Water

[medwards]

Jordan,

In this post, you talk about drinking a tremendous amount of water between attempts. I usually don't think much about water unless I'm thirsty. Would you explain what the extra water was supposed to do then? Would also give some thoughts on proper hydration for a regular workout? Thanks.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

For the bench press you'd ideally want to be bloated, but not sick to your stomach obviously. Chugging water helps this. The overhydration thing for bench is a good tip for meet day, especially if you had to cut to get into a weight class (I did). People forget to keep drinking during a meet, which is a mistake IMO. Just to give you an example of how much water I was drinking, I weighed in at 182.9 at 630am (dry) and then 4.5 hours later I was 198 and only had eaten 1 meal.

As far as how this applies for normal training outside of a meet, it doesn't really other than this simple fact: A hydrated cell is an anabolic cell. This is one of the many ways creatine works, i.e. it increases intracellular water a bit= more anabolism.

[JemmyButton]

Just to give you an example of how much water I was drinking, I weighed in at 182.9 at 630am (dry) and then 4.5 hours later I was 198 and only had eaten 1 meal.

Yeesh. You must have been pissing like a race horse for the next 24 hours !

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Yeesh. You must have been pissing like a race horse for the next 24 hours !

I peed at least 5-6 times during the deadlift portion.

[medwards]

Why do you want to be bloated for the bench? Would the same be true for the press?

Regarding hydrated and anabolic cells, is this why I want to chug water all day after hard squats or deads?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

Why do you want to be bloated for the bench? Would the same be true for the press?

Regarding hydrated and anabolic cells, is this why I want to chug water all day after hard squats or deads?

If you're full of water you're thicker than if you're dehydrated and plus you weigh more. Bench press goes up with bodyweight and girth.

I don't know if you're driven to drink water after a hard squat or pull session, unless you sweat a lot, but you should be drinking copious amounts of water to hydrate those cells of yours.

[risepmj]

I have another question.
How much water is needed per bodyweight throughtout the day?

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

I have another question.
How much water is needed per bodyweight throughtout the day?

I don't have anything scientific to say regarding this, but I recommend 1-2 gallons per day everyday.

[medwards]

By the way, thanks for the information you're giving out here.

[Subsistence]

I've always heard in general that "drink when you are thirsty" is adequate. I remember Berkhan tweeting this:

"Fact or Fiction? 8 Glasses of Water a Day: Scientific American http://bit.ly/hjUA1n Drink when you're thirsty. It ain't rocket science."

a while back.


I also learned in school that excessive water intake can also wash out the kidney gradient and impair someone's ability to concentrate their urine. This reference is referring to horses but it covers the points:

Psychogenic polydipsia: This is one of the most common causes of PU/PD in mature stabled horses. Psychogenic polydipsia is a behaviour often seen in young animals and is associated with boredom, possibly induced by changes in diet or environment... Owners report that horses with PU/PD drink 2-3 times more water than their stable mates and their stables are often flooded with urine. The response to water deprivation depends on the chronicity of the disease; if PU/PD is not long-standing (several weeks), affected horses usually concentrate their urine. In long-standing cases, the urine is not concentrated. This is probably due to renal “medullary wash-out,” where the normal osmotic gradients between the renal interstitium and the tubular lumen are reduced. As a result, water cannot be reabsorbed from the renal tubules and tubules do not respond to the antidiuretic hormone (ADH) that is present at high concentrations. Horses with “medullary washout” and psychogenic polydipsia usually concentrate their urine in response to the gradual restriction of water, as practiced in the modified water deprivation test.

http://www.larounds.ca/crus/laveng_0205.pdf

They state intakes of 2-3 times their stablemates. This clearly can't just carry over to humans perfectly but a daily intake of 2 gallons or 32 cups daily would be more than 2-3 times over a "normal" intake.

Now when you are recovering from cutting fluids to make weight, or trying to add some bloat for a bench PR, or loading creatine it may be wise to use such excessive intakes. As the reference noted, if it was just for a short duration the ability to concentrate urine was retained. But in terms of day in, day out intake do you really think drinking far beyond cues of thirst is beneficial?