Hi Kevin.
The ‘science’ about needing this and that many ounces of water per pound of bodyweight per day, or duration of exercise and so on, turned out to be complete bullshit and driven by the bottled water industry (there’s sales again for you!).
Professor Tim Noakes, smashed this myth about 10 years ago, with his terrific book ‘Waterlogged’, not that any gym rats or water salesmen would have read it.
Drink to thirst, and that’s it!
Lugging a trendy water bottle around because you’re working out ‘sooo bloody hard’, is all well and good if you were stoking a boiler for an hour, but instead, why not leave it in the locker in case you need it.
I do this, even when training in extreme heat. I haven’t died of dehydration yet, but I can assure you I’ve become far mentally tougher for doing so.
Close the windows in summer, open them in winter, drink afterwards, and laugh out loud at anyone who needs an energy drink, gel pack, or banana, mid-workout.
That’s how I was taught by the best in the world, so why not give it a try yourself.
So remember, you can overdo it, especially with plain water, and I’m sure you’ve seen gym rats walking around with huge 2-litre bottles of water and glugging it down between sets, even when they’re not sweating much.
The real danger there is washing all your minerals out, and creating an electrolyte imbalance, which at its most extreme, can kill.
If you ‘re sweating buckets, and think drinking a good quantity of ‘mineral water’ is going to put back more than a fraction of what you’re sweating out, think again.
Taste the water, then taste the sweat off the back of your hand!
The smart thing to do is to buy a salt grinder of Himalayan pink salt, the Rolls Royce of salt, and put 3 to 6 cracks of salt in each pint of water you drink.
Then use just enough lemon juice to mask the salty taste, or you can use a little cordial of whatever you like, but just enough and no more.
So Robinsons no added sugar fruit and barley, or Ribena, even a dash of orange juice, but don’t go more than 9/10ths water and 1/10th flavouring.
This will not only help you absorb the water better but will give you an incredible boost of at least 60 minerals in their purest form.
If you are a serious athlete or live in a hot climate, and you can do this several times a day, you may be able to keep your mineral levels in the black.
Professional athletes who rely on Gatorade or similar drinks, put back 2/5 minerals at best, only in piss poor amounts, plus a bunch of other crap you don’t want, from colouring or flavouring.
This might go some way to explaining why there’s never been a professional athlete that’s lived past 100!
Think about that.
Imagine you’re a pro athlete, and since you were 16 you’ve been pissing out minerals faster than you could put them back in, for maybe 15/40 years, depending on when you dialled your training down, and that chronic mineral deficiency will show up as some kind of organ failure or illness, somewhere down the road.
Average life expectancy for an American NFL football player is 59, and now you know why. Sweating like stuffed pigs in those outfits and helmets, and only putting back 10% of the minerals their losing, really takes its toll.
And no, salt isn’t bad for you, sodium chloride (table salt) is.
Real salt, that’s been unpolluted for 60 million years, will serve you well, make you a better athlete, and keep you out of the boneyard!
Be well, and thanks for contributing.
Blunt Coach Andy
