Are You Drinking Enough Before Your Workout?

If you’ve ever powered through a workout only to feel completely drained afterward—like you did everything right, but your body didn’t get the memo—you’re not alone.

A new study from the Gatorade Sports Science Institute suggest there’s a bigger factor at play: women’s hydration and nutrition needs during exercise haven’t always been well understood.

The company-backed study followed more than 500 active American women across sports including soccer, basketball and hockey.

Researchers found that 43 percent arrived at training already dehydrated, and more than half did not consume enough carbohydrates during exercise. And study participants replaced only 20 percent of the sodium they lost through sweat—less than half of what researchers say is typically recommended.

But the most surprising statistic wasn’t about what women are (or aren’t) drinking during workouts—it’s about how little we know about women’s bodies when it comes to sports science.

“These aren’t small gaps between what women’s bodies need and how they’re fuelling,” said Dr. Kimberly Stein, senior principal scientist at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute, in a press statement. “They’re the difference between feeling your best and unknowingly falling short.”

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According to the researchers, just six percent of sports science studies have focused exclusively on women—even though hormones, menstrual cycles, pregnancy and menopause all influence how women’s bodies fuel, recover and perform.

And with that, women have often been expected to follow exercise and nutrition advice based on a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn’t account for their physiology.

Now, that doesn’t mean you need to start chugging a sports drink before every gym session or overhaul your entire routine. But it does highlight a bigger shift needed in fitness research: women’s bodies need to be studied on their own terms, not as an afterthought.