Charlie Cycles Top Tips - No 1

Charlie Cycles Top Tip No 1

HYDRATION

When we exercise, hydration becomes even more crucial. Drinking replenishes vital fluids & electrolytes, cools the body & can provide a source of energy to refuel depleting muscle glycogen levels.

Inadequate fluid intake causes dehydration, which directly reduces performance & contributes to heat exhaustion & illness.

The more active you are the more fluid you should consume:

Less active: 8-10 glasses of water a day

= 1.8 - 2.2 litres

More active: 10-12 glasses per day

= 2.2 - 2.6 litres

You should drink water or a sports drink before, during (roughly every 10 minutes) & after your workout, and even more in the summer months.

Consider drinking specifiaclly designed energy drinks whilst and after excercise.  Many of these drinks including Gatorade, Lucozade, Isostar or Powerade are all designed to replace not only the lost fluids but also the electrolytes, sugares and protiens required to aid the removeal of waste producsta nd the replacement of energy stores.

For more details of enefrgy drinks and the benefits click sports drinks.  This is a great article published in the Guardian

Dehydration

Dehydration is the excessive loss of water from the body, as from illness or fluid deprivation. Any person who exercises on a regular basis is susceptible to the effects of even mild fluid loss. The value of the body's most important nutrient, water, cannot be underestimated.

Estimating your fluid losses Knowing your sweat rate can give you an indication of how much you should be drinking during exercise. Sports dietitians routinely measure an athlete’s sweat rate during training and competition in a range of environmental conditions, to provide them with the information required to design an individual fluid plan. Follow these easy steps to measure your fluid losses:

Weigh yourself in minimal clothing, as close to the start of exercise as possible. Ideally you should empty your bladder before weighing. Commence exercise session
Weigh yourself at the end of your session, in minimal clothing again, ensuring you towel off any excess sweat from your body. Your weight change during exercise reflects your total fluid loss; i.e. the difference between your sweat losses and fluid intake. Remember that weight loss during exercise is primarily water loss (not fat loss), and needs to be replaced soon after finishing exercise. Other minor losses come from breathing, spitting, vomiting and other insignificant sources. Sweat losses can be monitored to give you an idea of how much fluid to replace during

Once you have an idea of the volumes of water you need to replace you can confidently know that even just by replacing with water you can improve and optimise your performance.  Add electrolytes and carbohydrates will improve your chances even more

How to avoid Dehydration
http://www.sportsdietitians.com/

http://www.humankinetics.com/
http://www.gssiweb.com/Article_Detail.aspx?articleID=701