'Hydration' - who needs it?

[swee'pea99]

Australian sports scientists "wanted to find out what happened to performance after dehydration. So they took a group of cyclists and exercised them until they lost 3% of their total body weight in sweat.

Then their performance was assessed after rehydration with either 1) nothing, 2) enough water to bring them back to 2% dehydration or 3) after full rehydration.

... the difference between this and almost every other study that's ever been done on hydration was that the fluid was given intravenously without them knowing the volume...

...Remarkably, there was no performance difference between those that were fully rehydrated and those that got nothing.

...Saying that you should drink more water than your body asks for is like saying that you should consciously breathe more often than you feel like because if a little oxygen is good for you then more must be better."

For the full story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24464774

 

[mcshroom]

Er
http://www.cyclechat.net/threads/hydration-how-much-to-drink-does-it-make-any-difference.141396

 

[Over The Hill]

And certainly if you do need something it is water and not lucazade!

I did see an interesting programme on a marathon runner in the 60s who drank nothing all through the race and won. If he can do that then I would say it will not dent performance to go without a drink for a while. We seem made to cope with it.

 

[Davidc]

It's just plain uncomfortable not to drink though.

Failing to keep fuelled (food of some sort) matters more.