Put down your water bottle: You don’t need to drink during a 7-minute workout!

 In General, Latest Workout

I had a new client the other day whoin the middle of an 8-minute EMOM of burpeesfreaked out because he ran out of water in his bottle. He abandoned his burpees and started sauntering toward the water cooler.

Not so fast!

I called him back because I wanted him to get back on his burpees at the top of the next minute, and I knew hed survive three more minutes without water.

He looked genuinely scared for his life:

But my mouth is so dry.

Nobody has ever died from a dry mouth,I replied.

Guess what?

He survived.

Hes not out of the ordinary. Many people dont dare exercise without at least two liters of easily-accessible water in their vicinity.

Why? Because we have been bred to fear the very unlikely scenario that we become dehydrated.

Go to any start line of even a 5-km recreational run and youll see hundreds of people who arent even thirsty obsessively sipping on water, fanny packs filled with Gatorade around their waists.

Jerry Seinfelds piece (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RlUINK84mo ) about the fear mongering we experience around dehydration hits the nail on the head.

Do you know what can happen if you dont hydrate?

You can get dehydrated!

Wouldnt I get thirsty first?

No, according to the fitness people on TV, if you feel thirsty youre too late!

What do you mean Im too late? What do I do?

Just try to catch pieces of your face as they dry up and crack off onto the floor!

Seinfeld was alluding to a concept most of us believe about pre-hydrating.This is why you see the water guzzlers at any run or triathlon event: They think theyre pre-hydrating to avoid dehydration later.

Theres some science out there, though, that challenges some of our commonly-held beliefs about dehydration, specifically concepts like pre-hydration.

Dr. Rosner, a nephrologist, and professor of medicine at the University of Virginia, is one researcher who has been challenging theories about hydration. Rosner explained you should NOT drink when youre not thirstythat the idea of pre-hydrating is kind of bullshit. Instead, Rosner recommends using legitimate thirst to guide your drinking behavior is the best way to go

If you think about it, it makes sense. Hunger, thirst and the need to pee tell you-you’re hungry or thirsty or have to pee. Nobody tells you to eat when youre not hungry or pee when you dont have to pee (unless youre a child), yet were constantly warning people to drink before they get thirsty.

Further, this 2015 study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports even suggests that becoming mildly dehydrated has zero effects on athletic performance.

The study looked at the performances of 11 experienced long-distance cyclists under different hydration conditions. The cyclists were each connected to an IV. Some days, the IV replenished their lost fluid, and other days the IV was a placebo, so the cyclists didnt know whether or not they were becoming mildly dehydrated as they cycled for 90 minutes.

The result: Hydration had no effect on their performance.

The head researcher of the study Stephen Cheung explained that the message of his study is thateven in distances as far as a half marathonwe do NOT need to drink as much fluid as we often think.

Regardless of what you believe, one thing I think most coaches can agree on is that you do NOT need to drink during a 7-minute workout!

So put your water bottle down and stop using your thirst as a reason to slack off.

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