If Not Now, When?

THIS ISSUE: Drinking Water and Exercise

Table of Contents:

1) Editor's Note
2) Food for Thought
3) Feature Article: Drinking Water and Exercise
4) Teleclasses
5) Question & Answer
6) Our Services

Editor's Note

Hi,

As you might imagine, a lot of my time this past month has been spent in trying to rehab my knee from surgery last month. I am pleased to say that I am now exercising 60 minutes per day on my exercycle. I have also built up to 30 minutes per day of walking outside ( I use walking poles to help minimize pressure on my knee). And I do about 20 minutes of stretching each day and a little upper body strength training a couple of times per week.

Whew! I'm getting tired just talking about all this exercise. Not really. I actually enjoy most of it. And I have tricks to help the time pass, and I also try to multitask. During my hour of exercycling, I also read, I make phone calls, and I do my upper body strength training with dumbbells that I keep next to the bike. During my walk, I sometimes wear my IPod and listen to Japanese language lessons. You'd be surprised how much you can accomplish when you put your mind to it.

In June, my wife and I spent a long weekend in Laughlin,NV. It's like a mini Las Vegas on the shore of the Colorado river in southern Nevada. And, just like Las Vegas, they are more than happy to take your money when you gamble. It was a pleasant weekend.

In July, we're heading up to Chicago for our youngest grandson's fifth birthday. We will also spend some time visiting with family and friends. July in Chicago should be hot and humid. I don't mind the heat, but coupled with the humidity, it can get very uncomfortable.

Also, in July, I going back in to have surgery on my other knee. Same procedure as before, with the accompanying rehab. That means I'll have to start all over with the exercycling, starting with 10 minutes a day and working up to 60 minutes. No exercise walking for at least 4 weeks. The worst part of all this rehab stuff is that it makes it harder for me to lose weight because I'm not doing enough good, quality, fat burning, aerobics. After I'm fully healed, I'll have my work cut out for me trying to get my weight back down to my pre-surgery levels.

This month I'm rehashing one of my favorite summer time subjects – drinking water and exercise.

Good luck, keep exercising, and remember – "If not now, when?".

Best Wishes,

Tom Manfredi


Send any comments you may have to tom@fitness-after-50.com

My site fitness-after-50.com

Food for Thought

Feature Article - Drinking Water and Exercise

Now that we are officially into summer I want to remind people about one of the most important health and fitness issues you should be aware of. I've written about this before, but it is such an important topic that I think it's worth revisiting.

We are constantly reading articles and hearing in the news about drinking plenty of water to stay healthy. In fact, most of us don’t drink enough water. It is recommended that the average person (someone who weighs approximately 150 pounds) drink at least eight - 8 ounce glasses of water (64 ounces) per day to stay properly hydrated. A simple way to make sure you drink enough water, no matter what your weight, is to divide your weight in pounds by 2 and use that result as a guide for your daily water intake in ounces. If you are an "average 150 pound person" this means you would divide 150 by 2 and get 75 ounces as your daily water requirement. If you are 225 pounds and you divide that weight by 2 you will get approximately 112 ounces as your daily water requirement. Once you know what your daily water requirement is in ounces you can fill up a container with that much water and make sure you drink all of it by the end of the day. A half gallon container holds 64 ounces of water, so that can be a good choice for our "average person". Of course a gallon container holds 128 ounces, so that will work well for a 200+ pound person.

When we exercise we need to take that into account as far as our daily water requirements go. The amounts mentioned above are daily averages for someone who isn't doing any heavy exercising. For me, any exercise you do that causes you to sweat is heavy enough exercise to make you eligible for additional water intake. And remember that there are several circumstances under which you may not realize that you are sweating while you exercise. Some examples include swimming, where the water washes away your sweat; and exercising in very dry climates, where your sweat evaporates. A good guideline when you exercise is to take in 8 ounces of water every 15 minutes while you exercise.

But remember, you can get too much of a good thing. Believe it or not, there is actually such a thing as drinking too much water. When you drink too much water, it can reduce the level of sodium in your body. This condition is called hyponatremia. This situation usually arises when people drink too much water during heavy, prolonged exercise like a marathon or long, extremely strenuous hike. This phenomenon has been found in Grand Canyon hikers and Boston marathon racers.

What happens is that an exerciser takes in large amounts of plain water and sweats out a lot of fluid that contains sodium and other electrolytes needed in the body. In extreme cases this can cause a dangerous electrolyte imbalance. When that happens, water enters the body’s cells, which causes them to swell. If swollen, brain cells start pressing against the skull. The result can be brain damage, paralysis, coma, and sometimes death.

So, make sure you drink plenty of water, but keep in mind that too much of a good thing can sometimes cause problems.

(c)2005 - 2009 Thomas D. Manfredi, MS

Teleclasses

I will be announcing upcoming teleclasses in this section in the future.

If you have a topic that you would be interested in hearing about in a teleclass, send an e-mail to teleclasses@fitness-after-50.com

Questions and Answers

Answer - Here are a couple of interesting facts about drinking water.