Water Intake and Training Update.

Hi everyone, hope you are all well and have been making the most of this early summer weather we have been having; I certainly have! I have seen a sudden increase in runners on the road and there are a lot of fat dogs who have been stuck inside all winter getting walked - this really gets on my wick, poor little pooches.

I thought I'd talk a little bit about water intake today. As it's getting warmer you should be upping the amount of water you're drinking, because keeping the body hydrated has countless benefits. Water makes up between 45 and 75% of our body weight, and if you were to lose just 5% of that (which isn't hard when it's warm or you're partaking in physical activity) you will become groggy and you may even get a headache and possibly feel like throwing up. Renal failure occurs at around 8%, your muscles may spasm and your vision will dim. At 10% you could become delirious and at 15%.... you may die! Feeling thirsty yet?

I personally drink about 5 litres of water a day - which is a lot - but I run or walk my dogs twice a day and I train with extremely high intensity in the gym. So for me 5 litres is OK. As an athlete or weekend warrior, hydration will play a big part in your sporting performance, but of course there are other health benefits too; water in your diet is also required to keep the skin looking young and healthy. Without enough water intake, you run the risk of having chapped lips and dry skin, not to mention the whole dying thing that I mentioned in the first paragraph! While there maybe other factors at play in causing these problems, water is your best line of defence.

Unlike camels, and other animals, we can not store water within our bodies. We have to drink water every single day to stay in peak health. We can store food in our body fat, so we can go weeks without it (so, 16 hours is no trouble at all - couldn't resist a little Intermittent fasting plug),  but without water you would not last more than a couple of days. When I was in the army we used to have a saying " If your piss is white, you're all right, if your piss is yellow your a poorly fellow". I think that just about covers that, but in case it's not clear this far, drink lots of water or you will die.

Training

I only managed to get to the gym twice last week - one Olympic lifts session and one heavy chest and dead lift session, whereas this week (all going well) I will have three sessions- Monday, Wednesday and Saturday morning.

Monday went like this:

Shoulder rotator cuff warm up as posted in the last blog.

3x12 Olymipc ATG squats 70kg

3x12 high pulls 80kg

Sets of 3 reps snatches starting with an unloaded Olympic bar, adding 5kg to the bar until I reached my max/comfort zone. My max is of course way past my comfort zone, but training on my own at the bottom end of the gym I'm reluctant to throw 65kg above my head! I did three at 60kg and called it a day with the snatch.

5x5 OHS (over head squat) 50kg, I was happy with this :)

100 reps of shoulder press in as little sets as possible with an empty Olympic bar (20kg) It took me 7 sets to get to 100 reps

3 x 20 seated Calve raises 50kg

abs various exercises 200 reps

Dead lift video from last week 

I may add today's workout to the blog tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on time. I have already done a 5K run before work, took me 27mins which is slow for me, but I did do one last night in 25mins.

Hope you are all well and remember if you feel thirsty you're already dehydrated 

Barbell Benny 

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