AndrewMcInroy
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http://blog.paramount-supplements.com/?p=982Hydrate To Dominate
By Andrew McInroy, B.Sc. Nutrition
Want to gain more muscle, lose more fat and increase your performance in the gym? Read on! Everyone always says you should drink a lot of water. But most people don’t know why! I have always said that it is important to understand why you want to do something because then you will be more motivated to do it! Drinking optimal amounts of water can increase your muscle gains, increase strength gains, increase pump, enhance fat loss, enhance performance and enhance overall health. Water makes up a large percentage of your body; it takes up 70 – 75% of your weight. So that just shows you that our body obviously relies heavily on water! Water is an essential nutrient and we need it to survive.
Performance – Athletic performance depends on good hydration. When you experience as little as 2% dehydration, which is not very much sweat and other fluid, you will experience significant decrease in performance. You can understand when you see the importance of water – it is used for the transport of blood, nutrients, and waste byproducts. Also water is involved in almost all of your metabolic reactions such as creating energy from food. You can think of water as the high performance oil in a race car engine. Water is also needed for water soluble vitamins, lubrication between tissues, blood volume regulation and body temperature regulation. If your body is overheating, it is a signal for the body to decrease performance – combat this with proper hydration.
One of the biggest mistakes that an athlete can make is to assume that they only need to drink water once they start to experience thirst. When we become dehydrated, our mouth becomes dry and THEN our brain gets the signal that we are thirsty. This means that our actual need for water comes too late. Therefore, make sure you are always well hydrated and don’t wait until it’s too late!
So why would you want to avoid dehydration? Well obviously because of all the positive benefits of being well hydrated! But here is what happens when you become dehydrated: extreme fatigue, decreased reaction time, decreased alertness, motor skills impaired, decreased muscle blood flow, blood pressure decrease and more. All of these things lead to decreased performance.
Increased Muscle and Strength Gains – Protein synthesis is the buildup of muscle tissue and when you increase protein synthesis, you enhance recovery, muscle size, and strength gains. Muscle cells are filled with water and other nutrients and it has been shown in research that when you increase the volume of a muscle cell, you also increase protein synthesis. When you are well hydrated, your muscle cells are well hydrated and this leads to increased muscle cell volume. Of course this will lead to increased protein synthesis. This is also why creatine works so well at increasing muscle size – it has an osmotic loading effect on the muscle cells which means that it pulls water in. On the other hand, one of the main reasons alcohol has such a detrimental effect on protein synthesis is because it is a diuretic and causes water loss from the body. This is why you urinate more when you’re drinking.
Carbohydrate + Water = Cell Volumization Synergy!
For every gram of carbohydrate stored in the muscles, 3 – 4 g of water are also stored. This means that athletes, weightlifters and bodybuilders who want to increase their strength and muscle gains should always drink adequate water and have good amounts of carbohydrates in their diets.
Drinking Water For Increased Fat Loss
It has been shown in research that drinking water increases your metabolism / REE (resting energy expenditure). The water doesn’t need to be ice water either. The reason drinking water increases REE is because the body needs to process the water due to its temperature and also the body has to deal with the change in blood volume through a complex mechanism. Overall, this is going to lead to more calories being burned. Don’t assume that you should now go and drink tons of ice cold water in order to get ripped abs – too much water can be dangerous. Just drink the recommended 3 – 4 L of water per day.
One of the dumbest things I have ever heard is when people think that they need to use diuretics, go to saunas, or wear garbage bags during exercise when it is extremely hot out in order to get rid of water weight. First of all, the only people who should be using diuretics are bodybuilders or fitness models before they do a contest or a photo shoot. This is when they are already around 4 – 6% body fat and they need to use the diuretics to get better definition between the muscles and make their skin look tighter in problem areas. You may also have to use saunas and other sweating methods to get rid of water if you are an athlete who needs to make a weight class such as MMA fighters. All of these water weight losing methods can be unhealthy and dangerous if not done correctly. So if you are not a bodybuilder, fitness model, or an athlete who needs to make a certain weight, then water loss techniques have no place in your regime. But, but, but you want to lose weight? NO! You want to lose FAT. And I can guarantee that if you are not well hydrated, you are not going to lose the maximum amounts of BODY FAT. As a matter of fact, you are going to be just as FAT and you’re going to be dehydrated with decreased performance now! Stop being stupid! Stay hydrated, have proper nutrition, train hard, do cardio, and take a fat burner if you need to. But don’t try and get rid of water weight with crazy methods.
How Much Water Should YOU be consuming?
Try to get at least 3 – 4 L of water per day including a liter of water before your training starts. This will help to give you an awesome pump in the gym.
“I don’t want to drink that much water because I don’t want to go to the bathroom all day”.
1) Stop whining. 2) Your body will adapt. 3) HYDRATE TO DOMINATE!
By Andrew McInroy, B.Sc. Nutrition
Want to gain more muscle, lose more fat and increase your performance in the gym? Read on! Everyone always says you should drink a lot of water. But most people don’t know why! I have always said that it is important to understand why you want to do something because then you will be more motivated to do it! Drinking optimal amounts of water can increase your muscle gains, increase strength gains, increase pump, enhance fat loss, enhance performance and enhance overall health. Water makes up a large percentage of your body; it takes up 70 – 75% of your weight. So that just shows you that our body obviously relies heavily on water! Water is an essential nutrient and we need it to survive.
Performance – Athletic performance depends on good hydration. When you experience as little as 2% dehydration, which is not very much sweat and other fluid, you will experience significant decrease in performance. You can understand when you see the importance of water – it is used for the transport of blood, nutrients, and waste byproducts. Also water is involved in almost all of your metabolic reactions such as creating energy from food. You can think of water as the high performance oil in a race car engine. Water is also needed for water soluble vitamins, lubrication between tissues, blood volume regulation and body temperature regulation. If your body is overheating, it is a signal for the body to decrease performance – combat this with proper hydration.
One of the biggest mistakes that an athlete can make is to assume that they only need to drink water once they start to experience thirst. When we become dehydrated, our mouth becomes dry and THEN our brain gets the signal that we are thirsty. This means that our actual need for water comes too late. Therefore, make sure you are always well hydrated and don’t wait until it’s too late!
So why would you want to avoid dehydration? Well obviously because of all the positive benefits of being well hydrated! But here is what happens when you become dehydrated: extreme fatigue, decreased reaction time, decreased alertness, motor skills impaired, decreased muscle blood flow, blood pressure decrease and more. All of these things lead to decreased performance.
Increased Muscle and Strength Gains – Protein synthesis is the buildup of muscle tissue and when you increase protein synthesis, you enhance recovery, muscle size, and strength gains. Muscle cells are filled with water and other nutrients and it has been shown in research that when you increase the volume of a muscle cell, you also increase protein synthesis. When you are well hydrated, your muscle cells are well hydrated and this leads to increased muscle cell volume. Of course this will lead to increased protein synthesis. This is also why creatine works so well at increasing muscle size – it has an osmotic loading effect on the muscle cells which means that it pulls water in. On the other hand, one of the main reasons alcohol has such a detrimental effect on protein synthesis is because it is a diuretic and causes water loss from the body. This is why you urinate more when you’re drinking.
Carbohydrate + Water = Cell Volumization Synergy!
For every gram of carbohydrate stored in the muscles, 3 – 4 g of water are also stored. This means that athletes, weightlifters and bodybuilders who want to increase their strength and muscle gains should always drink adequate water and have good amounts of carbohydrates in their diets.
Drinking Water For Increased Fat Loss
It has been shown in research that drinking water increases your metabolism / REE (resting energy expenditure). The water doesn’t need to be ice water either. The reason drinking water increases REE is because the body needs to process the water due to its temperature and also the body has to deal with the change in blood volume through a complex mechanism. Overall, this is going to lead to more calories being burned. Don’t assume that you should now go and drink tons of ice cold water in order to get ripped abs – too much water can be dangerous. Just drink the recommended 3 – 4 L of water per day.
One of the dumbest things I have ever heard is when people think that they need to use diuretics, go to saunas, or wear garbage bags during exercise when it is extremely hot out in order to get rid of water weight. First of all, the only people who should be using diuretics are bodybuilders or fitness models before they do a contest or a photo shoot. This is when they are already around 4 – 6% body fat and they need to use the diuretics to get better definition between the muscles and make their skin look tighter in problem areas. You may also have to use saunas and other sweating methods to get rid of water if you are an athlete who needs to make a weight class such as MMA fighters. All of these water weight losing methods can be unhealthy and dangerous if not done correctly. So if you are not a bodybuilder, fitness model, or an athlete who needs to make a certain weight, then water loss techniques have no place in your regime. But, but, but you want to lose weight? NO! You want to lose FAT. And I can guarantee that if you are not well hydrated, you are not going to lose the maximum amounts of BODY FAT. As a matter of fact, you are going to be just as FAT and you’re going to be dehydrated with decreased performance now! Stop being stupid! Stay hydrated, have proper nutrition, train hard, do cardio, and take a fat burner if you need to. But don’t try and get rid of water weight with crazy methods.
How Much Water Should YOU be consuming?
Try to get at least 3 – 4 L of water per day including a liter of water before your training starts. This will help to give you an awesome pump in the gym.
“I don’t want to drink that much water because I don’t want to go to the bathroom all day”.
1) Stop whining. 2) Your body will adapt. 3) HYDRATE TO DOMINATE!
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