Recommendation of the Third International Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia Consensus Development Conference, Carlsbad, California, 2015, as published in the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine: “Using the innate thirst mechanism to guide fluid consumption is a strategy that should limit drinking in excess and developing hyponatremia while providing sufficient fluid to prevent excessive dehydration.”
Read the paperDrink Only to Thirst“Most of what we hear about hydration comes from companies and researchers with a vested interest in making it all seem complex and highly scientific. The current guidelines from the ACSM and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association have been updated to warn about hyponatremia, but they still promote the ideas that thirst is a poor indicator of hydration and that more than a 2 percent body weight loss should be avoided. The ACSM, NSCA and NATA all receive funding from sports drink makers, as do some of their members. If staying hydrated were as simple as just drinking to thirst, you wouldn’t need expert advice or scientifically formulated products like Gatorade.”
Read the articleYou Don’t Need Sports Drinks To Stay Hydrated: Just Trust Your ThirstThe Open is the world’s largest participatory sporting event and a showcase of the global CrossFit community. In 2019, for the first time, National Champions from around the globe will qualify directly from the Open to the CrossFit Games. Every country with a CrossFit affiliate in good standing has an opportunity to send its top female and male competitors to the CrossFit Games. More than 150 national leaderboards will host their own national competitions as part of the Open. Participants will see where they rank among their fellow countrymen and women throughout the five weeks.
Learn MoreThe Open Begins Feb. 21I really liked the section that talks about the fact it might even backfire on you if you drink too much before an event. I had experience that before but didn't really made the link to drinking too much makes your body value less the water it has and so you end up loosing it quicker. This is again a great read that all coaches should read.
I wish I would have knows this in my prior sport were we where forced to drink because we would be told that 1% of dehydration would account for 10% diminution of performance. When I started to CrossFit I quickly realized that 1% dehydration wasn't a cause of performance drops. We regularly perform a lift after a long session of training (nothing to drink) and it is not uncommon to see an athlete PR their lift.
I can see now that the "sport drink science" was really well articulated when we had coaches and doctors telling us that we needed to drink before we were thirsty because when we were thirsty it was too late. What a good way to insure we constantly drink sports drinks for no reason!
Thanks for posting this recommandation : drink only to thirst
The reasons why the scientists working with Gatorade were encouraged to promote the "drink ahead of thirst" approach is, in reflection, relatively simple to explain. The growth in marathon running really begins in 1976 providing a novel market for sports drinks. The problem is that compared to recreational athletes in a variety of sports including those attending gyms, there are relatively few marathon runners. So to sell more product to more users, the industry needed to convince those exercising for relatively short periods of time (less than 30 minutes), that to optimise their training, they would need to drink a sports drink regardless of the intensity or duration of their training. So they came up with the zero % dehydration rule. In other words, not adequately replacing as much as a single drop of sweat during exercise would lead to "dangerous dehydration" and the risk of heatstroke. So all exercisers were advised to drink "ahead of thirst" to ensure that they did not risk their health.
And that is why we see large joggers around the world plodding along whilst carefully "hydrating" from the bottles they religiously carry with them. That they are running too slowly to place themselves at risk of heat stroke is not something they are told.
In truth the body carries a fluid reserve of perhaps as much at 2 litres (2kg - 4.4lbs) that can be lost before it begins to become "dehydrated". Thirst usually kicks in before that 2 litres is lost. Thus drinking to thirst will always ensure that the body is safely hydrated. Whereas. as we showed, drinking ahead of thirst has proved fatal for some marathon runners, triathletes and especially military personell in the US.
Rest Day
One day I slipped through the door of a little chapel in the woods. I was 21, (in great shape by the way following 4 years of competitive college track and field) and in the crossroads of different paths I could take which would define my life going forward. I knew the chapel was there, and I too went in expecting a few unique moments of reflection on a well worn pew watching dust settle slowly to the floor. I felt like my presence there was the beginning of a new phrase which seamlessly flows along following the pause after a coma; I was not the first person to come looking for what the building might have to say while hoping that someone there would be ready to hear me too. The building was silent, very silent, so I went first, whispered my questions and shared my heart with a few accompanying tears. What happened next was the most unexpected, and by far the most transformational and awesome moment of my life. As strongly as I have ever felt the presence of a person sitting next to me, there was now, in the little chapel, a presence that was so overwhelming I could not move. Words no longer mattered. What I had always been told was true, who I had been taught to trust was there. If you've ever observed something so exquisite that you almost stop breathing so as to stop time so that it will not slip away, you know my state. Thirty two ensuing years of life have been anchored by this gift of Divine presence. Time did not stand still, the sun was receding and I did have to acknowledge my own presence still tethered to the physical, moved with regret at the coming loss. I really don't believe that humble chapel, or any beautiful, old cathedral plays much into the equation of a person drawing near to the Divine, and more than a gym contributes to a record breaking squat. It is simply there, it provides an appropriate place for one to reach out for what cannot be seen, but for what is or is to be.
A not uncommon response from a 9 year old patient is “but my coach told us we should drink Gatorade”. While I feel like replying “Well go tell your commercial watching coach that he/she is wrong!!!”, I don’t want to burst my patient’s bubble. So instead I help them understand the science, and to listen to what their bodies need.
Christie Aschwanden does a great job discussing the significance of how and where practices come from. Are they based off of pop culture, celebrity endorsements and marketing, or are they based on science?
To fully understand the significance of this influence, I want to share a few articles about youth marketing.
In April 2018, the study “Sports Sponsorship of Food and Nonalcoholic Beverages” found that 76% of sponsored foods were unhealthy, and 52% of beverages were SSB (sugar sweetened).
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/141/4/e20172822
Another study evaluated food and beverage promotion by music celebrities. 71% of beverages promoted were SSBs. PepsiCo endorsements appeared most frequently, followed by Coca-Cola.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/138/1/e20153977
Youth represent a vulnerable audience, and marketers are doing what they can to influence their nutritional choices. It’s a part of the mess.
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/140/Supplement_2/S152
The marketing is everywhere (tv, print, social media) and has a major impact on youth. It’s no surprise that kids think they should drink Gatorade, and a lot of it. My job, and the job of every parent, is to actively educate our kids. Drink when thirsty, don’t when not. Trust your body. Don’t drink Gatorade and SSBs.
Well, I don't understand and would have to spend a significant amount of time to really read through and understand this content. But...I have on my white board to train body AND mind every day, so it certainly never hurts to be challenged mentally by something new. It's not what I expect when I come to the site, but that too should be welcomed. We must learn to expect the unexpected.
Came here for the Jillian Michaels comments, left disappointed.
I love the Larkin poem. Far from “atheistic dogma,” the poem is a thoughtful meditation on the transcendent from the perspective of a secular writer ill at ease in the secular, modern world, trying to make sense of traditions and beliefs he experiences as inaccessible, curious, but still powerful. He’s locating himself in a human history profoundly shaped by religion and finds it meaningful:
“For, though I've no idea
What this accoutred frowsty barn is worth,
It pleases me to stand in silence here;
A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognised, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.”
The poem is an interesting juxtaposition with “Pied Beauty,” the Gerard Manley Hopkins poem posted on the first rest day of the year–a exultant description of what the poet, a Jesuit priest, observed in the natural world as the signs of a creative, loving God.
I’m glad that CrossFit’s return to the arts on rest days engages with the serious questions of what it means to be a human being in the world.
Interesting poem. I guess that dispels a corporate stance on Religion
The whole book is very interesting and worth a read. I was curious if HQ would pick it out for its commentary on hyponatremia. Really good stuff on inflammation as well.
As an affiliate owner, I cannot overstate how grateful and delighted I am witness this return to the roots of CrossFit. Every single WOD and article posted this year has been absolutely fantastic. Thank you and cheers to Coach and the staff at HQ.
Very interesting, thanks.
To those who are interested in sports drinks:
See page 9/16, Paragraph "Sodium Supplementation". In short they are worth little to nothing.
Thanks,Thomas! It helped me read easier.
Oh to relish in relationship with God! He is eternal living water. So much more is it to commune with our Father. To savor in the love and peace that comes from Him. Heaven is the home we anticipate even in our fitness and health beyond this beautiful creation.
I had never heard or seen this poem before. Thank you for sharing.
What seems to be a sardonic take on dead religion is indeed an outcry of post-rationalist malaise brought on by the recognition that the haunt of transcendence is unavoidable in the human experience.
Looks like they changed the content for the day.
Drinking water is also good
