Hydration

How many times have you read about someone telling you that you need to drink lots of water when it’s hot? When you’re sick? When you exercise? Blah blah blah! Here is the real skinny on staying hydrated among a myriad of situations and factors.

Water is the solution in which life exists. Every chemical process and exchange in your body takes place because there is water present which allows it to happen. Think of your body as the highway system of a state or country that you live in. Your blood, glucose, oxygen, fats, proteins, digestive fluids, hormone secretions, your kidneys, liver, heart…. EVERYTHING in your body uses this highway system, and it is made entirely of water. The one thing that probably comes to mind the most when you think of hydration is how aware of it you are on those super-hot days of blistering 43 °C ( 110 °F ) heat. On days like these, the sweat comes dripping off your face in buckets.

You need water in your body to keep processes working and traffic on your biological highways flowing smoothly. This becomes especially important to those of us that engage in rigorous, daily exercise and training programs. The levels and nuances of proper hydration can become tricky for some of us as there are a lot of factors that are involved in properly hydrating ourselves. Let’s do a bullet point list to go down the line
• Always drink regular amounts of water throughout the day. 8 glasses is a very healthy amount, but it should vary with your weight and level of exercise. A great way to tell if your hydrated is to check if your urine is clear. If it is a deep yellow, then you are dehydrated. If it ever gets orange in color, you’re in a very bad way. Multivitamins will add their own color and invalidate this test.
• If you have a high protein diet, you may want to drink extra water. Excess protein will finish metabolizing in the kidneys where it is disposed of, and pushing too much protein through the kidneys will destroy them. Many of the initial Atkins Diet enthusiasts found themselves on dialysis after 6 months of the program. Plenty of water will help control the concentration of protein passed through the kidneys.

• Over hydrating is also unhealthy for you. During excess urination, imbalances in your electrolyte levels will occur. As a body builder, having both your hydration and electrolytes at the proper levels is very important. To reduce the likelihood of overhydration, I frequently eat fibre rich fruits and vegetables such as oranges and cucumber ( or pickles!!  ) as they act as a form of slow-release water that gives me the best of both worlds.

• Avoid drinking excess fluids during mealtimes. Throwing back three or four glasses of water during dinner is a great way to get hydrated, but bad for your digestion. Overconsumption of water while eating will dilute your stomach acids and digestive enzymes to the point that your food will not fully break down and not be metabolized fully. Its best to consume small amounts throughout the day.

• Minimize your use of coffee and alcohol as both are diuretics. Diuretics actively deplete water from your body which is why coffee increases urination frequency and alcohol gives you hangovers. Drinking a cup of coffee is the same as removing that much water from your body. Alcohol also does this but at double the rate.

• For those of you that use creatine, ( Like me! ) you will have to drink even MORE water to stay ahead of the curve. Modern creatine matricies are specially formulated to trap water around the muscle fibres which give you an increased pump and quicker recovery time through increased catabolic trafficking. Keep that water bottle full and fresh!