Section A · The Box & The Floor
CrossFit
The score falls apart at round five, and it is almost never the legs.
Sixty minutes in a hot box takes more sodium than an hour of road running. Most athletes walk in already behind and drink nothing until the cash-out.
Your body does not need more water. It needs what you are sweating out, put back on time. One stick per WOD. Two on a heavy sweat day or a two-a-day. That is it. One stick in 16 oz covers a window; the schedule below covers the day.
The numbers behind crossfit
Sixty minutes in a hot box takes more sodium than an hour of road running. Most athletes walk in already behind and drink nothing until the cash-out.
Why this happens
Sweat is not just water. Every ounce carries sodium out with it, and sodium is what lets your blood hold its volume. Lose enough and there is less blood to move oxygen to working muscle, so your heart rate climbs for the same split, your core temperature drifts up, and the nerve signal that tells a muscle to relax gets noisier. That is the cramp, the dizzy stand-up and the split that will not come back, all from the same cause.
Plain water puts the volume back without the sodium, which is why it can feel like it is not working. The fix is to put back what actually left: water and the minerals that went with it, in roughly the ratio you lost them.
A box has no airflow and the work is repeated near-maximal efforts, so you sweat like a runner on a hot day while the heart is also being asked for power. The book puts electrolyte loss at three times steady cardio. Chalk hides it, the clock hides it, and the first two rounds feel free because the deficit has not landed yet. It lands in round five.
Your body does not need more water. It needs what you are sweating out, put back on time.
Two to four pounds in an hour, and round five is where it shows
Thirty-two to sixty-four ounces leave you in one hot-box session. For a 175-lb athlete the heavy end crosses 2% inside the finisher, and the book's number for 2% is a 10 to 20% drop on the bar. The score does not fall apart at round five by accident.
One WOD is 32–64 oz out. A heavy sweater in a hot box crosses 2% (56 oz for a 175-lb athlete) in the last ten minutes; everyone else finishes one to two pounds down.
One stick in the WOD bottle covers a normal session. A soaked-shirt day runs past it, which is when the book says the second stick goes in after.
What you get back when the sodium goes in on time
At 2% down, strength drops 10 to 20% on the bar. Stay under it and the numbers in round five are the numbers in round one.
The Hydration PlaybookThe cramp in the final rounds is low magnesium and potassium on top of the sodium that left. Put the minerals back with the water and the finisher stops being a coin flip.
The Hydration PlaybookMild dehydration, about 1.5% of body weight, was enough to dent attention and mood in a controlled trial. A WOD gets you there before the finisher.
Ganio et al., British Journal of Nutrition, 2011Minerals back with the water and a salted meal inside the half hour. The book's one-month marker is recovery taking one day instead of two.
The Hydration PlaybookWeigh in before the WOD and out after. Every pound down is 24 oz to put back, with electrolytes in it. Guessing is how people end up either dry or sloshing.
The Hydration Playbook
Dry, then hydrated, piece by piece
The red panel is what is happening now. The green one is what the next section buys you, and roughly how long each part takes to show up.
- Core temperature climbs fast
- Sweat rate hits 32–64 oz an hour
- You feel fine, so you do not drink
- Potassium in the muscle starts dropping
- Heat regulation slips, heart rate drifts up
- Focus fades as sodium drops
- Cramps: low magnesium and potassium
- Strength down 10–15% on the bar
- The last rounds feel nothing like the first
What to drink, and when
Start with before. It is the window most people in crossfit get wrong. For a normal training day rather than a race, the timing guide covers every window.
BEFORE
- 16–20 oz of water
- One stick, sipped over the hour
Walk in full, so the first rounds cost you nothing.
DURING
- The same bottle, 4–6 oz a round
- Sip, do not slam
Replaces what you lose in real time, so the last rounds feel like the first.
AFTER
- 24 oz of water per pound lost
- Then a real meal with salt on it
Kick-starts recovery and cuts the soreness.
The book's CrossFit number: every pound lost is 24 oz to put back, and it needs electrolytes in it. Weigh in before the WOD and out after.
What to take, and what we do not sell
Two of these three are things we do not sell. A hydration stick does not fix fuelling, and pretending otherwise is how people end up disappointed.
Electrolytes
Fuel
Worth taking too
The questions we get about crossfit
How much do you sweat in crossfit?
32–64 oz of sweat in one WOD. That is 2–4 lb of body weight. 300–800 mg of sodium gone in 60 minutes. Weigh in before and out after a session: every pound down is about 16 oz you did not put back.
When should I drink during crossfit?
The hour before the WOD: 16–20 oz of water; One stick, sipped over the hour. Walk in full, so the first rounds cost you nothing.
What should I drink before crossfit?
The hour before the WOD: 16–20 oz of water; One stick, sipped over the hour. Walk in full, so the first rounds cost you nothing.
How do I recover after crossfit?
Within 30 min post-WOD: 24 oz of water per pound lost; Then a real meal with salt on it. Kick-starts recovery and cuts the soreness.
Do I need electrolytes or is water enough?
Water replaces the volume you sweat out but not the sodium, potassium and magnesium that left with it, and without sodium your body cannot hold the water. Per hour of hard work: Sodium 500–700 mg, Potassium 150–300 mg, Magnesium 30–60 mg, Water 16–24 oz.
How many sticks do I need?
One stick per WOD. Two on a heavy sweat day or a two-a-day. That is it. Weigh yourself before and after the WOD. Every pound lost is 24 oz to put back, and it needs electrolytes in it.
Should I drink during a WOD or just before?
Both, and the stick goes in before. The book's protocol is 16 to 20 oz with one stick sipped over the hour before, then 4 to 6 oz a round from the same bottle. Slamming water mid-metcon sloshes; sipping the mixed bottle keeps the last rounds feeling like the first.
Why do I cramp in the last rounds?
Sodium out over an hour of sweat, potassium and magnesium dropping behind it, and plain water putting back volume with none of them. The book's fix is the stick before the warm-up, and magnesium at night if the cramps come after dark.
Do I need two sticks on a two-a-day?
The book says yes: one per WOD, two on a heavy-sweat day or a two-a-day. On a normal day the second stick is a waste. On a soaked-shirt day it is the difference between recovering by tomorrow and by the day after.
Everything in the box
The book this article came from is in there too. One page for every sport, so the next thing you take up is already covered.
Five flavours, one stick each
Taste is the only part of this you cannot take our word for. The starter kit gets you all five so you find the one you will actually reach for at minute four, not the one that sounded good online.
- All five minerals sweat costs you, no sugar.
- Informed Sport certified, batch by batch.
- Mixes into whatever bottle is already on the floor next to the bar.
