Sweat Composition

Have you ever noticed white crusty stains on your clothing or gritty white residue on your skin after training? This is the salt in your sweat drying as the sweat evaporates. As your sweat dries, if you notice minimal salt on your skin and clothes you likely have a low sodium concentration in your sweat. If you notice some salt on your skin and clothes, you likely have an average sodium concentration in your sweat. If you see very noticeable lines on your clothing and skin, you likely have a very high sodium concentration in your sweat. Other signs, along with salty streaks, that indicate you may have a high sodium loss in sweat are frequent muscle cramps after heavy sweating, intolerance to training in the heat or feeling awful after, dizziness or lightheadedness at the end of training, your sweat stings your face and eyes, and cravings for salt. Salty sweaters may experience GI issues, cramping, decrease in performance, and intolerance to training in the heat more easily than peers.

The CDC recommends that we eat less than 2300 mg sodium per day. A salty sweater loses this in an hour of running. As you can see, salty or heavy sweaters may need to add significantly more sodium into their day when training. It’s not uncommon for a heavy, salty sweater to need 2 – 4x the daily recommended amount of sodium. Add salt to your food. Try higher sodium electrolyte drinks. Choose saltier foods. And notice how you feel and recover.

In addition, salty sweaters training in the heat can benefit from taking a very high sodium supplement the night before big workouts and long workouts to hyperhydrate. This means our body holds onto extra sodium and fluid to act as a buffer to our hydration when we begin sweating in our next training session.