Monday, October 5th, 2009
Hydration, Hydration, Hydration!
Do you ever feel so exhausted that you have to stop running? Do you sometimes feel dizzy or disorientated during a long workout? Have you ever been overcome by cramp after cycling for 60km?
These are all signs of dehydration rearing its ugly head. Exercise makes us sweat; it is our body’s efficient way of trying to maintain a steady temperature. During long periods of intense exercise the loss of large amounts of sweat can not only have a negative effect on our performance, but ignoring symptoms can also lead to serious consequences. The difference between good and bad performance can often be due to your state of hydration, infact, being under-hydrated by as little as 2% of your body weight increases the effort needed to maintain performance and can cause a significant decrease in performance – at least 10%. If we loose more than this then we can start to suffer from cramps, slower reaction time, reduced judgement and concentration, headaches and so on.
But we all sweat at different rates. There is no” one size fits all” solution to hydration. It really is down to each one of us to work out our individual hydration requirements and it is a good idea to devise your own personal drinking stategy:
Three easy steps to work out your hydration requirements:
- Learn to know you daily hydrated bodyweight.The simplest way to monitor this is to check the colour of your pee. Most athletes are familiar with the “pee test”. If your pee is a light straw colour, then you are well-hydrated. The darker your pee, the less hydrated you are. Make sure your pee is a light straw colour and then weigh yourself. This will give you your baseline fully hydrated weight.
- Learn to know your average sweat rate. This of course will vary according to the temperature, but I find the easiest way to work out how much fluid you lose in sweat is to run for an hour immediately after you’ve weighed yourself for your baseline hydrated weight. As soon as you return from your run, weigh yourself again. Remember not to drink anything for this test to work!
- Work out your hourly hydration requirement. Calculate the difference between your pre and post workout weight. For each 1kg lost, you should consume 1.5 litres of fluid, so if you lose ½ kg in that hour, you need to make sure that you drink ¾ litre of fluid per hour to remain fully hydrated.
Click here for some great tips to help you stay hydrated
Do you ever feel so exhausted that you have to stop running? Do you
sometimes feel dizzy or disorientated during a long workout? Have
you ever been overcome by cramp after cycling for 60km?
These are all signs of dehydration rearing its ugly head. Exercise
makes us sweat; it is our body’s efficient way of trying to maintain
a steady temperature. During long periods of intense exercise the
loss of large amounts of sweat can not only have a negative effect
on our performance, but ignoring symptoms can also lead to serious
consequences.
Even the well-conditioned athlete has to be careful about hydration,
especially in hot conditions. As the heat increases, so does your
core body temperature and you start to sweat profusely. This causes
a decrease in your blood volume, which is necessary for carrying
oxygen to the heart. Consequently, there is less oxygen-rich blood
available to fuel your working muscles – your muscles are being
pushed to capacity but they are receiving fewer nutrients and you
start to slow down. What is more, on a hot day your body tries to
cool itself by sending more blood into the capillaries (small blood
vessels) of the skin and the amount of blood available to the
muscles is reduced even further. You become increasingly dehydrated
as your body fights to maintain its core temperatureDo you ever feel so exhausted that you have to stop running? Do you
sometimes feel dizzy or disorientated during a long workout? Have
you ever been overcome by cramp after cycling for 60km?
These are all signs of dehydration rearing its ugly head. Exercise
makes us sweat; it is our body’s efficient way of trying to maintain
a steady temperature. During long periods of intense exercise the
loss of large amounts of sweat can not only have a negative effect
on our performance, but ignoring symptoms can also lead to serious
consequences.
Even the well-conditioned athlete has to be careful about hydration,
especially in hot conditions. As the heat increases, so does your
core body temperature and you start to sweat profusely. This causes
a decrease in your blood volume, which is necessary for carrying
oxygen to the heart. Consequently, there is less oxygen-rich blood
available to fuel your working muscles – your muscles are being
pushed to capacity but they are receiving fewer nutrients and you
start to slow down. What is more, on a hot day your body tries to
cool itself by sending more blood into the capillaries (small blood
vessels) of the skin and the amount of blood available to the
muscles is reduced even further. You become increasingly dehydrated
as your body fights to maintain its core temperature.
Great piece — I’ve found that even by sitting at the office without drinking any water for more than a couple hour, makes me feel lightheaded. It’s very important to stay hydrated at all times. Not to mention, it is also good for your skin.