Reading another thread about dehydration, made me wonder if I've been dealing with a lack of electrolytes. Everytime I finish working out, I feel dizzy or pretty much feel like crap. Sometimes I don't feel like going for that reason.
Usually after working out biceps pretty hard, they tend to cramp up if I use them during the day. When I work out legs I get terrible cramps and I get sharp pains in my hamstrings. I sweat excessively, and when I force myself to drink water, it seems as if it just goes right through me.
I know I don't eat bananas as much as I should. I always have a gallon of water with me, especially when I work out, but I rarely finish the whole gallon in one day.
Does this sound like a lack of electrolytes or something else?
Yes, I do stretch pretty thoroughly before and after.
Huh, thanks for the mention of the t-nation thread - I just went and found it and it was pretty interesting. I always drank SmartWater because it tasted the best to me, but now it turns out it's good stuff, too!
I try to drink a gallon a day, but rarely do so. I drank some pedialyte last night and after a while the cramping went away. Gonna go buy a case of smartwater today. Any other advice?
You know, what's actually far more informative is the elitefts article that the original poster supplies.
Talk about the difference between hypernatremia and hyponatremia.
I experienced hyponatremia 2 years ago in prep for a Grappler's Quest, and it's the opposite of "stinging sweat."
I remember finishing a hard training session, and I was just sweating and sweating, and I remember sucking on my upper lip. The sweat on my lip...tasted like poland spring. That was weird.
Next day I was just crashing. I couldn't even sit in my office, I was just crashing from fatigue. Went to doctor and he said that I was experiencing hyponatremia: loss of electrolytes because of TOO MUCH water.
Hypernatremia is the opposite: too little water, too much electrolytes.
Yeah, I found that the elitefts article to be the most informative as well, and that's where the specific mention of the benefits of SmartWater is too.
And that's freaky about what happened to you! Had you taken in a particularly excessive amount of water that day?
I'd been taking 1.5 gallons a day for weeks, because I was cutting for the GQ (189lbs. to about 174lbs.).
It was weird because the day it happened, I actually felt fine and rolled hard.
After the hard rolling, I sucked on my upper lip...and it tasted just like Poland Spring! LOL!!
The crash was even weirder. I actually felt drugged, and my heart was racing.
Then my doctor told me that I was experiencing hyponatremia, to cut back on water, and slowly substitute with some gatorade. No training, obviously. That's when he told me that, two weeks previous, an LEO in Boston who was training for a marathon died of a heart attack because he was drinking 2 gallons of water a day.