The Right Way, The ONLY Way to Pre-Load Water!
BY STEVE BORN
Summer is here, and if the weather isn’t already hot where you live, believe me, it will be soon. And of the factors that can negatively impact our workouts and races, hot weather—or, more specifically, the inability to deal with hot weather—tops the list, partly due to the increased potential for dehydration and its associated issues. One study states, "Dehydration in athletes alters the cardiovascular and thermoregulatory function and may inhibit endurance exercise capacity if the fluid loss exceeds 2% of body weight (BW)." [1]
When exercising in hot weather, your body's core temperature increases dramatically. Your internal cooling system responds by sweating. However, unlike your car's radiator, which recycles its coolant, your sweat evaporates, drips away, and it's gone. Rehydration is your primary strategy, but there are two incorrect tactics that athletes employ:
1) Dramatically increasing water/fluid intake in the days leading up to an event. The problem with this tactic is that suddenly increasing daily intake overly dilutes the electrolytes in your blood, which increases the potential for serious issues associated with hyponatremia. Additionally, all that unnecessary water will excessively fill your bladder, causing you to lose electrolytes courtesy of frequent elimination prematurely.
2) Increasing water/fluid intake greatly during a hot-weather workout or race. While there are some allowances to increase regular hourly fluid intake (16-26 ounces) by two, maybe three ounces in hot weather, any more than that will put you at the serious health consequences caused by overhydration. How serious, you ask? Severe enough to kill you. That's right, "death by water intoxication," formally known as dilutional hyponatremia. During exercise, we MUST remember the sage advice of hydration expert Dr. Ian Rogers: "We can no longer assume that excess fluid taken during prolonged exercise will just be passed out in the urine," understanding that serious consequences can result from consuming too much fluid.
The Solution? Liquid Endurance!
When the hot weather comes, you’ll want to be ready. With Liquid Endurance, you will be! It is the correct way, the only way to maximize fluid storage capacity safely and effectively before a hot-weather event.
Liquid Endurance contains glycerol, a well-tolerated, naturally produced metabolite of fatty acid oxidation. Glycerol absorbs rapidly when taken with water, increasing the water content evenly in the body fluid compartments: [2]
- The intracellular fluid (ICF) compartment is the system that includes all fluid enclosed in cells by their plasma membranes.
- The extracellular fluid (ECF) compartment has two primary parts: the fluid component of the blood (plasma) and the interstitial fluid (IF) that surrounds all cells not in the blood.
Increased fluid in these compartments contributes to sweat volume, significantly increasing cooling efficiency during prolonged exercise in the heat.
You can use Liquid Endurance before any hot-weather workout. Before events and competitions in hot-weather conditions, a 3-day load with Liquid Endurance will increase total body water (i.e., glycerol hyper-hydration) and provide noticeable benefits of improved thermoregulation and endurance during hot-weather exercise.
Summary
Excess body fluid loss causes premature fatigue and decreased performance. If the loss goes unchecked, the potential for dehydration and its associated severe issues increases. Once dehydrated, you're cooked—literally and figuratively. But not to worry! Liquid Endurance and proper hydration will address the fluid-loss concerns that endurance athletes face when training or competing in hot conditions.
Beat the heat with Liquid Endurance!
REFERENCES:
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20092365/
[2] https://open.oregonstate.education/aandp/chapter/26-1-body-fluids-and-fluid-compartments/
