saw Mills, Lyndhurst Road, Hinton, CHRISTCHURCH, BH23 7DX.

Please do let us know in advance that you're planning on coming and what you'd like to buy, so we can get your package ready for you.

We recommend using What3Words to find us as we're deep in the woods! https://what3words.com/short.theory.flute

If you can't get the picturesque New Forest, you can of course use our free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get personalised product recommendations and order through www.precisionfuelandhydration.com - we ship worldwide!

Absolutely! We regularly ship our products to BFPO and APO/FPO overseas addresses. When you get to the checkout, just make sure to include all of the details of your overseas mailing address.

For BFPO postcodes:

• At the checkout, the country should be set to United Kingdom
• Your order will be shipped via Royal Mail

For US Armed Forces addresses:

• At the checkout, the country should be set to USA for US armed forces addresses
• Your order will be shipped via USPS

Occasionally, we may need to split your order into multiple parcels if there are limitations on the size or weight that your military address can receive. If this is the case, we will let you know by email.

We offer a no quibble, 30-day money back guarantee on unopened/unused products. In the unlikely event that you’re unhappy with your order, you can return them to us for a replacement or refund.

How to return your order

1. Email our customer support team on hello@pfandh.com within 30 days of receiving your products and let us know you'd like to return your order. Please also let us know why so we can improve our products and service in future.
2. Please include your order number inside the box and send it to the address our support team provides.
3. We'll then refund you, asap. Please allow up to 30 days for the refund to be processed.

Unless your products are damaged, faulty or we sent you the wrong goods by mistake, we'd ask you to arrange for and pay the costs of returning the products to us.

While in your possession, please keep any products you intend to return to us in good condition. We may refuse your return/refund if the products arrive back to us in bad shape (unless, of course, they arrived with you that way!). Orders damaged in transit to you will be replaced at no additional cost to you. Please just inform us of any damage to the products within 3 days of delivery, ideally sending us a photograph so we can raise this with the courier.

Please note that we can only replace/refund products ordered from Precision Fuel & Hydration directly (online or at an event), not products bought through retailers or partners such as our Sweat Test Centers. Please contact them directly to check their returns policy and discuss the matter.

All of our products are independently batch tested for a wide range of prohibited substances on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list. We can provide batch certificates on request.

Our all-natural drink mixes are also Informed Sport / Informed Choice certified.

If you are in the USA, our low-calorie effervescent tablets are also NSF Certified for Sport.

Our multi-strength electrolyte supplements come in three different formats and the differences between them is something we're asked a lot. 

This blog breaks down the differences between our 3 different types of electrolyte supplement.

Which strengths are right for me?

Our exercise-free, Sweat Test tells you your sweat sodium concentration and we developed an algorithm-based free Fuel & Hydration Planner to give you a decent idea of which strengths you’re likely to need, which you can then refine in training.

Whilst the Sweat Test is the gold standard, the plannr has genuine efficacy. We sent thousands of data points from our Sweat Tests to a leading university here in the U.K. and they found a strong correlation between how salty athletes think their sweat is and reality.

All of our products have a light citrusy flavour (with the exception of Electrolyte Capsules, which are designed to be swallowed whole with water). Thousands of athletes have tested our products and the feedback is always positive - the most common feedback is that our drinks "taste a bit like flavoured water". We worked very hard to ensure it's nice to drink, even during intense exercise. 

The different colours on our packaging represent the different amounts of sodium each of our products contain, from 250mg of sodium per litre (320z) of sweat up to 1,500mg/l (32oz).

Our all-natural drink mixes are made in the U.K.

Our effervescent tablets are made in Germany and the USA.

Our SweatSalt Capsules are also made in the U.K.

Our all-natural drink mixes contain just 8 natural ingredients.

The key one is sodium and in the all-natural range, this comes in the form of Sodium Citrate, which is alkaline and therefore much easier to drink in larger volumes and more suitable for the body when exercising, which is great if you're prone to GI issues on longer/hotter events when you're drinking more.

The drink mixes also contain base amounts of potassium, calcium and magnesium, similar to the low levels found in normal human sweat. Unless you have a deficiency in these electrolytes, you needn't worry so much about them, it's sodium that is most important to staying hydrated and this is the electrolyte that makes up most of your sweat (alongside water) - that's why it tastes salty! 

Oh, and there’s also a little bit of citric acid and vitamin C, just to help with the taste and improve the stability of the products when they’re stored in your cupboard before use.

The light citrusy flavour comes solely from natural fruit extracts; the glucose comes from simple cane sugar.

There are no artificial or synthetic ingredients in the all-natural drink mixes. This was really important to us as we are aware that more and more athletes are seeking to minimise or eliminate these from their diets. 

The drinks are suitable for vegetarians and vegans and they’re gluten, dairy and GMO free. We followed the basic principle that we’d only put in exactly what was needed to make a useful and great tasting hydration drink. Nothing more.

The all-natural drink mixes are also Informed Sport / Informed Choice certified and tested, so you needn't worry about them containing anything on the WADA anti-doping list.

Our all-natural electrolyte drinks contain a bit of sugar and some people ask questions about that as sugar has a bit of a bad rep these days! 

But, when Mary Poppins sang “a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down”, she really was on to something. You see, a small amount of sugar (glucose) in a solution significantly improves the movement of water into the body when paired with plenty of sodium. Our hypotonic hydration formulas take advantage of this using a well researched mechanism called ‘sodium glucose co-transport’ to increase the rate at which fluid gets into your body. 

It's basically the same concept used in medical oral rehydration solutions to rapidly rehydrate those suffering from severe dehydration from sickness and diarrhoea who can’t be given a drip, so it has a lot of efficacy behind it. 

As well as helping you absorb fluid faster to stay hydrated, sugar also has the side benefit of helping keep your energy levels up during prolonged exercise. Don’t misunderstand us here, sugar, like anything in excess, is not good for you and our products are in no way ‘energy drinks’. 

But, for active athletes, consuming sugar appropriately really makes a lot of sense, especially when you’re working hard. In actual fact (and despite the bashing they receive in the more popular press on a regular basis), carbohydrates are still up there as the most proven and potent substances athletes can legally consume to maintain endurance performance. 

As with most things in life, moderation is the key word here. A single 20g serving of Precision Hydration (mixed into 500ml/16oz of water as directed) creates a hypotonic 3% carbohydrate solution. That’s the optimal amount for fluid absorption and less than half the level found in typical isotonic drinks such as Gatorade, Powerade and Lucozade Sport. 

Each packet of PH 500/1000/1500 delivers just under 70 Kcal per 500ml/16oz serving and approximately 15g of carbohydrate per 500ml/16oz. This means that most athletes will definitely still need to get the majority of their calories from foods or other solid nutrition products.  But that's exactly how it should be: Rapidly absorbed fluids from your bottles and calories from solid foods. You can then dial hydration, sodium and calorie requirements up and down independently to suit whatever you're doing, whatever the conditions.

For more on how we see our all-natural drink mixes fitting into your wider nutrition strategy, read this blog.

Our effervescent tablets are low calorie, making them the best option for anyone on a LCHF diet, anyone fasting to burn more fat or those with diabetes or other conditions that require a reduced sugar intake.

For a full list of ingredients and nutritional information, click your strength(s) below:

PH 250

PH 500

PH 1000

PH 1500

You can see the differences between our 3 different types of electrolyte supplements, and advice on which might be right for you in different scenarios here.

There are numerous subtleties that you can only ever figure out based on the individual nature of your own body and the situations you find yourself in. But, hopefully this will give you a good sense of the right direction in which to set off...

What does your body actually need during endurance exercise?

No matter what kind of activity you’re doing, whenever you're exercising hard for several hours at a time your body loses water and sodium in sweat. It also burns calories, mostly in the form of carbohydrates stored in your muscles and liver.

Water, salt and calories are therefore essentially the main ‘costs’ of doing an endurance event.

The nuts and bolts of any sensible nutrition plan should therefore be largely based on replacing varying proportions of each of these three items to enable you to sustain your performance.

Each of these categories demands a different approach when it comes to hydration and energy replenishment...

Short activities (less than about 90 minutes)

Before you sweat

Make sure you begin whatever you’re doing topped up with fluids, electrolytes and carbohydrates. Trying to make up for a deficit if you start a bit dehydrated or energy depleted by eating and drinking during the activity itself is definitely leaving it too late.

Whilst you're sweating

If you start most shorter activities well fuelled and properly hydrated, there's usually little to be gained from taking in large amounts of anything - be that water, electrolytes or calories - during the activity itself.

Your body has what it needs to last this long in reserve (even at a relatively high intensity) and you can simply refuel and rehydrate afterwards to replenish stores for next time.

This doesn’t mean you categorically shouldn’t consume anything during exercise lasting less than 90 min. You should absolutely still listen to your body and eat or drink if you feel you really need to (and it's also a bright idea to eat and drink something if you're training again very soon afterwards so you don't start the next bout of activity really depleted), but it’s worth understanding that the impact that nutritional intake is going to have on your performance during the race or session itself is probably quite negligible.

A slight exception to this rule might be if you are competing at the elite end of the spectrum in very high intensity aerobic events. There is some evidence that ingesting small amounts of a carb based drink (or even just rinsing it your mouth) can be beneficial to your performance in those circumstances.

Essentially the ‘mouth rinse effect’ is thought to be because receptors in the mouth shout to the brain ‘SUGAR IS COMING!’ (even if you just spit the drink out) and your brain then allows your body to work harder than it otherwise would - presuming more energy is on the way - tricking you into putting out a stronger performance than might otherwise be possible. 

This (along with keeping topped up for subsequent sessions or events) is one of the reasons why we still sometimes recommend having a bottle of our all-natural Precision Hydration drinks to sip at during shorter events when this is convenient.

Medium to Long activities (about 90 minutes to 4 hours)

It’s during medium to long sessions that fluid intake and carbohydrate fuelling in particular starts to have more of an impact on performance.

There's a whole heap of research out there on the effects of carbohydrate ingestion on performance during longer periods of aerobic exercise. A 2013 paper called ‘The use of carbohydrates during exercise as an ergogenic aid' gives a decent overview if you want to dig into some of the technical details without doing your own PhD on the subject!

The bottom line from all that research is that the current consensus is that taking in around 60g of carbohydrate per hour is optimal for most endurance athletes doing 2 to 4 hour activities. Think more like 40g/hr if you’re a smaller person and not working at a high intensity, but maybe as high as 90g/hr if you're bigger and going really hard at it. This carbohydrate can come from a range of sources including drinks, bars, gels and ‘real’ foods (if their composition allows for easy consumption and digestion). 

Before you start

Again, it's important to make sure you begin whatever you’re doing well hydrated and fuelled. Trying to make up for a deficit is definitely leaving it too late.

Whilst you're sweating

About 90min to Two hours is usually the threshold at which sweat losses can become significant, so fluid needs must be considered along with fuelling at this point too.  

If you’re using our all-natural range as your primary source of fluids, the important thing you need to know is that they contain around 17g of carbs per 500ml (16oz) bottle. This makes the drinks hypotonic (i.e. a lower concentration than your blood), so they’re easily absorbed by the gut. But, unlike isotonic drinks, they don’t deliver all of the carbs you’re likely to need during your activity. 

It’s also crucial to remember that our PH effervescent tablets and Electrolyte Capsules contain close to zero calories, so these won’t contribute to your energy intake at all. 

Some example scenarios

If you drink about 500ml (16oz) per hour in cooler conditions, on average you'll be getting 17g/hr of carbs from your all-natural PH drink, so will need to take in around 43 grams of carb/hr from somewhere else.

Most energy gels contain about 20-25 of carbs per pack, so 2 of those along with the PH drink ought to work fine. Some energy bars contain as much as 35-40g per serving, so one of those alone will also come close as an alternative.

If you prefer your carbs a bit more 'old school', then 8 Bassets Jelly Babies contains 42g, so this could do the trick. Or, if you want to go 100% natural you could go for about 1.5 bananas, as they tend to contain around 25-30g of carbs per fruit. Though what you’d do the leftover half, I’m not exactly sure...

In hotter conditions, where your fluid intake is likely to go up towards 1 litre per hour (32oz/hr) then you’ll now be getting up to 34g of carbs from your PH drinks, so you'll be able to reduce the amount you eat accordingly. This would mean just taking in around 1 energy gel, half an energy bar, 4 jelly babies or 1 banana.

We do know a few athletes who have very high sweat rates and can also absorb as much as 1.5 litres per hour of PH drink when they're racing or training, usually in very hot conditions. These guys are already getting 51g of carbs from their drinks alone, so only need a relatively small amount from other sources to meet their fuelling needs.

These examples highlight that your fuelling and hydration intake need to be tweaked in proportion to one another based on sweat loss and fluid absorption.

Bear in mind that if you don’t decrease your calorie intake from solid or semi solid foods at times when fluid intake is very high it can be a recipe for GI distress and this is a major reason why traditional isotonic sports drinks (i.e. those with a lot of carbs in, making them a similar concentration to your blood) can be very difficult to live with in longer and hotter events. That's because your need for fluid starts to be proportionally greater than they can comfortably deliver via your water bottle without overdosing you on sugar. 

In my own experience, using more highly processed ‘simple’ sports nutrition products like gels or jelly chews along with PH drinks tends to work best because they reduce the amount of effort your body needs to put into chewing them, digesting them and getting the sugars into your blood stream.

These kind of events are also not quite long enough for you to get really sick of sweeter products and flavours, so it’s usually possible to get to the end without suffering the kind of nausea that so often occurs when you rely too heavily on sugar as you main source of calories during longer events.

'Ultra' activities (4 hours+)

Before you start

As with shorter activities, it's crucial to make sure you begin an ultra distance event or session well hydrated and fuelled. It's part of the reason we make a big deal about preloading with higher sodium drinks before these events. If you try to make up for a deficit during the activity, you're highly unlikely to perform at your best.

Whilst you're sweating

The required rate of fluid and carbohydrate ingestion for ultras is not dramatically different to what you should be aiming for during medium/long events. You’re still limited by the absorption rates in the gut for carbs and fluids, so the ~60g/hr and ~1l/hour maximums still apply. But, there are some notable differences to how we’d generally advise approaching fuelling for longer events.

First - because you're going to be out there for much longer, there's a lot to be said for introducing more variety into your energy and fluid intake so that you don’t become sick of the taste of any one thing.

Second - because you'll be going at a lower intensity than you would for shorter events, chewing and digesting more ‘real’ solid foods becomes a lot easier. This opens up a much wider range of possibilities for your race day menu. It also tends to keep your stomach a lot happier than asking it to process nothing but syrupy, sugary goo for hours on end.

Third - sodium intake (along with appropriate amounts of fluid) becomes far more important during ultra distance events because the risk of hyponatremia increases along with total sweat losses. So, its more important than ever to be getting an appropriate level of electrolytes in with your drinks. Of course this is not likely to be a problem if you’re using the right strength PH drink for you, or if you're supplementing fluid intake with the right amount of SweatSalt capsules, but it's definitely worth make sure you have a solid understanding of this. If you haven't already, take our free Online Sweat Test or check out our Advanced Sweat Test if you want to make sure you’re getting this bit right.

Finally - listening to your body becomes a critical component of staying properly fuelled and hydrated during ultra distance events. That's because the longer the event goes on, the harder it gets to predict how your body’s internal chemistry is going to react to the pace, temperature, environment, foods and drinks thrown at it during a long day out.

As a result, you need to be well tuned in to the subtle signals your body uses to tell you when it's getting out of whack and needs something specific to get it back on track. Look out for a craving for salty foods as this can be an early warning sign that you’re getting a bit low on sodium. If that is the case, eating something salty like salted nuts, pretzels or taking some extra SweatSalt capsules can be a good idea to keep everything balanced.

Some examples of the foods and drinks I’ve successfully used for fuelling during ultra endurance events are...

• Boiled new potatoes with butter and salt (DW Canoe race) = ~5g carb per potato.
• Mini croissant with cheese and ham (NZ Coast to Coast race) = ~ 15g carb each.
• Pizza slices (TransAlpine trail run) = ~35g carb per slice.
• Marzipan balls (DW Canoe race) = ~10g per ball.
• Flat Coke (Most long races, in the later stages!) = ~ 52g carb per 500ml/16oz.
• Malt loaf with butter (Many long bike training sessions) = ~15g carb per slice.

In most of these cases I used these ‘real food’ alternatives in combination with plenty of the typical pre-packed sports nutrition products (and our drinks) to hit the kind of carb per hour figure I needed to achieve. I particularly like Totally Wonderfuel's handmade energy balls. The fact that many of them are savoury is no coincidence, as I've found that to be really appealing when I am racing for more than about 6 hours. Not to mention the fact that I lose 1,842mg of sodium per litre, so even with my PH drinks I'm often partial to a bit of salt! 

Fuelling for ultra events always requires a lot of creative trial and error to figure out exactly what works for you. It's such an important part of these events that it's worth dedicating some time to getting things right.

When you start experimenting, make sure you’re staying close to the guidelines of ~60g of carbs per hour (across all of your foods and drinks), with enough fluid to stop you getting thirsty and a sufficient amount of sodium to offset what you losing in your sweat.

When people talk about hydration, most of the time it's about what and how much athletes should drink during exercise.

These are clearly important questions, but your performance is also massively influenced by how hydrated you are when you start exercising in the first place. Drinking a strong electrolyte drink to optimise your hydration status before long, hot or really hard training sessions and events can significantly improve your performance.

We call this "preloading" and the practice has been widely studied in the last 20 years or so, both with astronauts and athletes. Whilst there's not a completely bullet proof consensus on the subject - there rarely is - there's strong evidence that taking in additional sodium with fluids before you start sweating is effective in promoting increased acute fluid retention and in improving endurance performance, especially in the heat.

Don't just drink lots of water in the build-up to an event. You can end up diluting your body’s sodium levels before you start, increasing the risk of hyponatremia.

This blog aims to give you a more solid understanding of what you can do to arrive at the start of your next event optimally hydrated and if you take our free Fuel & Hydration Planner or the Sweat Test, we'll tell you whether we think you could benefit from preloading given what you tell us about how you sweat when you train and compete.

Every athlete is different and you should largely drink to thirst. But, here are some rule of thumb guidelines to experiment within to find out what's right for you...

It's likely you'll want to be drinking about 0-500ml (0-16oz) per hour if...

• You're exercising at a low intensity

• You're exercising for less than 90 minutes

• You're exercising in cool conditions

• If you generally have a very low sweat rate

It's likely you'll want to be drinking about 500-750ml (16-24oz) per hour if...

• You're exercising at a moderate to high intensity

• You're exercising for 90 minutes - 3 hours

• You're exercising in warm (but not hot/humid) conditions

It's likely you'll want to be drinking about 750-1000ml (24-32oz) per hour if...

• You're exercising at a high or very high intensity

• You're exercising for more than 3 hours

• You're exercising in hot and/or humid conditions

• You generally have a very high sweat rate

Some athletes will drink more than 1l (32oz) per hour, but this is relatively uncommon because it's approaching the ceiling of what most people can absorb through the gut whilst exercising. 

Some athletes can also tolerate relatively large amounts of dehydration before performance starts to suffer. Some elite athletes have been documented as losing almost 10% body weight without a significant drop off in endurance performance in the field. 

Experimenting within these guidelines, whilst learning to listen to your body, is the best way to find out how much you need to drink when you're sweating.

You can also take our free online Sweat Test to get a personalised hydration plan with sport-specific advice on how much you might want to drink, when and how to get that onboard.

Restoring hydration levels is a big part of the recovery process after you've been sweating a lot.

Research shows that drinks containing sodium enable better rehydration as they allow your body to hold onto more of the fluid rather than peeing it out.

Experience has taught us that this can also help if you've ever had the misfortune of cramping up during the night after a tough ride. (Whoever you're sharing a bed with would also thank you for following this advice!).

After a race

1-2 500ml (16oz) bottles of PH 1500 after you finish.

Most athletes finish all but the shortest rides dehydrated to some extent. Research and our experience suggests that, in many cases, there’s nothing wrong with this. It’s better to finish a little bit dehydrated rather than with hyponatremia. A loss of 1-4% body weight is pretty typical for most people in normal scenarios.

We recommend mixing up a 500ml (16oz) bottle or two of PH 1500 to sip in the first few hours after you finish. Just drink as much as you feel you need to. The extra sodium in PH 1500 makes it much more effective than drinking water alone.

After training

In most circumstances, simply rehydrating and replenishing electrolytes through the food and drink you'd normally consume after training is fine.

But, there are times when you might benefit from a proactive approach to rehydration, such as...

1. when you’re doing another workout soon after the first one.
2. when you’re aware you’ve sweated out a lot more than normal during a session (e.g. due to unusually hot conditions, or a very long duration)
3. when you’re training late in the day and are going to bed soon after finishing, so won’t have much time to eat and drink afterwards.

In these circumstances, we recommend mixing up a 500ml (16oz) bottle or two of PH 1500 to drink in the first few hours after you finish.

Andy wrote a great blog reviewing his preferred hydration gear for running and triathlon, it's worth a read and you can find it here.

If carrying your own pre-mixed bottles isn't very practical for your event and you know there will be aid stations with water available then carrying some of our blister-packed SweatSalt capsules with you instead might be the most efficient option...

What exactly are Electrolyte Capsules?

• Electrolyte Capsules are vegetable based capsules containing 250mg of sodium and a small amount of potassium, calcium and magnesium.
• They allow you to monitor your sodium intake accurately. 
• They come in blister packs that you can easily carry with you when training or racing. They're light and, as the pack is ultimately disposable, you don’t need to carry additional bags or dispensers to hold them in.

When are they most useful?

• Electrolyte Capsules are ideal when you’re on the move, especially during longer training sessions and ultra-distance events when total sweat output is high, but you don’t want to carry lots of fluid. 
• They are designed to be taken during a race without needing to stop and mix up bottles. 
• They’re already very popular with athletes doing ultra distance running or cycling events, 70.3 and Ironman triathlons and adventure races.
• They're useful for athletes who prefer plain water to a flavoured drink, but still need to take in some additional sodium. They don’t taste of anything if you swallow them whole and, because they are predominantly sodium citrate based, they're very easy on the stomach (sodium citrate is alkaline rather than acidic, as in the case of sodium chloride, or common table salt). 

How should you use them?

Electrolyte Capsules are designed to be swallowed whole and chased down with a drink. (We recommend at least 2-3 decent mouthfuls of drink with each capsule).

Although, we do know some athletes who like to split them open into a water bottle or sports drink to increase the sodium content. 

How many should you take?

Each capsule contains 250mg of sodium. This is a higher amount than in most other similar products and 2 capsules deliver sodium equivalent to about a quarter teaspoon of table salt.

Take our free Fuel & Hydration Planner for guidelines on how many capsules to take in different scenarios. Or take our Sweat Test for more precise recommendations.

We've personalised the hydration strategies of a long list of athletes in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Premier League, Aviva Premiership Rugby, International Rugby, F1, Moto GP and endurance sports like triathlon, ultra running, cycling and swimrun.

Check out some of our elite athlete testimonials here.

And check out our blog for regular interviews with the elite athletes using Precision Fuel & Hydration.

Yes, we work with a long list of organizations in the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, Formula One, Moto GP, Premier League, Aviva Premiership Rugby and International Rugby.

Find out more about how we can personalize your team's hydration strategy here.

The answer to this questions is the reason we exist! So, here's why you should personalise your hydration plan...

• Everyone loses a different amount of sodium in their sweat, from as little as 200mg/l to as much as 2,000mg/l! This is genetically determined. So, a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to hydration just doesn’t work.
• Most electrolyte supplements contain 200-550mg of sodium per litre, whereas the average triathlete loses about 948mg/l!
• Maintaining the sodium levels in your blood is crucial to performing at your best during a triathlon.
• Sodium helps you absorb and retain fluid, which keeps your blood volume up, reducing cardiovascular strain, fatigue and cramp.
• Just drinking water when sweating over long periods dilutes your sodium levels, which can really impact your performance and could lead to hyponatremia. Two recent studies found 10-30% of athletes had hyponatremia at the end of an Ironman!

Take our free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised plan with sport-specific advice on how much you might want to drink, when and how to get that onboard.

A 2015 study found that athletes who adequately replaced the sodium lost in their sweat finished a middle distance triathlon an average of 26 minutes faster than those who didn’t. Here's why sodium is so important to performing at your best...

Your body contains lots of water. 50-70% of it is made up of the stuff in fact, depending on the amount of muscle and fat that you have. Around a third of that water exists outside your cells, in extracellular fluids like your blood.

The main electrolyte in this extracellular fluid is sodium and much of your body’s total sodium reserves are found here. This makes it rather ‘salty’ and the total volume of extracellular fluid in your body is directly related to the amount of sodium you have on board at a given time. So, more sodium equals more fluid; less sodium means less fluid.

As well as maintaining fluid balance, sodium plays an important role in the absorption of nutrients in the gut, maintaining cognitive function, nerve impulse transmission and in muscle contraction. Basically, it's pretty darn important.

Everyone loses a different amount of sodium in their sweat. At Precision Hydration, we see athletes who lose from as little as 200mg of sodium per litre of sweat to as much as 2000mg/l. I personally lose 1,842 mg/l and I often suffered from hydration issues in hot climates as a result. It was my personal search for a solution that led to me founding the company.

Sweat rates also vary from person to person of course; and from situation to situation for any given person (from almost nothing in cooler conditions and at low intensities, to several litres per hour during intense exercise in the heat).

When you combine differences in sodium concentration with those in sweat rates, the potential variance in the total net sodium losses experienced from one athlete to another can be really significant.

It's impossible to nail down the exact point at which sodium (and fluid) loss through sweating becomes a problem for an athlete. But, it's clear that when losses reach a certain point, the effects can be detrimental to your performance.

Your blood volume is gradually reduced as your sweat losses increase. That’s because sweat is drawn from your blood plasma. This increases the strain on your cardiovascular system, making it harder to pump blood to your skin to cool you down and to your working muscles.

Other issues such as a general feeling of fatigue and muscle cramps can also be experienced if losses are allowed to go uncorrected for long enough, or if significant imbalances between fluid and sodium are allowed to occur.

Up to a certain point, taking in plain water is enough to mitigate sweat losses. But, as those losses start to mount up, you need to replace sodium too to avoid your blood becoming diluted. This is a potentially disastrous condition called hyponatremia, which can certainly ruin your race and, tragically, has even been fatal on occasion.

Because sweat/sodium losses are so individual, any generic guidelines on the replacement of sodium and fluid should always viewed with suspicion. Having said that, figuring out whether your net losses are likely to be low, moderate, or high can be a great starting point for honing in on the level of sodium and fluid replacement that'll work best for you in different circumstances.

The two main inputs that drive your personal net sodium losses are...

1. The total amount you sweat. This is a factor of your sweat rate and the number of hours you spend sweating during a given timeframe.
2. Your sweat sodium concentration.

Figuring out approximately what these are is a sensible place to start.

Calculating the volume of sweat you lose can be a bit awkward and hit and miss, but there are plenty of online calculators that get you to a reasonable estimate.

Your sweat sodium concentration is genetically determined and doesn’t vary much at all (we’ve tested pro athletes training in frozen Michigan, then retested them years later in the humidity of Florida and seen consistent results, for example), which means that, whilst you can only find it out by getting your sweat tested, you only need to get tested once. We offer an exercise-free Sweat Test that tells you exactly how much sodium you lose in your sweat and we've also developed a free Fuel & Hydration Planner to help you get started with refining your hydration strategy in less than two minutes.

The term ‘dehydration’ is so deeply embedded in day to day sporting parlance that few athletes ever stop and consider what it actually means from a scientific standpoint and how it’s actually measured.

Variations in body size from athlete to athlete mean that there's no fixed volume of fluid that can be used as a yardstick to indicate a good hydration status. 

Whilst an accurate measurement of body fluid levels to identify your hydration status (without the use of radioactive isotopes or taking blood samples) is essentially impossible, there are various methods employed in the ‘real world’ that can give a good enough estimate of hydration status...

1) Body weight change

Short-term changes in body weight are commonly used to evaluate fluctuations in hydration level from day to day.

This method presumes that acute weight loss (especially that which occurs around bouts of exercise and sweating) correlates closely with acute fluid loss. This assumption has proved to be pretty accurate much of the time. Where it can sometimes fall down is in the face of very large losses and intakes of fluid in short spaces of time. 

For example, you might consume 2 litres of fluid, during or after a bout of heavy sweating, to try and replace what you lost. But all of this may not actually be absorbed by the body even if it sits in your stomach and temporarily shows up on the scales before it is peed out without actually impacting your hydration status in a meaningful way.

This method also relies on you having reliable data on what your normal, euhydrated, body weight is. So it does require some regular weighing and recording of that to keep tabs on the number. Overall this means of assessing body weight change can be a helpful indicator of hydration status, even it's not completely foolproof.

2) Urine production and concentration/colour

Monitoring the amount you pee and its colour is often recommended to athletes looking to monitor their hydration status. It assumes urine production will increase and will be more dilute at times when the body is closer to euhydration and that production will drop (and concentration will increase/colour darken) as hypohydration kicks in.

Like bodyweight change, when all other factors are equal, urine colour can indeed be a reasonably good indicator of hydration status, but it too can be confounded in certain circumstances.

Things that decrease the reliability of urine colour as a marker include: consumption of diuretics like caffeine or alcohol that artificially ramp up urine production; excess urine production that can occur with sudden, large increases in fluid consumption (where intake vastly exceeds absorption rates); and the lag time that can occur in the body with release of hormones that control how much you urinate, at times when large fluid losses happen in short spaces of time.

One important thing to mention about using urine colour and volume on its own to monitor hydration status is that it often fails to address, or highlight, the downside of drinking too much.

As urine production just ramps up and the pee becomes more dilute the more you drink, some athletes seem to think that passing more and more clear urine is a positive sign. In fact, they could be diluting their body’s electrolyte stores and encouraging the dangerous condition of hyponatremia if they take things too far.

For this reason, we often find ourselves talking to athletes about the fact that urinating very clear liquid all the time and in large quantities could be a sign of excessive fluid consumption, and that dialling intake back a bit in those circumstances can be an excellent idea.

3) Thirst

The role of thirst in the assessment and management of hydration status has long been a subject of debate in the world of sports science, with wildly varying opinions and no firm consensus in sight.

The 'conventional' viewpoint, based on many lab studies from the 1980s and 90s, was that thirst is a very unreliable indicator of hydration status as it typically doesn’t kick in until most people are around 2% hypohydrated. Some argue that by the time this happens, performance is already compromised.

More recently this idea has been vigorously challenged with evidence collected 'in the field'. And quite rightly too. More recent data shows that when athletes start exercising when euhydrated (in a balanced state) and can choose when and how much to drink, many develop levels of hypohydration (negative balance) that go beyond 2%, without a noticeable decline in performance.

However, although drinking to thirst is a much better way to manage hydration status and performance than once believed, it is not sensitive enough to be relied upon fully, or in all circumstances.

This is especially apparent when fluid losses are extremely high over extended periods. Or in novice athletes, who are generally less attuned to listen to their bodies during exercise and to responding appropriately to their instincts during stressful situations.

So, the good news is that there are three reasonably good and practical markers available to you to help you monitor your hydration status.

But, because none of these indicators are entirely accurate on their own, some clever people in the US Army came up with the idea of combining all three measures to produce a more reliable rating scale called the WUT system (Weight, Urine, Thirst). This establishes the likelihood of you being euhydrated (‘well hydrated’) or hypohydrated (‘dehydrated’).

Essentially their suggestion is to monitor your body weight, the colour of your urine and how thirsty you are first thing each morning. The ‘first thing in the morning’ element is important as it limits the influence of other factors that interfere with hydration status as the day progresses.

You then feed the results into a simple Venn diagram to give you an indication of whether hypohydration is unlikely, likely or very likely as you begin that day.

The data you need to collect each morning is:

1. Your body weight. Ideally as soon as you get out of bed, before eating, drinking or going to the bathroom. A loss of 2% or more of your body weight is deemed significant.
2. A rating of the colour of your urine (is it light or dark in colour)
3. A rating of your sensation of thirst (thirsty or not thirsty)

If 1 or less of the 3 scores you collect are ‘positive’ (i.e. body weight is within 2% of normal and/or urine is light and/or and you're not thirsty), then hypohydration (‘dehydration’) would be deemed unlikely.

If 2 out of the 3 are positive, then hypohydration would be considered ‘likely’ and this might impact your fluid intake and training plans for the day, especially if you were planning very hard or prolonged exercise in the heat.

If 3 out of the 3 are positive then hypohydration is very likely and therefore strong consideration should be given to correcting that before you undergo strenuous exercise or expose yourself to further large sweat losses.

Using this approach regularly and over time, it’s possible to tune into your body’s hydration status and become more adept at predicting the outcome of the WUT score before you undertake the test. In the long run, this helps you to become more accurate in your perception of your own hydration status and this makes it more likely that you'll be able to maintain it within parameters that’ll allow you to perform at your best when training and competing.

Hyponatremia hit the headlines again recently with the publication of data on the prevalence of the condition in Ironman finishers. Scarily, over 10% of athletes tested had hyponatremia! 

What is hyponatremia?

Hyponatremia is a medical term describing low blood sodium levels.

This is when dilution of sodium levels in the blood is driven by excessive drinking. This can be exacerbated by the loss of sodium in sweat during prolonged exercise.

Why is hyponatremia bad?

Maintaining blood sodium levels within a healthy range (135-145mmols per litre) is critical to homeostasis and optimal bodily function. When blood sodium levels drop below this ideal range initial symptoms can include:

• Nausea
• Lethargy
• Muscle cramps
• Weakness/fatigue
• Headaches
• Restlessness

Because of how finely balanced your blood sodium levels need to be for good health, even mild hyponatremia during exercise is bad news. It can seriously undermine your performance well before it starts to make you properly ill.

In severe cases of hyponatremia, the symptoms can potentially escalate into seizures and coma. The end result can even be death, if things go uncorrected for long enough. About 14 deaths, including one at Ironman Frankfurt in 2015, have been directly attributed to hyponatremia during sporting events since 1981. However, as the results from the recent Ironman study show, the occurrence of non-fatal but performance-damaging hypontaremia is likely to be a lot higher.

What causes hyponatremia?

The primary cause of hyponatremia is over consumption of fluids (especially drinks low in sodium).

The high sweat rates and/or the very high sweat sodium concentrations seen in some individuals can contribute to increased susceptibility to developing hyponatremia.

How can hyponatremia be avoided?

In theory, avoiding hyponatremia is pretty straightforward, you just have to avoid drinking more that you sweat and pee out, so that dilution of blood does not occur. For quite a while some experts (notably Prof Tim Noakes, with many others following his lead) have been advocating a ‘drink water to thirst’ approach for this very reason. When healthy people drink water purely to the dictates of thirst during exercise, it’s been demonstrated time and again that they don’t tend to take in more than they sweat out and, as a result, become gradually dehydrated, making hyponatremia all but impossible.

But this ignores the valuable contribution of supplementing fluid intake with additional sodium to help aid fluid retention, maintain blood sodium levels and replace some of that lost in sweat. At a certain point the usefulness of ‘drink to thirst’ guidelines effectively ends. And that point is probably when you’re exercising for more than 2 hours, assuming you began well hydrated.

So should I just drink to thirst to avoid hyponatremia?

If avoiding hyponatremia is your one and only objective, then drinking to thirst is probably ok advice to follow. But, in our view, it starts to get more complicated when you consider the fact that most athletes want to perform at their best, not just ‘survive’ a race. Yes, dehydration has historically been over emphasised, but it can, beyond a certain point, still cause massive performance issues primarily because it manifests in reduced blood volume and increased blood viscosity (thickness), both of which impair cardiovascular function and heat dissipation. Anyone who has become dehydrated and tried to exercise effectively will know this only too well.

The negative effects of dehydration are especially relevant in events that are very long and hot (such as Ironman events and ultra marathons) and for athletes who are training hard and sweating a lot on back to back days. That’s because, in these scenarios, the volume of sweat and sodium losses can be quite dramatic. Simply drinking water ‘to thirst’ on these occasions is not always adequate to maintain blood plasma volumes to a degree that’s compatible with peak performance. It’s a lot more productive to think of dehydration as existing on the opposite end of the scale to hyponatremia, and aim to strike a balance between these 2 extremes.

The role of sodium supplementation for hyponatremia

It’s long been known that taking sodium in with drinks increases fluid retention in the blood stream. Also, sweat contains a relatively large (and variable) amount of sodium in it, so when sweat output is high, the net loss of sodium can be substantial too. Sodium is a finite resource in the body and, as a result, supplementation can help to maintain both blood volume and blood sodium levels much better than drinking water alone, especially at times when sweat losses are high.

It helps reduce the rate of dilution that goes on in the blood stream when compared to just taking in water alone. This was shown very neatly in a 2015 study where triathletes were given either extra sodium supplements or a placebo pill to take alongside regular sports drinks during a half Ironman race in hot weather. The ‘extra sodium’ group replaced around 71% of their sodium losses during the event, with the ‘placebo’ group only replacing about 20%. The results showed better maintenance of blood volume, higher blood sodium levels post-race and faster finishing times in the sodium group than those taking the placebo.

Where I would go one step further with this argument is in the idea of individualising your supplementation to take into account your personal fluid and sodium losses. Sweat sodium levels can vary almost 10 fold from athlete to athlete and sweat rates can also vary dramatically. 

We’ve tested athletes who lose an estimated 40,000mg (40grams!) of sodium in the course of a single 10 hour Ironman event, compared with others who lose just 3,000mg (3grams) during the same period. The idea that a single strategy for fluids and sodium supplementation could work equally well for both of these athletes makes no sense at all. You can find out how much sodium you lose in your sweat by getting your sweat tested.

Whilst sodium supplementation should not be seen as a way to compensate for over-drinking to avoid hyponatremia, it can be extremely useful in helping to maintaining hydration levels at times when sweat losses are high. It helps by increasing the retention of fluid in the blood stream and maintaining blood sodium levels.

Personalising your sodium and fluid intake not only reduces the risk of hyponatremia, but maximise your performance when sweat losses are high. Personalisation is best achieved through a combination of data collection (getting your sweat testing) and organised trial and error in training and competition.

Take our free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised plan with sport-specific advice on how much you might want to drink, when and how to get that onboard to help you hydrate properly and avoid hyponatremia.

In short, no.

Severe hypernatremia due to acute sodium ingestion can only normally occur in the body when salt is either consumed in very large quantities without water, or when it’s taken in a solution that is significantly saltier than blood.

Documented occurrences of this happening are extremely rare in adults and this is because people just don’t tend to voluntarily ingest large amounts of salt or super salty liquids as it's rather unpalatable and goes against all our natural instincts to do so.

Even the most sodium-rich sports drinks contain sodium at a much lower concentration than that of blood, so when you drink them they contribute more water to your body than sodium (in relative terms).

This ultimately means that sports drinks are unable to cause acute hypernatremia on their own as, even though they do result in more sodium being introduced to the blood stream, there's plenty of water going in with it to ensure the relative concentration does not rise too much. In fact (according to this excellent overview of the whole topic) there have been no documented fatalities from exercise associated hypernatremia to date.

That said, just because they won’t give you severe, acute hypernatremia (and kill you off), it doesn’t mean that strong electrolyte drinks like our 1500mg mixes are meant to be consumed recklessly on a day to day basis. The reason that we have such strong products in our range is that there are very specific use cases for them...

1. For ‘preloading’ the body shortly before long, hot or very intense exercise, when sweat losses are going to be very high and/or when the ability to drink during the activity will be limited.
2. For drinking during exercise by athletes who are known to have very high sweat and sodium losses, to help them maintain performance during prolonged workouts and races.
3. For promoting faster post-exercise rehydration than is possible with water alone, at times when dehydration has occurred and fast recovery is desirable.

In other words, they’re designed to be used before, during or after times when your fluid and sodium levels are going to be significantly challenged (i.e. mainly around strenuous, prolonged and sweaty exercise) and not whilst you’re just sat on the sofa watching Downton Abbey, or playing FIFA on the Xbox.

When they are used when they're actually needed, extra strong electrolyte drinks can work spectacularly well for athletes who have higher than average sweat and sodium losses because they replace a hell of a lot more sodium than traditional isotonic sports drinks do (most normal sports drinks only contain 400-500mg per litre but the range of sweat sodium loss we see in individuals we sweat test in anywhere between 200mg/l and 2000mg/l).

Often this means those with higher sodium losses and a history of premature fatigue, low blood pressure, cramping or generally ‘fading out’ in longer/hotter events find our 1500s to be something of a game changer when they’re used in that context.

What would happen if I did drink too much sports drink when I’m not sweating or losing a lot of sodium?

Well, the good news is that your body has a few tricks up it’s sleeve to maintain homeostasis in the face of a pretty broad range of inputs and outputs when it comes to fluid and sodium balance (even if chucking a whole litre of soy sauce down the hatch in one go pushes it a bit too far!).

In the short term, if you take in a bit of extra fluid and sodium, one of the first things your kidneys do is excrete most of the excess in urine. The kidneys are highly sensitive to the total amount of salt and fluid in the body and can dial up and down the amount of fluid you pee out and the concentration of sodium in that pee quite dramatically. This is primarily how things are kept balanced in the face of a bit of excess intake.

If you significantly overdo your sodium intake over a prolonged period of time there's a good chance that as well as trying to pee out excess fluid and sodium, your body might be forced to hold onto some additional extra cellular fluid (ECF) to keep everything balanced in terms of it’s overall sodium content.

For athletes, expanded ECF volume is something of a double edged sword; on the one hand if it occurs in the blood acutely pre-exercise, it can be a good thing as it gives your body an extra reservoir of fluid and sodium to ‘lose’ through sweating before a level of performance hampering dehydration sets in. After all, that's what we’re aiming for when we pre-load with extra sodium and fluid pre-competition, as has been described in a good few research articles like this one.

On the other hand, if this fluid retention becomes more chronic and permeates out of the vascular system into the ECF around the body’s tissues, it can cause puffiness, bloating, weight gain and mild swelling (edema) of some of your body parts (often showing up in ankles and fingers) and that's clearly not so good!

This can happen over a period of a few hours if intake is aggressive enough and urine output can’t keep up. Or it may happen over days/weeks with lower but consistent levels of overconsumption. Athletes taking in a chronic excess of sodium might also often feel thirsty (and start to dislike the taste of anything salty) as the body begins to crave plain water to dilute the salt that is building up in the blood and it’s tissues.

What this ultimately means is that if you're taking in quite a lot of sodium (in the form of strong sports drinks, other sodium supplements like capsules, salty foods or a combination) and you're starting to get symptoms like bloating, puffiness under the skin and in your joints, strong sensations of thirst and a dislike of salty tastes, it’s highly likely to be because you’ve actually gone overboard on the salt intake.

If this happens, it’s best to reduce any supplementation (or eating any salty food) and to drink plain water to thirst whilst giving your body some time to sort itself out. The likelihood is that before long your kidneys will start to produce more urine to get rid of the excess fluid and sodium as things will start to get back to a more healthy equilibrium.

Of course, the actual aim is to prevent sodium overload happening in the first place. The best way to do this is to understand your own personal levels of sweat and sodium loss in more detail. You can do this through a bit of organised trial and error through your daily fluid and sodium intake in different conditions during training by taking a full Sweat Test if you’re really serious and want to find out exactly how much sodium you lose per litre of sweat.

Ultimately, you’re aiming to find a ‘sweet spot’ of sodium replacement that meets your individual needs based on how much sweating you’re doing and how much sodium you lose in your sweat. When you get this right you’re more likely to feel good and be able to perform at your best because your body will have a much easier time maintaining homeostasis.

You sweat is mostly water and sodium, with only small amounts of potassium, calcium, and magnesium in it.

Replacing some of that lost sodium helps to maintain blood volume during heavy sweating. This is the main function of a sports drink. It’s no surprise that it’s sodium that’s the main component in many sports drinks. Coconut water, by contrast, is extremely high in potassium but very low in sodium and that lack of sodium means it’s just not an alternative to your sports drink when you’re sweating a lot.

For more on coconut water, read this blog.

A number of things cause exercise-related muscle cramps, including sodium depletion.

If your cramps tend to occur during/after heavy sweating, in hot weather or towards the end of races, try upping your sodium intake in the hours immediately before, during and after a race.

If you’re consuming your sodium through food, aim for about 1000-1500mg sodium per litre of water you drink alongside it. Remember that table salt is only 39% sodium (61% is chloride), so 1g of salt only gives you ~390mg of sodium.

An easier way to get more sodium in is through an electrolyte supplement, but just make sure it’s strong enough to make a difference. Typical electrolyte tablets only contain about 200-550mg sodium per litre, which is only about half the amount the average triathlete loses in their sweat.

PH 1500 is an all-natural electrolyte drink mix with 1,500mg of sodium per litre. i.e. 3x more sodium than traditional supplements. Drinking a serving the night before a race and 90 minutes before you get into the water boosts your blood plasma volume, helping reduce fatigue as well as avoiding cramp.

89% of athletes who tried PH 1500 said it solved their cramping issues in a recent survey.

You can also take our free Fuel & Hydration Planner to get a personalised hydration plan and learn more about how to avoid cramp and perform at your best by staying hydrated.

For a more in-depth look at the research into the different causes of cramp, read this blog.

Whilst our Sweat Test is the gold standard when it comes to personalising your hydration strategy, our free online Sweat Test has genuine efficacy as there's a strong correlation between how athletes perceive their sweat rate and sweat sodium concentration and reality.

So, if you can't get to a Sweat Test Centre, we'd definitely recommend taking the online test and picking up the personalised starter pack that contains everything you need to get started with refining your approach to hydration through some good ol' fashioned trial and error in the field.

No. Our Sweat Test is done at rest. We use a harmless chemical to stimulate the sweat glands in a small patch of your forearm to contract and sweat whilst we sit and talk to you about how you train and compete. 

We collect this sweat and analyse it there and then (using a non-invasive collector called a macroduct), telling you exactly how much sodium you lose in your sweat during your consultation. We combine this data with what you tell us about yourself to create a Personalised Hydration Plan for you. The whole process takes around 45 minutes.

Book a Sweat Test

No. Your sweat sodium concentration (i.e. how salty your sweat is) is genetically determined and so it varies very little over your lifetime. 

It may fall slightly when you become acclimatised to a hot environment (after a few days) but will return to your baseline level once you return to your normal environment. But, it won't change enough to warrant a change in your Personalised Hydration Plan.

If you change sport, distance, training volume etc, you can retake the questions we ask you during your consultation in your own time online to update your strategy. (That's free).

The price of a test varies at our Sweat Test Centres around the world and you can find your nearest centre and enquire directly about getting booked in here.

In the meantime, we'd advise taking our free online Sweat Test and picking up a personalised starter pack to test in training. The online test has efficacy as there's a strong correlation between how athletes perceive their sweat rate and sweat sodium concentration and reality. We know this because we submitted our data to researchers at a leading University here in the U.K. and they're soon to submit a paper with those findings.

Absolutely. Just behave as you normally would before your test, no need to fast, avoid things like coffee or drink loads of water before hand.

Our Sweat Test is conducted in person at one of our Sweat Test Centers with a Sweat Expert. 

Unfortunately, we've yet to come across a D.I.Y. Sweat Test kit that provides reliable results (one we tested told us we had hypertonic sweat - i.e. that our sweat had a higher concentration than our blood - which is impossible!). There's just too much room for errors such as contamination or evaporation in transit.

If there's not a Sweat Test Centre near you, then we'd recommend taking our free online Sweat Test. Whilst it won't tell you exactly how much sodium you lose in your sweat, the online test has genuine efficacy as there's a strong correlation between how athletes perceive their sweat rate and sweat sodium concentration and reality. We know this because we submitted our data to researchers at a leading U.K. university and they're soon to submit a paper with those findings.

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