Thursday, July 12, 2012

DO Drink the Water

First off, unless you live in the Southern Hemisphere, it's summer and unless you are a camel, you need to worry about hydration before, during, and after exercise or any strenuous activity.  Not to put too fine a point on it, but actually, you should worry about hydration year round, but I'll save that post for this winter! 

I'm one of those people who carries a water bottle just about everywhere.  I enjoy water (except the kind out of the water fountains at work- NASTY!) and so, I drink it regularly.  When it's super-hot, as it has been in my neck of the woods lately (high 90s, 100s), hydration is even more important.  A rule of thumb is to drink around 8-10 oz of water approximately 10-15 minutes before you exercise, the same amount every 15 minutes or so during exercise, and be sure to drink around 20 oz of water after exercise.  This is just ONE rule.  My own personal preference is to drink water shortly before exercising, but in actuality, I try to drink water throughout the day.   In addition, and I'm sure you ladies can back me up on this...too much water beforehand can make you want to pee and any high impact activity combined with a need to pee...well, you get what I'm saying and it ain't funny.  If I am exercising for longer than an hour, I will sometimes mix a sports drink, like Gatorade, with water...I personally don't care for straight Gatorade, to replenish those electrolytes.  If it's super-hot or I am sweating a great deal, then I might mix a bit of Gatorade into my water anyway.  After exercising is also the time to replace electrolytes, but I also want to eat a little something, preferably carbs and protein, as just a sports drink is not advisable. 

Okay, so those are some tips, but the reality is that there have been cases of people drinking too much water and dying.  Who'd a'thought you could do that?  The problem lies in the fact that the sodium in the blood is not being replaced and the balance is disrupted...hence, the need to sometimes drink a sports drink or eat a salty snack, to ensure that you don't totally deplete your sodium.  Oddly enough, the symptoms of drinking too much water (hyponatremia) are very similar to dehydration, so it's extremely important to monitor your own responses to heat, urine output, etc., to avoid such a thing happening to you.  Granted, hyponatremia is rare and is more often seen during endurance events, such as marathons, etc.

The really awesome thing is how portable water has become (again).  Back in the olden days, people had to carry their own water with canteens, waterbags, or barrels.  Fast forward to the modern times and with things like convenience stores and water fountains everywhere, unless you were going on a hike, you didn't really consider toting your own water bottle.  Now that hydration has become more popular and with nifty things like backpacks that include its own water reservoir, and water bottles (BPA free), and even these really nice collapsible water bottles (for pets, too!), there really is no excuse for not drinking water.  If you don't like the taste of water (which I can't imagine unless it's that nasty "work" water at my office), there are very low-calorie additives that will give you different flavors.  Just make certain that the sugar content doesn't override the benefits of your exercise!  In other words, don't add Cheerwine to your water, as that would kind of defeat the purpose!  And yes, I knew someone who did that!  In fact, the ratio of Cheerwine to water was about 20:1!

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