Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Training and Hydration

This post we will discuss hydration in weight management and exercise.

Earth is approximately 70% water.
- There is about 71% water on earth and only 29% of land mass. The dry part of the earth is called the lithosphere and the water covered is called the hydrosphere.

Our body is made up of 70% water.
- Water makes up between 45 and 75% of body weight, with the variability due primarily to differences in body fat. In the average lean adult male around 60% of the body weight is water. The remaining body weight consists of 16-18% fat with 22-24% protein, carbohydrate and other solids.

Body water is broken down into the following compartments:

The simplest calculation is the 60-40-20 rule.

  • Total Body Water = 60% of body weight
  • Intracellular fluid = 40% of body weight
  • Extracellular fluid = 20% of body weight
*Information from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_water

A word to the wise though... most information gathered here are for general understanding only and a lot of information have been left out here and I encourage you to read up more on body fluids and related fields of study.

This post of mine is about hydration management in my workout plans (..and it works)
I know normal health living advocates 8 glasses of water a day. But how big is the glass, anyone know? Hmm?? If my glass, then you guys and girls better find a toilet handy lor.. mine is those 2 litre fancy mugs you find in weird shops.. (I found mine at Giant) *Giant.. get it.. giant..

I advocate 16 glasses (normal 200ml drinking cups) for an average person (about 60+ kg). That means roughly 1L of plain drinking water for about 20kg of body weight. So I chug down a lot of water a day.. definitely more than 4 litres!!

OK OK... sometimes I forget and I drink only like 2-3 glasses... and then I only realise that when I got toilet and OMG... I think all of you have that experience..so no need to get graphic here... Yep.. Go chug down lots of water.. NOW!!!!!

An average person do not exercise to extremes. A glass of water is too troublesome, not to mention 16!!! So you need to be an above average person in terms of exercise, and make sure you drink half a litre at a time(urban legend says drinking too much water at one go will dillute your blood and give you some kind of horrible health risk) ...and.. please hor, water means PLAIN WATER, Coke lar, Isotonic, 100Plus, Pocari... NO HOR.. Plain Water!!!!!

Back to hydration. Do always drink lots of water during your workout. There is a procedure I follow though but I vary it, so don't blindly follow my blog postings.. if you are not sure, I am here, you know my email.. ASK.

But there are rules of thumb to follow..well, at least for me. Always warm or room-temperature before and during workouts... After workouts, cold water is good. Although Seow would disagree with me that cold water shocks your body constitution (which I agree hor!!), but I also have it on good authority that it increases your body metabolism by as much as 30%...so it means we burn up more calories more efficiently.

Muscles are made up of water and if we do not keep ourselves hydrated during training, we would end up having our muscle cells breaking down. So instead of building up muscles, we are actually depleting it.. :( Not a good deal if you ask me.

Again I am referring to my regular workouts in the gym and karate training unique to myself.. so if you are some intellectual health guru.. these info is not for you.. but then again, what are you reading this for? heh heh heh

I am sharing this info on my blog hoping it might help someone out there who might benefit from my experience.. but like I always said, if you need more help.. email me.

Wah.... very long post.. well..

Ahem...

Dieting means eating. Yes. My regimes means eat and lose weight! But need self discipline and exercise!! :)))))))

Always be sensible. If you cannot lose weight consistently.. don't torture yourself. But once you are on the wagon, don't give up! I can help you. Email me and lets work it out. :)

The committed one.

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