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Gatorade.com


38supPat

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Check out Gatorade.com, they have a science lab site that deals with hydration and it effect on atheletes. I know this is an area many shooters are weak in. Read the articles on over hydration, Alcohol effects, and Gatorade vs. water. Good info here especially with the summer season coming up.

Pat

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From what I understand, water is fine but you need to replace sodium too, and there is none in water. Also there is a danger in over hydrating. Read some of the listed articles and I think you'll be surprised.

Pat

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That is very true Pat, but i eat sunflower seeds like a bird...kindof balances the salt+ water thing.

Oh heck, I think I'll go in the garage and practice my draw.

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  • 2 months later...

Forgive my lateness here - (I hope someone actually sees this!)

As a Diabetic, I struggle constantly with this problem.  Has anyone actually READ the ingredients list on Gatorade :-)

So has anyone found a good replacement drink without all that sugar??  Ditto for energy bars!

K

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I've shot some grueling matches over the years. A couple Area 4's come to mind - the temp was upper 90's to 100 plus and the humidity was insane. Just being at the range the entire day is a challenge, let alone competing and staying sharp enough to still "have it" on the last few stages. I survived those matches, in good form, by drinking water and eating Balance Bars. They have a balance of protein, carbs, and fat, so they don't send you on the roller coaster of death (blood  sugar spikes). I don't do anything with just carbs or sugar - it will wear you down. Occasionally, if I'm starting to lose some gas at the end of the day, I'd take about a half of package of "Goo"about 5 minutes before I shot a stage. You can get the Goo in sports stores. A friend, and World Class Alpinist turned me onto it. During intense climbing they practically live off it. At the range, we're not quite so intense, so you should experiment and use it with care.

be

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I haven't taken the time to check out the Gatorade web site.  If I recall correctly Gatorage runs with a little under a 5% carbohydrates.  This small amount of carbs helps speed the absorbtion of the fluids.  With Gatorade you get the elctrolytes as well.  Very important.

Powerade and the other Gatorade wannabes have lots of simple carbs.  They aren't just bad for absorbtion, they can lead to the blood sugar spike that we all want to aviod.

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Bill,

I don't have any in front of me, but I'll just add-lib what I remember being told by one of the (wf) designers. Basically, a packet of Goo with a mouthful or two of water puts a certain glucose solution directly across the stomach wall in approx 5 minutes. Some have a tad of caffine, some don't. wfmft told me that the ones with the caffine "work" a little as the caffine helps to "activate" the other ingredients. It's total food "science." I remember he also told that they did an experiment with one of the designer's daughters, who was a marathon runner. They tested her blood sugar before the race, and then during the 26 mile run she took one packet of Goo every 30 minutes. At the end of the race, her blood sugar level was slightly higher than before she started! Anyway, I don't have enough technical knowledge of the stuff to help out much - I'll try to get wfmft on here to post a real answer. (Because I know there is a lot more to it than just sugar.)

be

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Use Caution with Gatorade bars!...been experimenting with them lately, can only eat 1/3 to 1/2 at most at a time...Mike F and I each ate a whole one before a level 3 match a couple of weeks ago and holy crap were we spun...like a kid with a six pack of Coke and a bag of Oreo's in him...lol...Now we split one or just take a bit then save the rest.

Pat

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I got this in an email from wfmft:

One package of GU supplies 25g of carbohydrate in the form of glucose

polymers and fructose. The gel, when combined with a couple of

mouthfuls of plain water achieves the 4-8% solution ideal for gastric

emptying - shoots across the intestinal wall within five to ten

minutes if gastric emptying is efficient. A small amount of caffeine

(the equivalent of a quarter cup of coffee) is included to aid fat

metabolism and improve cognitive function. Check your tolerance

before using it in a match. The Banana-flavored GU has no caffeine.

Eating any type of solid food, or food containing protein or fat

compromises athletic potential by shunting blood from the muscles to

assist the digestive process.

Experiential tests show that eating one GU every half-hour results in

a higher blood glucose level at the end of a 100 mile race than was

present at the beginning (tested during the Wasatch 100, 1998). Be

careful with intake so you don't overload your system with too much

sugar and caffeine all at once. No more than two GU at a time and no

more than three per hour (fine for athletes, probably too much for

shooters who should benefit from one to two per hour max).

Your perception of thirst is a poor indicator of your actual state of

hydration.

Dehydration, if taken to extremes causes death. A modest 3% level of

dehydration is very serious. If a muscle is dehydrated by 3%, it will

suffer a 10% loss of contractile strength and an 8% reduction in

speed. Scientific, peer-reviewed tests of athletes suffering the

effects of dehydration indicate that 5% dehydration causes up to a

30% decline in standard performance, and these results were measured

during events lasting 35 minutes or less, longer efforts would show

more dramatic results. If you exercise for 3-5 hours without drinking

any water your heart-rate for a fixed level of output will increase

by 30 beats per minute (BPM), while stroke volume decreases.

The fluid should be composed of a 4-8% carbohydrate concentration,

which empties fastest from the stomach. Studies also show that a

solution of glucose polymers (maltodextrin) and fructose empty from

the stomach faster than a solution of pure glucose does - so don't

drink Koolaid, commercial sports drinks (eg. Gatorade) or soda pop.

Maltodextrin doesn't contribute to an energy spike and subsequent

fall-off like glucose and sucrose do. Maltodextrins as carbohydrate

components are far better tolerated by the stomach during heavy

exercise because they are less sweet - this is important when it is

hot out. GU2O is the only brand I've found that - when mixed properly

- doesn't have such a strong flavor that I don't drink enough. Your

mouth will get sick of a strong flavor before you've drunk enough to

stay hydrated. Plain water works great but the 4-8% solution empties

from the stomach faster, especially when the pulse is over

approximately 120 bpm. To alleviate the flavor problem with many

"sports drinks" you may have to mix them half-strength.

Several big market sports drinks feature glucose and sucrose as their

carbohydrate components, and while these inhibit gastric emptying,

and are not well tolerated by the stomach under field conditions,

they are usually far more satisfying to most people's taste buds.

If worried about a

sugar-spike with "energy bars" chose the 40-30-30 "zone favorable"

bars. These are designed expressly to prevent the sugar high and

associated insulin response.

Brands: GU2O, Revenge, ERG Gookinaid, Endura. Check your local

specialty running, biking and climbing shops, or go to REI.

There is no risk of "over hydrating." What you don't need, you pee

out, though you might feel bloated for a while. Simple.

The following books will help your understanding. Most libraries will

have them.

Colgan, Michael. Optimum Sports Nutrition. Ronkonkoma, New York:

Advanced Research Press, 1993.

Gatorade Sports Science Institute. Website: http://www.gssiweb.com

Noakes, Timothy. The Lore of Running. Champaign, Illinois: Human Kinetics, 1991

Sears, Barry. The Zone. New York: Harper Collins, 1995

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First, let me state i am fairly young, (21) when i was about 18 i was big into martial arts, pretty much it was my life, i was a national champion, and went to a training camp for about 80 of the martial artists picked to possibly be on team USA. we had a mornining work out in the july sun, i thought i would just drink gatorade. i must have consumed a galon of the stuff, i know i had atleast 2 32oz containers during the breaks and no water. by lunch break i could barely walk during lunch someone convinced me to drink about  40 oz of water. in about an hour i was ready to go again. the nap didn't hurt either. but the point i am getting at is do NOT rely on gatorate, or other sports/soft drinks to keep you hydrated, they don't work as well as water.

other things i have learned is to eat an hour or 2 before you do strenious exercise, and stay away from sugars ( especially sugar cubes) and other candies i drank pretty much only water and ate semi healthy snacks, cerial etc. and felt a lot better than before.

i dropped from the team when they started pushing drugs (in the form of sports drinks and additives) to us, when you see a 40 year old man work all day, get 3 hours of sleep, drink one of the "spark" drinks, and act like a kid on a sugar high all day.... you really begin to question its contents! i don't think that can be good for a person's body.

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I always drink 1:1 Gatorade to water at a match....A: its cheaper, and B: you still need more water than 'other stuff'...but the info on this site is valuble to anyone who has not considered the effects of dehydration. At anything bigger than a level 1 match (club level) where you may only be on the range for an hour, keeping hydrated is very important.

Pat

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  • 4 months later...

Greetings,

Great topic.  I was diagnosed with cancer (originaly terminal) 10 years ago and underwent major surgery for the removal, etc.  I had 90 % of my stomach removed among other internal parts.  The cancer disapeared and I feel good again and have returned to my first love, IPSC, a few months ago.  Proper nutrition is paramount to me now and I appreciated these posts.  One major factor not normally brought up during the topic of de-hydration is the fact that one of the first symptoms is anxiety.  How much more anxiety does one need during a major match?

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I think Gatorade & the like were designed for people putting out serious effort for quite a while-- playing football, soccer, running, whatever.  IPSC is much more 'bursty', in that there's lots of inactivty interspersed with a few seconds of real action.  So we generally don't need so much of the sugars most sports drinks have in them, but to maintain a balance.  Drinking water and eating reasonably balanced snacks is probably a better way to go.

It's probably a good idea to stay away from range food until you're done shooting too, but sometimes that Texas BBQ is just too tempting..

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RE: replacing sodium

Be careful.

It used to be "accepted wisdom" that you needed a certain level of salt to "retain water"... in fact, backpacking stores used to carry salt-pills so that you could hang onto more of your body's water store while out in the hills.

What they have learned in recent years is that the body manages this quite nicely with *far* less sodium than they used to think.  And, too much sodium effectively "locks up" all the water in your system so your body isn't getting the benefit of it anyway.  And, with too much sodium, other things happen, like increased blood pressure, increased succeptibility to heat stroke, a variety of other Bad Things.

Lots of fluids is good.  Salt, in an attempt to hold onto them, is not so good.

Bruce

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  • 4 months later...

I love the taste of water and always have a bottle of it with me.

I find that placing ice at  the base of my skull during the HOT--HUMID Great Plains Summer REALLY helps.

(boxing taught me that)

From Arizona--Wyoming--Ohio--etc.

What tips do you use to stay cool during the summer months externally?

The dry heat, the humid heat, the heat heat,

is all freaking HOT.

My frozen bottles of water change from ice, cold water, hot water then freaking steam...LOL

I don't mean to digress but I need to balance the internal/external H2O thing..

GU works

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http://www.fitnessonline.comhas some decent articles about fitness bars, and drinks.  I have tried the gatorade bars, and thought they were like eating compressed Cap't Crunch.  I like the Powerbar "Harvest" bars which are similar to the Gatorade bar but a whole lot less sugar.  As for regular Gatorade, I get the powder and mix it with about 1/3 more water than recomended.  This cuts down the sugar content, and gives it less of a Kool Aid taste.

Info about Powerbar, and Gel http://www.powerbar.com/

(Edited by kaiserb at 7:19 am on June 8, 2002)

(Edited by kaiserb at 6:14 pm on June 9, 2002)

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At typical matches I rely on lots of water and "Clif-Bars".  Of course you have to eat a good breakfast.  

Strange as it is, my traditional morning match meal is a roast-beef sandwich.

I wonder if these cliff bars are any good for sports?

"Chocolate Chip-Peanut Crunch":

Fat 8%

Sodium 12%

Potassium: 9%

Carbs: 13%

Protein: 12g's

What really makes me feel better is the 2 pints of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale after the match.

That's a sports drink!

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