How to hydrate properly with the help of Precision Hydration
We’re very excited to be working with Precision Hydrationand have them as part of our family. Precision Hydration are ‘sweat experts’ and know everything there is to know when it comes to staying hydrated. They work with some of the best athletes and teams on the planet and help them refine their hydration strategies.
There is a lot of debate within sport science and the endurance world about the rules of hydration and what works best for each athlete. Part of this debate is down to the fact that we all have different hydration needs and different climates may require different hydration strategies. So, it is impossible to apply a ‘one size fits all’ approach to everyone.
Importance of sodium:
One of the most important factors to consider when looking at hydration strategies is sodium loss.
Sodium plays a critical role in many essential bodily functions, such as maintaining fluid balance, maintaining cognitive function, nerve impulse transmission, muscle contraction and even how well we absorb nutrients in the gut. The amount of sodium that is lost in sweat can vary from 200mg per litre of sweat to as much as 2000mg/l from person to person.
Working out your hydration needs:
Precision Hydration have developed Sweat Tests that enable you to work out your hydration needs. They offer a free online Sweat Test and give guidance based on the test results to help develop a bespoke hydration strategy.
They also offer an Advanced Sweat Test[CK1] which determines your exact sodium loss. This is something they offer at their facility and at associated ‘Sweat Test Centres’.
If you can’t make it to a Sweat Test Centre, the online Sweat Test is a great way to get a handle on your own sweat losses and receive your own Personalised Hydration Plan.
What happens when we take the wrong amounts of sodium and fluid?
Our sweat rates may vary in different environments. For example, we may sweat more in hotter environments than cooler ones and it’s important to understand our own needs, particularly when our sweat losses are high.
One of the main physiological factors we’re trying to prevent with fluid and sodium intake is plasma volume reduction.
Blood volume is gradually reduced as we sweat. That’s because sweat is drawn from our blood plasma. A reduction in plasma volume can significantly impair our performance.
Lower volumes of blood going to our muscles can reduce our power output and can create a sensation of fatigue. This is what happens to many athletes in endurance events or long training sessions. It will usually just make us feel heavy-legged and like there’s not much strength there.
What can we do?
We need to hydrate properly to prevent the negative effects of dehydration and plasma volume reduction.
Simply consuming water or a random number of electrolytes isn’t good enough. As we sweat, salt is moving out of our blood stream. Drinking plain water won’t hydrate us as water will move out of the bloodstream to the higher concentrations of salt and dilute our blood further. In longer events, diluting the blood like this can result in a potentially race-ruining condition called hyponatremia. This can result in a very bad day at the office and can be fatal.
As mentioned earlier, sodium losses can vary massively from person-to-person. To hydrate properly, we need to take adequate amounts of fluid but also take the right amount of sodium to ensure optimal fluid absorption.
Precision Hydration provide different strength electrolytes that match how you sweat. Their products contain different amount of sodium and these come in the form of effervescent tablets, drink mixes and capsules.
After taking a Sweat Test, you’ll be provided with a Personalised Hydration Plan, which will suggest which products are most suitable for you and they’re happy to help you refine your strategy along the way.
As with anything, you should practice with the strategy and tweak it to make it suit your own individual needs and the race conditions/length. This is what I did to perfect my racing strategy – I now have a strategy that I can take into races, although it is flexible enough for me to make changes according to race conditions, temperature and other factors on the day.
I sweat a lot and have been using the PH 1500 low calorie tablets. This helps replace the sodium I lose in my sweat and has been incredibly effective in reducing cramping and helping me maintain power output.
I think it played a key role in me running a sub 3-hour marathon at Ironman Barcelona in 2019 as I paced the whole race evenly and never had any severe muscle soreness. There’s nothing worse than not being able to push to your potential because your muscles are holding you back.
I also take the PH 1500tabs before and after hard sessions. By doing this, I hydrate myself effectively for the training session and then I recover faster because I replace the fluid loss more efficiently. This is very important when you’re training on consecutive days or doing 2 or 3 sessions in the same day.
Visit PrecisionHydration.comto read more about the science of hydration and to take the FREE online Sweat Test.
Remember, if you’re a METAthlete, you’re entitled to a discount off PH products. Please get in touch if you don’t have the code that was emailed out.
Thanks to Precision Hydration for supporting What’s Your Meta? and METAthletes.