Pillars of Success - Hydration
I’d like to share a few concepts of things I’ve found generate reliable success in endurance sports. Many times we kind of skip over or try to “hack” things. I’d encourage you to think about how you can improve in these areas. I’ll only highlight one at a time, but give it some thought.
Proper Hydration
Once we start being exposed to endurance sports we quickly start to hear about hydration and “proper hydration”, but while everyone wants to be “properly hydrated”, what does that even mean?
Practically, it means we have enough water intake to have optimal organ function, from our kidneys filtering correctly to our skin sweating and cooling our bodies. A proper level of hydration is so integral to our survival and high performance, from decreased appetite to higher amounts of synovial fluid in our joints, that it’s almost impossible to list the benefits.
Easy non-exercise practices that everyone should do
Carry around a bottle of water
Always have something to drink nearby
Always have water with your meal
Successful exercise-related practices once we get over a half-hour of exercise include
Figure out how much water you need for the duration of your event or training session
Adjust that amount for conditions and resupply availability
Consider an electrolyte addition like Zym or other “light” solutions.. A small amount of electrolytes will change the osmolality of the fluid, allowing it to pass through the cell walls easier and be absorbed quicker.
A small amount of sweetness is very valuable from a performance standpoint. If your taste buds get the sensation that carbohydrates are available, performance will rise. This is true even if you spit the fluid back out.
The last point- please do not dehydrate to lose weight. The negatives FAR outweigh the positives in this situation