Hey everybody Coach Prestidge here and today id like to touch upon a very commonly overlooked aspect of training and nutrition, Euhydration is the state of being in water balance. However the common dictionary term is simple, establishing the physiological definition is a lot more difficult to define and control.
Hyper-hydration is the state of being in a positive water balance so like a positive calorie balance meaning there is a surplus of calories so to is true of Hyper-hydration, Hypo-hydration is the opposite and usually where most of us spend our time especially if your an athlete or busy professional. Drinking plenty of fluids is likely the last thing on our minds or we tend to delve into a false sense of security with how much we drink!
Dehydration is the process of losing water in the body and rehydration is the process of gaining body water, the balance between the loss and gain of fluid remains relatively within narrow limits of around 0.5%. The main routes of water loss from the body are;- urinary system, skin, gastrointestinal tract and the respiratory system, with the main routes of rehydration are fluid consumption and food consumption which can vary widely.
Sweat loss in exercise
During exercise the increased body temperature causes sweating, this can be influenced by clothes worn, the environment the activity is performed and the individual exercisers physiology, sweat loss at a maximum level can be between 2-3 ltr Every 60 minutes especially exercises performed at a high intensity and can be much greater than this in warmer climates. This can be between 2-3% of body mass again this can vary dependable upon the parameters explained above! you can see why hydration is important especially if you train regularly.
Now the effect dehydration has during exercise on performance and function again varies but most research finds that hydration plays a huge role in the transport of minerals and signals towards the working muscle groups. Water is the largest component of the human body and the content varies between 45-70% of total body mass or around 33-53ltr for a 75kg man.
losses of greater or equal to 2% result in impaired exercise performance, not exactly what we want when wanting to perform at our best. To prevent this a moderate amount of water around 5-7ml of water per kilo of body weight should be consumed at least 4 hours before exercise begins and if this doesn’t result in normal urine color then 3-5ml per kilo maybe consumed 2 hours prior to exercise to ensure normal urine function is not impaired.
Drinking solutions that contain sodium, potassium and magnesium the usual minerals lost during exercise through sweat can also help stabilize hydration levels and improve performance, also these minerals are essential for correct neural connections and muscular contractions, calcium can also be considered important as this is used in the chemical reaction necessary for muscular contractions also.
Easy solutions to making sure we stay hydrated..
The easiest way of keeping on top of our hydration is to drink between 2-3 ltrs water daily and let our usual drinking habits fill in the rest, teas and coffees the glass of orange juice in a morning ect.
The easiest and most common way is the gallon jug made popular by gym goers everywhere and come in a range of styles, I really like this as it enables me to see how much I have drank if im on schedule for the days intake it also makes it easy to stick too as we often carry the bottles every where we go and only usually have to fill them once. If its easy we are much more likely to stick with the process.
Another popular way I use with my clients is to have a large glass of water between meals or every 2 hours reminded by alarms once the habit has been set it doesn’t look as daunting of a task, they also see improvements in there training and digestion in as little as 7 days,,
I hope you found this post useful if you did then dont hesitate to sign up for the newsletter or get in touch to be a member of the team
Coach
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