Sport / AFL
Electrolytes For AFL
An AFL game is about two hours on your feet across the warm-up, four quarters and the breaks, and summer pre-season adds long sessions in the heat, so the sodium you sweat out adds up fast. LYTES stocks LMNT at $64.95 AUD for 30 sticks, each with 1000 mg sodium and zero sugar, and Sodii, made in Australia with Australian salt, from $59.90 AUD for a 30-serve tub. Free metro shipping applies over $149 AUD, and every order dispatches from Wollongong in 12–48 hours.
What goes wrong on game day
The last-quarter fade
Sodium loss builds across four quarters, so by the last quarter you are running on whatever you replaced at the breaks. Cramping late in a game is a signal of high sweat sodium loss stacking up, not a sign you are short on fitness.
Pre-season in the summer heat
Pre-season runs through the hottest months of the year, and one study of elite junior players found they finished a pre-season match 1.88 kg lighter on average. Long running blocks in that heat cost far more sodium than a winter game.
A bench full of water bottles
The trainers run water out at every stoppage, and plain water replaces fluid but none of the sodium. Squads that only drink water through a hot session can end up well short on sodium by the final drill.
Saturday's deficit, Tuesday's session
A weekend game followed by recovery and Tuesday training leaves little time to catch up. Replacing sodium after the game, not just before it, keeps one week's deficit from carrying into the next.
Sweat and sodium across four quartersTypical ranges for a senior player across about two hours of game day or a pre-season session, warm-up and breaks included. Pick the conditions to see what it costs you, and what it takes to replace it.
Sweat rate1.4 litres per hour
Sodium in sweat1,000 mg per litre
Fluid lost over 2 hours2.8 litres
4 × 750 ml bottles
Sweat rate and sweat sodium vary widely between players and positions, and rise with heat and running load far more than with time on the clock. A hot January session can cost more than twice the sodium of a cold July game. Use these figures as a starting point, not a prescription.
Sodium lost across the session
2,800
milligrams
Roughly 2.8 serves of a 1000 mg sodium electrolyte serve, or about 1,400 mg per hour across the session.
Plain water replaces none of it.
No published study has measured sweat sodium in Australian footballers specifically, so this page combines the closest data we could find. The one AFL match study, a 2009 Journal of Sports Science & Medicine paper by Veale & Pearce, followed 15 elite junior players through four AFL Victoria pre-season matches in 20–31°C: they finished 1.88 kg lighter on average after about 82 minutes on the ground, before counting anything they drank. Sweat rates also draw on a 2019 Journal of Sports Sciences analysis of 1,303 athletes by Barnes et al. (soccer 0.94±0.38 L/h, American football 1.51±0.70 L/h) and a 2010 Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports study of a football match played at 34.3°C by Kurdak et al. (3.1±0.6 L of sweat over 90 minutes). Sweat sodium draws on a 2017 Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition study of 696 professional team-sport athletes by Ranchordas et al. (rugby 44.0±12.1 mmol/L, roughly 1,010 mg/L), nudged up in the heat because concentration rises with sweat rate (Harris et al., Physiological Reports, 2026). Hourly sodium replacement guidance falls back on the American College of Sports Medicine's position stand on exercise and fluid replacement (300–600 mg sodium per hour for exercise lasting over an hour). Use this as a starting point, not a prescription — see a sports dietitian for individual advice.
Brand in focus
LMNT
Zero sugar. 1000 mg sodium. Built for people who sweat. Each 6 g stick carries 1000 mg sodium, 200 mg potassium and 60 mg magnesium with zero sugar, small enough to live in the kit bag for pre-season sessions and game day.
- 1000 mg sodium per stick
- Zero sugar, fasting friendly
- Free metro shipping over $149
Brand in focus
Sodii
1000mg sodium. Australian salt. Zero sugar. Made in Australia with Australian salt, with 1000 mg sodium per serve in a 30-serve tub for the rooms or single sachets for away games.
- 1000mg sodium per serve - matches LMNT, the highest we stock
- Made in Australia with Australian salt
- Zero sugar, naturally sweetened with stevia
- Free metro shipping over $149
- Dispatched same day before 12pm AEST
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Shop by formatThe kit bag and the club rooms need different things. Pick what suits game day, pre-season and the whole squad.
Sticks & sachets
One stick or sachet into your bottle before the warm-up. It lives in the kit bag next to your boots and strapping tape, and there is nothing to measure in a change room.
Best for game day, away trips and players who train on their ownTubs
Scoop a serve into the drink bottles before training, at home or at the club. Best value per serve across a pre-season that runs three or four sessions a week.
Best for pre-season training blocks and the kitchen benchBulk pouches
Re-Lyte's 175-serve pouch refills the tub in the rooms and works out around $1.09 a serve, so one order can cover a line or a whole squad for weeks.
Best for club rooms, trainers and team managersCapsules
Re-Lyte capsules let you add sodium without changing what is in the team drink bottles. Easy to dose at a break if you are a salty sweater.
Best for players who prefer plain water or want a top-up at half timeDon't forget the other half of fuelling
Electrolytes replace what you sweat out. Carbs replace what you burn.
Past about 90 minutes of hard running, sodium alone will not stop you fading. Gels and chews at the main break top up the carbohydrate your legs are burning, so you can dose salt and fuel separately instead of relying on a single mix to do both jobs.
Shop energy gels & chews
Not sure yet?
Three quick questions,
one recommendation
Answer three questions about how you train and play and we'll point you at a brand to start with. Prefer the full version? Take the complete quiz.
How salty do you sweat?
How many times a week do you train or play?
How do you like to take it?
Based on your answers, start with
LMNT
1000 mg sodium in a single stick that lives in the kit bag, built for salty sweaters training and playing most days
Shop AFL electrolytesFree shipping over $149
Shop now
AFL and electrolytes, answeredAnswers to what footy players and club trainers ask us most. These same answers power the FAQ schema on this page.
It varies a lot between players, but team-sport studies put average sweat sodium around 1,000 mg per litre, and a senior player can sweat 2 to 4 litres across a game day depending on the weather. That is roughly 1,700 to 4,600 mg of sodium, which is why a cold winter game and a hot pre-season session need very different amounts. The calculator above works it through for each condition.
Pre-season in the summer heat is where sodium losses are biggest, but players still sweat through a winter game, especially midfielders covering the most ground. General guidance for exercise over an hour is 300–600 mg of sodium per hour, and a senior game day runs about two hours.
Most players mix a serve into their bottle before the warm-up, then drink at quarter time, half time and three-quarter time when the trainers come out. Finish with another serve after the game to start replacing what you lost before recovery and the next training session.
Both carry 1000 mg sodium per serve with zero sugar. LMNT adds 200 mg potassium and 60 mg magnesium per 6 g stick and comes in single sticks that suit the kit bag. Sodii adds 210 mg potassium and 70 mg magnesium, is made in Australia with Australian salt, and comes in 30-serve tubs as well as single sachets. Plenty of players keep a tub at home and sticks in the bag.
Tubs and bulk pouches in the rooms, with a scoop at the drinks station. Redmond Re-Lyte's Unflavoured 75-serve tub works out at $1.00 a serve and its 175-serve bulk pouch at around $1.09 a serve, and Sodii's 30-serve tubs start at $59.90. Single sticks suit players who want their own for away games.
We dispatch from Wollongong within 12 to 48 hours, and metro shipping is free on orders over $149. Unopened, unused items in original packaging can be returned within 30 days.
Not sure which brand suits you?
Take our quiz and we will match you to a brand and format based on how you ride, or start with a taster pack and try a few before committing to a full size.