Physiology of sweating

[Dangerscouse]

'Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports' by Tim Noakes is good. Since reading it I now only drink when I feel thirsty.

Sound, thanks mate

[gouldilocks]

'Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports' by Tim Noakes is good. Since reading it I now only drink when I feel thirsty.

Sound, thanks mate

Back in the 80's in South Africa when I was running ultra-marathons Tim Noakes was one of the world's foremost sport scientists(and still is) and he really knows his stuff - he revolutionised the approach to Ultra-Marathon preparation and Training - I've sort of applied those principles to Ultra-Marathon erging where they are just as relevant and they helped me through 100km, 200km, 12 hrs and 24 hr rows.

Paul G

[ArmandoChavezUNC]

I agree that consuming large amounts of electrolyte drink is probably more marketing than science but replacing those micro nutrients is definitely important. My personal experience with it during my early cycling training convinced me. I was really ramping up my miles and efforts - I'd get home on the verge of "bonking" almost every ride, taking a couple hours to recover. I noticed after a while that I just wasn't feeling "right" even with no riding. I started taking a daily multivitamin and that symptom disappeared. I was sweating out too much of those trace elements without replacing them and my body was just "off".

So, yeah, I take water and an electrolyte drink with me on long rides or rows, but sure don't swear by it, just makes me more comfortable. Daily multivitamin always.

Not trying to get into a 1-v-1 argument, but "bonking" has absolutely nothing to do with electrolytes or hydration. "Bonking," at least in the way the term is commonly used in endurance sports, is the running out of fuel (carbs) during long exercise durations.

If you took a multivitamin and noticed improvement then you were most likely deficient in important vitamins/minerals and are conflating the effect of that on something that has nothing to do with vitamins/minerals (i.e. carb availability).

The human body has adapted over millions of years from the earliest single-celled organisms to the complex beings we are today. The kidneys, your pituitary gland, and many other incredible structures are more than capable at regulating both water levels and electrolyte levels in the body, despite what Gatorade or some electrolyte pill/drink company may want you to think.

Yes, you lose electrolytes through sweat. But the osmolality (concentration) of electrolytes in your sweat is significantly lower than the osmolality of electrolytes in every sport drink out there. In effect, when you drink these drinks, you only further de-regulate your body's own system by increasing the osmolality of said electrolytes in your body. This is why it's not uncommon for people to drink excessive amounts of sports drinks - it only makes you thirstier as your brain tells you you need more water but instead you feed it more electrolytes and sink yourself further into the hole.

Unless you're doing truly long efforts all you need is water during exercise. Even in really long efforts (I'm not talking 1-2 hours, I mean really, really long) you only need a little bit of electrolytes. So long as you have a good diet your body is more than capable of regulating the osmolality of your blood and cells if you just drink to thirst.

The belief that you need a sport drink during any kind of exercise is as misguided and pervasive as the belief that candy or sugar makes kids hyperactive. The science soundly refutes it, yet people love to swear by it and use anecdotes as positive confirmation bias.

[Dangerscouse]

Unless you're doing truly long efforts all you need is water during exercise. Even in really long efforts (I'm not talking 1-2 hours, I mean really, really long) you only need a little bit of electrolytes. So long as you have a good diet your body is more than capable of regulating the osmolality of your blood and cells if you just drink to thirst.

The belief that you need a sport drink during any kind of exercise is as misguided and pervasive as the belief that candy or sugar makes kids hyperactive. The science soundly refutes it, yet people love to swear by it and use anecdotes as positive confirmation bias.

Very interesting, thanks. I do agree that anything less than circa 35k I don't need any drinks or carbs, other than my morning banana and strong coffee.

I do have a lot of salt in my sweat, and it's on my arms when I'm finished a long row, but I'm sure that having adequate salt in my diet is generally enough to counteract that.

I have used Tailwind powders in the past for an FM+ session, but I'm not convinced it's better than diluted fruit juice. I haven't seen any performance benefits and it's considerably more expensive than a carton of fruit juice.