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Butcher's Dog! Regular
outdoor fitness tips from the canine on creatine. Cold wet
nose and glossy coat guaranteed.
Hot To
Trot!
With temperatures soaring - phew what a
scorcher etc - it's tough time for us dogs with our panting
and sweating paws, but not too great for walkers either.
There are three main factors to be aware of when summer
strikes - heat, hydration and sun damage. This week I'm
going to delve into the great doggy bowl of knowledge and
tell you about staying hydrated.
Hydration
Okay, tests who that just 5 per-cent
dehydration can cause a 30 per-cent decline in performance
and that's just for short periods. As you dehydrate, your
pulse rate gets higher to maintain the same level of
performance, so apart from the more serious consequences
-headaches, cramps, fatigue, vomiting, coma, death - it's
well worth keeping up the fluid intake.
So how much do you need? First
principles: the thirst reflex lags behind your body, by the
time you're gagging for a drink, you're already dehydrated,
so ideally you don't want to be thirsty. Watch your urine.
Ideally it should be clear, or at least a very pale yellow.
The darker the colour, the more dessicated you're
becoming.
Drinking - Little and
Often
First tip is to drink lots before
starting off as fluid is absorbed more efficiently from an
already filled gut. Working hard in hot conditions - say
hauling a big sack up a steep slope - can use between 500ml
and 1600ml per hour and the ideal would be to replace this
completely, which isn't always practical.
Hydration systems are more effective as
they promote regular drinking of small amounts which is more
effective than hourly big slurps, less of which are absorbed
and more of which are peed out prematurely. I'd advise you
to drink at least 500ml and hour, more when it's hot or
you're working hard. Ideally you should aim for around a
litre per hour to stay fully hydrated and look for ways to
top up your water supplies on the move using filters,
purifiers or, er, taps.
What To Drink
Gastric emptying controls the rate that
fluid is transferred from the gut into the bloodstream,
where you need it. It's a complicated business and affected
by stuff like the concentration of the fluid, how much of it
there is and the temperature.
Keeping the stomach as full as is
comfortable helps speed up emptying as does getting the
concentration of any sports drinks right - see the
manufacturer's instructions, use drinks that have glucose
polymers - Maltodextrins - rather than plain sucrose and
steer clear of soft drinks and diuertics like beer and
caffeine - tea, coffee.
If you try to absorb too mcuh
carbohydrate from your sports drink, it will slow down
gastic emptying, so screwing up your hydration further.
Better to keep concentrations down and hydration
up.
More Information
• Information
section of the Camelbak site for
some interesting details
• Science
in Sport for more information on
energy drinks and obscure sports nutrition and particularly
the downloadable
cycling sports nutrition
guide.
So remember folks, for a shiny coat even
when it's hot, make it little and often.
Woof!
The Canny Canine
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