Learn how to properly maintain water and salt balance to build lean muscle mass while maintaining muscle definition. Water plays the most important role in our life. It is involved in a large number of biochemical reactions in the body and is their metabolite. In the body, water acts as a solvent, vehicle, heat insulator, cooler, etc.
The body maintains a constant volume of circulating fluid. The average person consumes about two and a half liters of water during the day. Water is excreted from the body with urine, breath, sweat, and for this reason, it is necessary to consume a lot of water. The body strives for balance in everything. When applied to water, athletes need to maintain homeostasis of body fluids in bodybuilding.
Water-salt balance in bodybuilding
Since the osmolality of most fluids in the human body is about 290 mOsm / kg, all externally and intracellular fluids are in osmotic equilibrium. Simply put, with any loss of water, intracellular fluid flows out of the cells. Note that the body is equipped with a very precise mechanism for regulating the osmolality of the extracellular fluid in order to prevent large volume fluctuations. With a general loss of fluid, say during sweating, the extracellular fluid becomes hypertonic. Even a slight increase in osmolality is sufficient to activate the synthesis of antidiuretic hormone. At the same time, the flow of water from outside is essential. Thirst is the human body's response to a lack of fluid. Drinking first can eliminate thirst before osmolality returns to normal. It should be noted that this is a very accurate mechanism for achieving fluid homeostasis in the body. However, primary drinking is rare in everyday life. Most often, people drink when their throat is dry or while eating. This is called secondary drinking. With age, a person begins to consume less water for various reasons.
It is very important not only to maintain fluid homeostasis, but also to maintain water-salt balance. With a deficiency of salt in the body, the secretion of antidiuretic hormone decreases, which reduces the rate of fluid excretion. In turn, with an increase in salt concentration in the body, the plasma osmolality index increases and the production of antidiuretic hormone accelerates. As a result, more fluid is excreted from the body.
Learn about water-salt balance, isotonic drugs and the real causes of obesity from this video:
