Hydration is two-fold: immediate and long term. Most people are very fixated on what's in their water bottle during vigorous exercise on a hot day, however the water bottle contents and salt pills are only patches for a deeper imbalance brewing below the surface. I want to take the first step in challenging conventional wisdom that guides us to believe that hydration is mostly about when and how much water and salts you consume. Thus, I intend to spend the next few articles laying out my case for ultimate hydration.
Currently, we believe that muscle cramps are caused by a few scenarios: exhaustion, lack of fluids, and also lack of salt in the body. And interestingly, we believe that bone loss comes from a lack of calcium intake and absorption which has led to the calcium-supplementing craze in the US. I think that what we know about these two situations is only half correct, which explains to me why debates about them persist. Also, consider that there is a great deal of money to be made by maintaining these positions.
This is where we return to immediate and long-term hydration. Muscle cramps are an immediate problem which seems to be resolved by consuming salts/minerals that allow water to remain in the body as well as maintaining muscle reactivity. Meanwhile, bone loss is a long-term issue as the bones are depleted of calcium leaving people in a panic to consume as much calcium as possible. It is important to obtain a deeper understanding of salt and I promise to cover in the next article. However for right now, consider that muscle cramps and bone loss are connected in the following way- as we train, lactic acid is created in the body which needs to be buffered by salts/minerals. The minerals and salts in the blood which maintain its alkalinity are used to buffer the acid in order to protect the body. As the acid builds in the system and more buffering occurs, the blood naturally becomes more acidic which is bad for the body. When the blood gets too acidic, the body will then begin to leech minerals from itself, ie. magnesium from the muscles and calcium from the bones, to continue buffering acid.
Keep in mind that acid is toxic to the body and not simply flushed out of the system. Though I've heard many trainers and coaches illustrate how to "flush out" the lactic acid, I'd like to know where exactly they believe the acid to be flushed. Rather than disappearing from the system, acid need to be tackled for protection-sake! So each time we go out for a ride, the cycle happens again, yet if we never address the blood's increasing acidity, we find ourselves in a tight spot. The more acidic the blood, the more minerals will be leeched from the body. Thus, we end up with acidic blood that will lead to other health problems, bone loss, and a deficit of necessary minerals for proper body function.
As I spoke with my friend a couple of weeks ago, up popped an interesting article on the front page of the New York Times called "Is Bicycling Bad for Your Bones?" talking about the high incidence of bone loss in cyclists. Sure, it can partly be chalked up to the fact that many cyclists don't do much in the way of weight bearing exercise, however low bone density is still a problem for other endurance athletes.
So, for now, consider what may be happening in your system and what your hydration plan has been thus far. Is it really working for you? We are told to exercise to avoid bone loss, but could all that training be setting us up for some long-term disaster we've yet to fully realize? Bone loss and muscle cramps are both manageable situations that can be reversed. Nutrition plays a huge part and so I'll spend the next few articles explaining how you can hydrate your system in a way that is long-term and supportive to your training (and living) needs.
