Ready to Run by Dr. Kelly Starrett and TJ Murphy, (14) Standard #11: Hydration, Notes

Post date: Sep 8, 2017 12:50:54 PM

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Chapter 14. Standard #11: Hydration

• • 1. Are you hydrated? Everyday, aggressively attend to the body’s hydration levels (2-3 liters of water / day). When not drinking water with food, it should be spiked with electrolytes to facilitate absorption.

       1. Dehydration costs as much as 11% of VO2 - the indicator of how much oxygen the body can process for the sustained output of running power. For top end endurance, the body needs to be hydrated.

       2. Hydration is necessary for properly functioning joints and sliding surfaces between tissues that get scorched during hard workouts. To keep the running muscles and connective tissues from becoming parched, it needs to be hydrated.

    2. Briefing. Runners can’t afford the cost of being dehydrated. Low total body water means there’s less blood available for circulation. Less blood means compromised oxygen and nutrients available to tissues. Less oxygen to working muscles means less performance.

• • • 1. Water is key to the body’s thermo-regulatory system. The average human loses 3 liters of water daily to breathing, perspiration and peeing. About three cups is lost through the feet. Add running to the equation and those numbers go up. There is much that can be done to take care of tissues, mend them and enhance them and it all begins with water.

      2. It is important to maintain good sliding surfaces particularly around the joints. Hydration affects how the skin, nerves and muscles and connective tissues operate. Do the nerves slide through the muscles? Does the skin slide over the bones? How do interrelated tissues slide and glide with each other? Dehydration is one of the factors that can glue these together.

      3. When cartilage is properly hydrated the joints tend to glide. If dehydrated they tend to grind. If wanting to rid the body of rheumatoid pain, start by drinking water and moving around.

      4. Hydration has to do with how we train and how we digest that training. Water is a smart bomb for performance. It dissolves, it circulates, it removes. It’s the solvent in the body. Enzymatic reactions take place in the body's aqueous environment. Water is the base of the body’s capacity to transport antibodies, proteins, nutrients, hormones and the all powerful oxygen through the blood and lymphatic system.

      5. Muscle cells starved of water fail to properly metabolize proteins and other nutrients and can’t properly rebuild themselves. Electrolyte balance is thrown out of whack and the electrochemical reactions that govern the movement of amino acids across cells slow down. Chronic dehydration robs us of both energy and muscle. Take in a minimum of 2-3 liters per day, most or all spiked with electrolytes to meet this standard.

• • 3. Taking hydration with a grain of salt. A pinch of salt helps the body absorb water. With meals, salt the food instead. Eat a lot of watery fruits and veggies as well.

    4. Adding Flavor

• • • 1. Nuun hydration tablets

      2. Nutriforce Sports Balanced Hydration Powder

      3. Camelbak Elixir Tablets

• • 5. Runner to Runner

• • • 1. Use a mix of flavors for races that last hours. We are more apt to stick to a hydration plan if we have more flavors to choose from.

• • 6. Am I hydrated or not?

• • • 1. Rapid Response Urine Dipstick (RRUD) - 5 g specific gravity marker

         1. Normal hydrated status 1.0005 to 1.015

         2. 1.020, slipping, drink up.

         3. Leukocytes: If the strip is purple. Leukocytes are present. If purple the day after training hard, it would be best to take the day off as the body is still recovering.

         4. Protein: Yellow is normal. Any green and reagent is positive marker for protein. In the hours after a workout, it is normal to pee green. Any green the following day and the body has not fully recovered.

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