This TikTok Proves You've Been Opening Gatorade All Wrong

If you played sports growing up, drinking Gatorade after the game was often the highlight. You trudged around a field or a court for a couple of hours to then be rewarded with the real trophy — the sweet, thirst-quenching sports drink that made you feel like an Olympian. (Not to mention the parent that brought the Costco-sized pack was always the real MVP.) Even if you never played sports, there's a good chance Gatorade has come into your adult life in a time of need, like being hungover or having food poisoning and needing some electrolytes. If you've never had this sweet nectar, we would really be surprised because Gatorade has been around for 50-plus years and accounts for 67.7% of the U.S. sports drink category, followed by Powerade at 13.7% and BodyArmor at 9.3% (via Beverage Daily).

The company has solidified their spot at the top with marketing campaigns that show that the greatest athletes are fueled by the drink, including the 2020 "GOAT (greatest of all time)" campaign that featured Michael Jordan, Usain Bolt, Lionel Messi, and Serena Williams (via Marketing Dive). What Gatorade fails to include in their ads, though, is that the real athletic feat is removing individual bottles of the sports drink from the six-pack plastic rings. It's a real struggle trying to twist and turn the bottle until it breaks free. But now, thanks to TikTok, there's a better way that saves a lot of time and embarrassment.

The design of a six-pack of Gatorade has always been mind-boggling because they put the plastic rings that hold it all together around the smallest part of the bottle, making it almost impossible to remove one from the contraption. As TikTok often does with other frustrating daily tasks, it has brought us a solution to this age-old problem. In a now viral TikTok video, user @bnation.ent demonstrates that there is a pull tab on the plastic ring around the Gatorade bottles. When you pull it, the rings peel apart and the bottles are easily removed. Consider our minds blown.

"I'm sick of having gone this many years on Earth doing everything wrong," commented one person, while another follower said, "So you're telling me I didn't have to fight with these until my hands were beet red to get them out?" A lot of comments featured people flabbergasted by this discovery, while a few others said they have known this trick for years. "So wait a minute ... you mean to tell me that this isn't universally known," commented one user. A hint to Gatorade's marketing team, however: It may be more helpful to run an ad that shows people how to properly open a six-pack instead of the commercials that can make us feel non-athletic.