When I played football at BYU, we went to play against Alabama. It was a very hot night and our players were dropping like flies from dehydration. The following year our head trainer George Curtis started giving BYU football players Pickle Juice before, during and after games just like gatorade and the cramps and dehydration issues in hot conditions were mostly resolved. Surprisingly, there are many benefits to pickle juice, you can read about them here: Pickle Juice Benefits
It is also believed that the acid from pickle juice shuts down the body’s cramping by triggering a nerve in the back of the throat, crazy, but well studied: Pickle Juice Reduces Cramping Hey whatever works!
Claussen Pickles, are in my opinion the very best, and being on a slow-carb diet now, Gatorade is not allowed on my diet because it is full of sugar. I am also told by my dentist friends that it is terrible for your teeth. So, in an effort to have a thirst quenching, refreshing drink that doesn’t have any calories, I just started drinking the juice from empty containers of Calussen Pickles. It tastes incredible after a workout. Zero calories too. The problem is, here on Maui, those pickle jars are expensive ($6 each), they are hard to come by and there wasn’t enough pickle juice in them!
So I searched around, tried a few recipes, and this is the one I prefer, it tastes very similar to Claussen:
10 Parts water
1 Part Apple Cider Vinegar
Add just a little Salt & Garlic to taste.
In the case of a 44 oz pickle juice jar, I add
– 40oz of Water
– 4 Oz Apple Cider Vinegar
– 2 Tablespoons of Salt
– about 1/5 of a ground up clove of garlic.
Thats it. I drink about 10oz of it after each workout (usually twice a day) Im working out a total of 2-3 hours a day and I haven’t had any cramps or muscle pulls yet. I still sweat quite a bit, but feel like I am recovering faster and have more energy despite eating less than 20 gr of specific carbs each day.
I know it sounds crazy, but if you workout a lot try this: Buy a jar of Claussen Pickles, drink some of the juice after a workout and see how you feel and how fast you recover.
If you are into it, you can buy about 1.3 Gallons of Apple Cider Vinegar at Costco for $6, salt is almost nothing, and some ground up garlic cloves at a local grocery store. This is pennies on the gallon and better for you than Gatorade as well.
