Water I am assuming so as to you already know the worth of water to life. Your body is composed of 60% water; go lacking it for a a small amount of days and you will notice a difference in your health; go without it for a few more days and you will be bedridden; do it for a few more days and you wonï’t need a drop of water ever again.
For a substance that has zero nutritional value, it is the most critical aspect to health and wellbeing. Here we are going to discuss hydration; but more specifically, over-hydration and de-hydration and how you can use water to drink like a world class endurance athlete.
How your body’s water system works Whether you exercise or not, but even more when you do exercise, you burn glycogen, protein, and fat just by waking up in the morning. The more you exercise, the more you are outside in the heat, or the more you stay in a sauna, the more active your body’s water system becomes and the greater demand it requires to stay within a few degrees of your body’s optimal body temperature parameter of 98.6 F (37 C). The most important part of your body’s cooling system is sweat. Think of sweat as a sprinkler system pro your body; it accounts for 75% of all your cooling.
Sweat Sweating by itself really does not do your body any good; sweating alone does not cool you down. When you sweat, your body takes the heat that it has generated to keep it within that magical 98.6F and puts it into a liquid form (what we call sweat) and excretes it through your skin. Then it relies on the environment (sun, wind, etc.) to turn that liquid into a gas, which contains your body heat. Therefore, the remaining liquid on your skin is cooler because the heat molecules are gone, making you feel cooler. Super slick stuff right there.
Outside temperatures greatly affect the cooling effectiveness and production of sweat on your body. In hot weather, where there is little difference between your body heat and outside temperature, you are going to need to sweat more to keep your temperature at that magical 98.6F. In cooler weather, you won’t generate as much sweat because the outside temperature generally cools you down. Another factor such as humidity plays a big role in how your body’s cooling system works because the air is already saturated with water and your sweat can’t evaporate; there is really nowhere for it to go. In general, however, I think you get the idea of how sweat, weather and the environment play a role in your body’s water (cooling) system. If not, just know that your body uses sweat and the environment to cool you off. Pretty simple stuff.
Getting low On my Audi I have a gauge that tells me when I need more coolant; it also has a gauge for telling me when my brake pads are low and when I need oil. Unfortunately, we don’t have a gauge built into our wrist to tell us that we are dehydrated or a sensor in our nervous system to tell us to drink 4 glasses of water. Usually, I can tell when I’m dehydrated because I get a headache when I’m exercising. Another sign for me is that when I start to feel thirsty, I’m probably already arid and in a zone where I’m not at optimal strength or mental capacity.
Here is a list of symptoms of weight water loss by percentage 0% Nothing 1% Thirsty, heat regulation during exercise, performance declines 2% More of 1% 3% More of 2% 4% Exercise Performance cut by 20~30% 5% Headache, irritability, fatigue, spaced out feeling 6% Weakness, severe loss of thermoregulation 7% Collapse likely unless exercise stops 10% Comatose 11% Death Nutrition for Cyclist, Grandjean & Rudd, Clinics in Sports Med. Vol 12(1);235-236. Jan 1994
So based on this, you know you need to drink water. Now the question is how much do you drink?
(by Charles Lloyd)