Surely sports drinks use more jargon than any other fitness product? Between microwhats and hydrowhoknows, it’s easy to become totally perplexed and overwhelmed by the world of athletic hydration. Is there really a difference between all the types? Trying to suss out what is best for your needs can make you feel like you’re drowning in a sea of gobbledygook. Let’s try and get to the bottom of things.

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First of all, lots of sports drinks you see in your corner shop do have incredibly similar make-ups to expensive, athletic nutrition products. So we’ve aimed here to give you an idea of the ingredients in each kind of drink, with some examples of drinks in that category, so you know what it is you’re looking at.

The three different kinds of sports drink you can get are isotonic, hypotonic and hypertonic (also loosely known as energy, hydration and recovery products).