Something I read online about Sodium
Time and time again I see or hear competitors talking about cutting all their sodium as they think sodium causes bloating. Well lets debunk this myth and in fact point out how cutting sodium/water in fact is hurting your physique. Aldosterone is a steroidal hormone and in short when aldosterone levels rise the subsequent result is water retention. The key factor in keeping aldosterone levels low is keeping your sodium and water intake high. When you cut water and sodium, aldosterone increases, vasopressin is released. Vasopressin is an antidiuretic hormone (ADH) a peptide hormone that is released by the body when salt and water levels drop in the body. It is essentially the bodies defense mechanism that takes over to protect imbalances of water and sodium in the blood. So cutting your sodium and water during peak week is doing your body a disservice. Ask any bodybuilder with half a brain with regard to science. You want to increase water/sodium intake the final week before a show to increase diuresis (flushing state). 2 days out someone my size should be at 3.5-4 gallons per day and 5-6000mg of sodium. The day before the show or shoot drop sodium but keep water very high. This will increase diuresis even more. Do not taper water and sodium which the body will recognize and release aldosterone. You abruptly cut the sodium and the body continues to flush without knowing what is happening. For breakfast the morning of pre judging you want to reintroduce sodium, carbs, fats via big breakfast, but just sips of water to swallow food. You will be bone dry at this point and as you carb up you will see yourself fill out, abs popping, vascularity increasing and muscle fullness looking ridiculous. Science > broscience
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Bro, have you ever been on stage before?
lmao, just imagine drinking 32 lbs of water, 2 days before a show hahahahahah, that is halirious
Your post has very good points however you leave very little time to get rid of water with your approach, the few IFBB pros I know personally load up on sodium on sunday monday tuesday then drink like a madman on wednesday and thursday without consuming sodium and then only sip on friday, loading up on sodium all the way until thurs while drinking insane amounts of water will not work, impossible to get rid of the water in a day and a half when your full of sodium, not even lasix will do it.
I do contest prep and here is how us bodybuilders do it.... and yes this is bro science but it works.
OK they sodium load? yes but while they are sodium loading they dont drink as much as possible as it is not necessary to do so cause the sodium alone will bring down aldosterone levels
STEP 2, once they had there few days sodium loading they drop the sodium cold turkey and this is when and the only time you drink enourmous amounts of water to buy you some time. Sodium gets dropped = your aldosterone levels elevate but they won't though cause you are drinking so much water which tricks your system to kerping aldosterone levels down
STEP 3, so 2 days later your sodium is depleted but your aldosterone levels have still remained low cause you drank a lot of water during this time then once your sodium levels low enough you stop drinking water and only sip....
STEP 4... at this point you have no sodium and you are not drinking, you will dump water faster theN niagra falls,... and you have approx 48 hours before your aldosterone levels sky rockets which by this time your show is over and you were the driest man on stage.
simple as that
diuretics? I wont discuss
RustyhookerAldosterone! ! I wrote a forum on that a while ago.
Problem I'm seeing is salt forces the retention of water. Salt moves into your cell and nucleus send out its signals to check fluid levels. The salt gives false signal so cell brings in more water.
But correct in that when water dumps too fast, aldosterone rises for life preservation. You'll also know that when your intake is causing water to flush too fast because the headaches are nasty. Changes in water pressure in your head and you're hurting. Same occurs during hangover. Body dumps water to get rid of the ETOH, and dehydrated brain is in pain.
Lack of salt/potassium balance is a life threatening condition. Dropping water for stage is way beyond my skills.
You CANNOT do this effectively, unless you administer Lasix and get BW every 12-24 hours. 3.5-4 gallons of water produces water intoxication as well as a disturbance of ALL the electrolytes, not just sodium. Everybody has 5-7 Liters of blood in their body, which is roughly 1.5 gallons. Its not smart to add that much water to your existing blood volume. Plus, ur looking at causing hydronephrosis and damaging the bowmans capsule of the kidney. Like my bro said below...where did you get this info from....cuz its not right.
+1
While not directly related to the above and I don't mean to hijack this thread I did discover something interesting for me personally on Sodium during my last cycle. It was a cutter and I was running 50mg of Epistane (yes I know not the best choice in compound so let's not go there again) ED for the last 6 weeks and I got hit by crippling back and calf pumps. Bloods were fine and so nothing obvious showed there. I tried everything - mega dosing taurine, taking potassium, calcium and magnesium sups etc. - nothing helped. I was tracking everything I ate and when I look at my electrolytes I was at less than 700mg of sodium on most days. I simply upped his to about 3g per day using good old table salt and within 2 days the back and calf pumps were gone. Now I have nothing scientific to back this up but it has taught me the critical importance of understanding me electolytes and making sure I keep thee balanced at all times.
I appreciate around show time folk will go to more extreme means to get as dry as possible so I guess I'm saying while this may be fine electolyte imbalances can cause problems regardless of the point in time. Just something I always look at personally now.
Sometimes bloodwork can be with in normal limits. But, not all ranges are the same because some lab's ranges are different. Now, again, a person's bloodwork CAN BE on the low, or high-end of normal, which is still suggestive of a pathological condition. Go back and look at your BW and pay particular attention to your BUN and creatinine as well as electrolytes. Look for values trending abnormally up, or down. Now, think about how much water you were drinking while having those cramps on Epistane 50mg. I dont doubt you were low in sodium. And, hyponatremia is just as bad as hypernatremia. However, believe it or not, hypernatremia is more forgiving. Thumbs up!!
Thank you for the reply and your suggestion. I will take a closer look at BUN and creatinine levels going forward. On average I'm drinking about 6 litres of water per day on cycle (about 4.5 litres when off). I guess your point being given that level of water consumption plus low sodium intake could have caused a certain amount of hyponatremia which can cause cramps (so the pumps I was experiencing). Did I get this right? It's a bit moot now as it was on my last cycle but I am keen to understand it for sure and apply positive measures for the next time I run anything. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.
Your welcome. Yes thats right. Your water consumption is on point, too. Always keep in mind that our bodies are in a constant state of flux, leaning towards the dry side.
I thought you want a imbalance. Low sodium and high potassium...
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got it from this page just wondering if its legit
Its not legit...so dont try it..
are you talking from experience here or is this just something you read online.