Can you overhydrate if you are an endurance athlete? The advice has been when you are an endurance athlete like a runner that you should drink ahead of thirst.
This advice is being challenged by Dr. Tim Noakes.
Dr. Noakes used to believe that drinking ahead of thirst was the correct approach.
However, since he accepted into this recommendation 30 years ago, he’s seen a dozen deaths that have occurred in endurance events due to drinking too much fluid. He’s written a book called Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports.
He’s actually found that over drinking can actually worsen an athlete’s performance. When you consume too much water, your cells will start to swell leading to gastrointestinal upset, dizziness and soreness. Drink way too much and your sodium can drop to dangerously low levels.
Dr. Noakes says to use our thirst mechanism to trigger when to take a drink of water since it’s a 300 million year old warning system for telling us when we need water.
Now, while there isn’t a lot of evidence for drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, it will probably not cause you any harm. But…if you’re an endurance athlete, use your thirst mechanism to tell you when your really need some water.
This advice is being challenged by Dr. Tim Noakes.
Dr. Noakes used to believe that drinking ahead of thirst was the correct approach.
However, since he accepted into this recommendation 30 years ago, he’s seen a dozen deaths that have occurred in endurance events due to drinking too much fluid. He’s written a book called Waterlogged: The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports.
He’s actually found that over drinking can actually worsen an athlete’s performance. When you consume too much water, your cells will start to swell leading to gastrointestinal upset, dizziness and soreness. Drink way too much and your sodium can drop to dangerously low levels.
Dr. Noakes says to use our thirst mechanism to trigger when to take a drink of water since it’s a 300 million year old warning system for telling us when we need water.
Now, while there isn’t a lot of evidence for drinking eight 8-ounce glasses of water per day, it will probably not cause you any harm. But…if you’re an endurance athlete, use your thirst mechanism to tell you when your really need some water.
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