water - Team Franco Bodybuilding Forum: Competition and Fitness Board

Joep · Newbie

water

the2ndoak · Beyond Nutrition - Co Owner

that kind of thinking is very old school. I am currently at 2 gallons in my peak week and as much as I hate drinking all this water-feel like I'm drowning! there is a lot to be said about this. I don't feel as dull minded as when I last competed and I personally feel that is just a better way health wise. I wont be drinking any lower amounts until this Friday, and that will be minus a half gallon. the day of the show is when my water will be cut severely, and then after my prejudging I can rehydrate somewhat.
There's an article on the forum somewhere. It might do you good to read it.

Joe · Beyond Nutrition - Co Owner

Welcome Joe!!

Chris is right on.� Dont cut water.

Here is the post he was talking about.

This was a Layne Norton post! Love it.

So many people talk about 'tricking' the body. Let's examine this for a minute

Anytime you play with your water/sodium balance you are going to have two problems

1. it may give you an effect for a short period of time, but the body will RAPIDLY initiate a movement in the opposite direction and
2. it may not be the effect you want.

*stole those lines from Dr. Joe*

for example when you play with water balance by cutting water, cutting sodium, taking a salt bath etc. the idea is you will lose water. Great. where is the water coming from? Everyone assumes subcutaneously. In your basal state you store THE MAJORITY of water inside your cells, but when you start messing with stuff is when **** gets all messed up. so when you 'drop water' much of it come intra cellularly. I have yet to understand why everyone thinks all this water they are dropping will just come from outside the cell... nonsense. the body has to maintain a gradient & ratio of water inside & outside the cells. when you drop water you are dropping it from INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE CELL. Since you store more water inside the cell you can be damned sure much of it is coming from inside the cell... ie flattening you out.

Now lets look at what you've done to yourself by doing this. By 'dropping water or sodium' your body will IMMEDIATELY start to reduce sodium excretion and increase sodium reabsorption. To reabsorb sodium; the body also has to reabsorb water as well but since you have lowered the blood pressure in your vascular system by dropping water/sodium there will not be enough pressure to keep the water in the vascular system and it leaks into the interstitial IE SUBCUTANEOUS LAYER! This reabsorption starts happening withing minutes/hours of the body sensing it is deprived. All you have done is effectively flatten yourself out and move what water you have left where you DON'T want it and making yourself feel like ****. There is NO TRICKING YOUR BODY. In fact there was a study done that looked at what happened when people were effectively cut off from sodium intake. What they found was shocking. After 6 days of sodium depletion their levels of sodium HAD NOT CHANGED! The body conserved it perfectly by totally shutting down kidney sodium excretion and increasing resorption. In just 2 days of sodium depletion they also found that aldosterone had DOUBLED. For those that don't know... aldosterone is a hormone that increases water retention.

so much for tricking your body. There is no tricking it. Get your ass in shape and completely shredded and you don't need tricks. I garuntee you that the driest guys you see on stage looked almost exactly like that BEFORE the final week. When someone says they were 'holding water' you can translate that directly into "My ass was not in shape"

Joep · Newbie

thanks Joe and 2ndoak, yea last year the final two weeks were horrible. I am use to drinking a lot of water while I train and to make sure I only drink a half a gallon a day, or even just a large water bottle a day killed my workouts. I did just listen to your audio tapes and most likely will do what you suggested, up the water intake until Thursday, then cut it in half and sip on contest day. Also I was told to completely stay away from sodium, to check all the foods I eat and drink for sodium content, yet in the audio you said to salt everything the final week. Is the salt really necessary or can I just stay away from it until my contest?

winflex · Beyond Nutrition Sponsored Athlete

This says it all:
"so much for tricking your body. There is no tricking it. Get your ass in shape and completely shredded and you don't need tricks. I garuntee you that the driest guys you see on stage looked almost exactly like that BEFORE the final week. When someone says they were 'holding water' you can translate that directly into "My ass was not in shape" - Layne Norton"

Good post Joe.