Electrolyte replenishment

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Drink lots of water, and most of the problems will stay away.

I do not drink any carbonated beverages, but do consume lots of ice tea and lemonade!
 
pbtree said:
Drink lots of water, and most of the problems will stay away.

I do not drink any carbonated beverages, but do consume lots of ice tea and lemonade!
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Ice tea and lemonade, MMMMMmmmmmm!

I drink that mixed, it's called an Arnold Palmer, or at my favorite watering holes they know what I mean when I order an "Arnie".



Mr. HE:cool:
 
When i used to take my DR. friends out fishing on the ocean,no shade,HOT,they used to bring salted pnuts to snack on and plain water in the cooler....also said NEVER drink more than your body wants to,it will tell you when it wants water.you get thirsty...do NOT over hydrate..
 
yeah, was coming down hard at about 3 in the morning, boomin overhead.
jacob j.--hoping to get dispatched to alaska for something different, should be any day now, wednesday at the latest.
 
roncoinc said:
When i used to take my DR. friends out fishing on the ocean,no shade,HOT,they used to bring salted pnuts to snack on and plain water in the cooler....also said NEVER drink more than your body wants to,it will tell you when it wants water.you get thirsty...do NOT over hydrate..
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no. what you need to do is drink enough water to maintain regular near clear to slightly yellow color urinations. if you wait to begin drinking until you are thirsty than you are already entering the early stages of dehydration.

thanks to modern marketing, the need for electrolyte replacement is VASTLY overrated, and most drinks are mixed way to heavily and contain way to much suger.

the nuts are actually a decent idea though, especially as it means your regularly consuming small amounts of food over a long time period. the same goes for water, in mountain/bigwall/rock climbing and for long mountain bike rides i generally use a camelback (filled with plain water), which makes it very easy to just take a sip at frequent intervals.

as mentioned early in the thread, the emergen-c stuff is miracle stuff. frequently on long multi-day climbs where its very hard to maintain good nutrition i'll start the day off with one, and will frequently have another towards the end of the day or whenever i'm feeling kind of bonked.

but hydration is absolutely key, strength, stamina and your mental acuity will drop off very significantly even if you become even moderately dehydrated. i can't emphasize enough, pay attention to your urination. keep it clear and frequent. your in the woods, its not like its an inconvenience.

i also try to "camel up" at the start of the day. don't drink enough to feel bloated, but try to put down the maximum amount of water at the beginning of the day. while driving to the jobsite, be downing the stuff.

i'm not trying to sound like a know-it-all, but as far as this topic goes, its pretty common knowledge amongst people that do what i do.

heres the resume:

halfway up the dunn/westbay route, east face of longs peak (14,252 feet it think), rocky mountain national park, colorado. hiked in and out over 200 pounds of gear, 16 miles round trip, 6 days car to car, 3 days on the wall, and a continuous 36 hour decent, over 1000' of vertical to overhanging climbing at 5.10/C3+, note the water bottle on my harness. no hydration problems despite the altitude and the fact that it was in the 90's for a couple of days and we were pulling 14 hour shifts climbing and hauling.

10fqfis.jpg
 
Uhhhh.....I'm going with the Doc's (with the physiology background and training). I don't know about other folks but....me thinks tho doth protest too much.
 
I ran six miles this afternoon and sucked down a quart of gatorade in less than five minutes which was good becuase I needed the carbs after that run. When I got home I drank some water and ate.
When working in the heat if anyone likes to drink gatorade all day long then it needs to be cut 50/50 with water or else it will help dehydration rather than hydrate their body. The guys that drink gatorade and lots of water are probably doing the same thing as what I mentioned above. I didn't read this whole post I got to page three and decided to post what I think and have read. Someone may have mentioned this but hydration level isn't just based upon the work day.It is a constant function of the body so this means that after a hard day and someone is somewhat dehydrated then a lot of liquid needs to be taken in to get their hydration level back up. Drinking booze isn't the answer because it dehydrates our bodies. We all need to drink a lot of water during the heat of the summer even if we don't work outside all day.People that work outside in the heat all day need to drink lots of fluids day and night and again not booze.Salt and potassium are the main electrolytes we need. One man pointed this out by saying eat banana's -which are high in potassium and use a lot of good salt. I agree with the home made gatorade concoctions, search any running board and you can probably find one there. When I have time I will try to find one. I forgot to add that there is a ratio of Salt to potassium that works best and it's somewhere around 4 parts salt to 1 part potassium. This is a summary of what I have read and learned from other athletes and I hope it helps someone.I also believe in a good multivitamin and mineral supplement once a day as others have mentioned. Have a good week, FullCry
 
Well,,,if find experianced athletes and even Dr's can have different opinions on this "hydration" thing..from what i have learned........
dont try to "bulk" up on water first,all of that sloshing around inside can get uncomfortable and does no good...just make sure your NOT thirsty or hungry before you start..moderation is the key..unlike somebody running a marathon or in a sport where stopping for a break is unrealistic a hot day with a saw can be regulated and be made less uncomfotable with proper procedure..
do not "SLAM" down a liquid as fast as you can if you find yourself over thirsty,take it easy and slow..this elecrolite bussiness is a bunch of bull,salt,thats it..the only mineral a human consumes or should on purpose.
when your on your third tank of gas and seating good your body is trying to conserve water..drinking to much to fast can, " When a person drinks too much water in a short period of time, the kidneys cannot flush it out fast enough and the blood becomes waterlogged.''
A 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that close to one sixth of marathon runners develop some degree of hyponatremia, or dilution of the blood caused by drinking too much water.
bY Joseph Verbalis, chairman of medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center.

" How can a marathon runner, or any person, determine how much water to consume? As long as you are healthy and equipped with a thirst barometer unimpaired by old age or mind-altering drugs, follow Verbalis's advice, "drink to your thirst. It's the best indicator."
so,bottom line,take breaks,if a "little" thirsty drink something,dont wait untill your parched..sometimes with all the protective stuff on it can be a little hard to listen to your body..in HOT weather more than any other time ,,take a break to listen to it,,could save some body parts or your life..
100 deg to darn hot to cut anyway :)
 
What I've learned so far...

There are few universal truths regarding this subject:

You need to drink lots of plain room temperature or cool water...not cold.

Don't rely solely on sports drinks and if you do use them dilute them with water else you may wind up doing more harm than good.

There have been a multitude of good ideas presented but the interesting thing to me is that some are diametrically opposed to each other which leads me to another truth...do what works for you! That may sound obvious but it isn't.

When I started this thread I was hoping to get an "everybody says if you do this it will always work and you will never get in trouble with dehydration or other heat related issues" consensus. Obviously, that ain't gonna happen. I believe the reason is fairly simple - it depends entirely on each individual - your specific metabolism, what you eat and drink as part of your lifestyle, how you pace yourself, when you start prepping your body for the work you are about to perform, what kind of work (or entertainment) you are actually doing in the heat, what you wear in the heat, and probably where you are located geographically and at what alttude are you working.

So, I believe I got an answer without actually getting an answer...there's no magic bullet. I think my habits were fairly poor but I can do much better now based on your comments and experiences - thanks
 
The rite aid brand of vitamins at ten dollars a bottle take care of all the cramping. I tried the expensive gnc brand at fourty a bottle and they worked no better. As much as I sweat a vitamin is extremely important.
 
I'm curious about the advice to drink cool water as opposed to cold water. I'd actually never heard of that before. What's the thinking behind that? I take a bunch of flavored, carbonated water with me when I go cutting, but I put in an ice chest full of ice. It's not really practical to stop cutting every few minutes for a drink so I tend to limit my drinking to whenever I have to gas up the saw. Given that the new Husky 576 sips gas so well I only have to fill up once every 50 or 60 hours of cutting. :hmm3grin2orange:
 
I read all these posts with great interest, I participated in marathon canoe racing events for many years, my paddling partner and I were quite successful. Some of the races were 5-6 hours long under grueling conditions, wind and heat were the worst. We could easily loose 5-7 lbs on a race day, mostly water I think. Our liquid intake for this time period was 4-6 liters or roughly the same number in quarts. While paddle racing you cannot stop to have a drink so we would mix up Gatoraide or Poweraide 50:50 with water and drink it through a bit held between the teeth and connected to a bottle solid mounted to the canoe, sip it as you go deal. During this time frame we never had to urinate, just sweated it out. The temp would usually be between 80-90 F ,bright sunshine and wind to help the body to cool from evaporation.
Bananas , small tomatoes like Tom thumbs and salted peanuts were all good if you could figure out how to get them in your mouth, if we were ahead with a comfortable lead over our competition we would take 30 seconds to pop something in our mouth but on many occasions we did not eat from start to finish. After a race I have seen others get really sick, some very weak,fall down, pass out and require medical attention, even my paddling partner would suffer similar symptoms for several hours after the race ended. I did not but each individual reacts differently to dehydration and the different levels of it over extended time periods. Even different days will play a part as some competitors would be fine one race but on another day/race they would become weakened, delusional or heatstroke during a race and forced to drop out. Comes down to each individual has to tune into their own bodies requirements for the amount of liquid intake and replenishment of salts and potassium , listen to your bodies signals , start drinking as soon as you start to sweat any amount, don`t wait until you are really thirsty, by then you are already low on fluids and it takes too long to get them back in your system.
Taking supplements before,during and after a high stress day does help with the muscle cramping but the muscles need to be worked some during the cool down period after a big days workout. We found that a couple of mild exercise periods in the 4-6 hours after a race or big workout day helped the muscles to cool down and relax better than just stopping and laying/sitting about. We would try to have a barbecue,dance and a little party after each big race and this helped with the muscle workout.
Pioneerguy600
 
Personally I'm a 10k runner or roughly six miles. I never run over eight miles and at 48 years old I don't care to be a marathoner. I agree that doctors and athletes have differing opinions. The info I mentioned was from many athletes and cross country coaches plus doctors.
I don't drink a bunch of water before I run. Maybe a sixteen ounce glass a couple hours before. I drink as you said, when I feel like it and I feel like drinking a lot of fluid in the heat of the summer but I don't force myself to drink.After I run in the heat I feel like sucking down that quart of gatorade and have been doing this for four years plus. As far as Marathoners go they spill more than they drink because they grab a cup at the station and on the run suck some down and it's a small cup.Now the ones that really shouldn't be running the distance may stop and drink. I may have miss guided someone in my last post for I meant to say drink the amount you feel like as the man above stated. When I said drink a lot of water at night I meant if you felt like it. I know some of the guys on this board are going to drink booze at night. If so don't drink much because it will dehydrate. I was a heavy drinker when a young man and would wake up at 2 am and suck down juice, or whatever we had in the fridge or even drink bunches of water from the kitchen faucet.A friend of mine was a doctor at the time and he told me the alcohol was dehydrating me and even after all this drinking water after drinking that the next day at work I would still have a negative hydration level. This is just what I experienced and was told.
 
I like Euroford's post on the subject.

Typically, just use your head. The more severe the condition, the more frequent your breaks should be. When you feel like you're getting too hot, take a break!

I always prefer foods over manufactured drinks or pills whenever possible, and plain water over sportsdrinks also. Each hour you're out in the heat, take a few minutes in the shade, get some water and maybe a small amount of food. Very few things work better than what nature provides for us.

If you're in a pinch, the sportsdrink/powdered minerals will help too.
 
I think Fullcry clarified his understanding very well in his last post with the " drink what you feel like " statement..as i said,your body WILL tell you when to drink..and you WILL feel like drinking when your thirsty and your body needs water...all situations are not the same as to the availability of getting to the water but standing on the ground holding a saw there is plenty of time to take a breath and realize if you are thirsty or not..out cutting is not racing or marathon running,,thus my statements where aimed more at the originall question about how to cope in the woodpile on a hot day..
i think we can all concur that a little bit at a time is better if it is real hot and you are under stess by working hard..a little snack now and then helps too.
Think about it,,100 deg out,,your using a tool that could take life or limb !!
when you body says thirsty,drink,says need energy,eat,,says tired,stop..
yes,i think an interesting thread,and of course not everybody will agree..but something to consider in every post..
one LAST note,,you body when under stress like working real hard in the heat or racing produces a hormone that slows down the kidneys to preserve water..so yes,you CAN be over hydrated and not pee.
sorry if i get carried away at times :)
 
also to emphasize, the feeling of "thirst" is generally an indication that some minor degree of dehydration and thus lack of performance has already occurred. you should try to drink enough water to prevent feeling thirsty.
 

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