Hydration

Walking for Beginners  |  Physical Training Program  |  Essential Gear
Hydration  |  10 Steps to Avoid  |  Injury Prevention

Water
Prepare for your walk by drinking a tall glass of water (17 ounces or 500ml), two hours before your walk. This will allow time for extra fluids to pass through your body before you hit the trail.

• Avoid caffeinated beverages before your walk; they cause you to lose fluid, make you thirstier and make you take inconvenient stops during your walk.
• Carry water with you and plan stops along the route where you will be able to get a full drink of a 7 oz. cup of water or more every 15 minutes. A water fountain may not be able to deliver enough water for you to get a full cup.
• Drink even if you do not feel thirsty. Feelings of thirst lag behind your body’s need for more fluid.
• If you are sweating more than usual, drink more than usual.
• You lose even more fluids at high altitudes, heat and low humidity and need to drink more than usual.
• Make your water taste good so you will want to drink more. Keep it cool or add a squirt of lemon juice.
• After your walk, drink at least one more tall glass of water.

Signs of Dehydration

Single Use Bottles: With bottled water widely available, many walkers make the mistake of reusing the bottles. This is a mistake because the plastic used is not meant for reuse and can leak chemicals into the water as well as provide a home for germs to breed. Toss these single-use bottles into the recycling bin after the first use.

• Refillable Water Bottles: These are available at all sports stores and outdoors stores. Wash these after each use with hot water and soap to kill any germs. Test your bottle to make sure that it is not going to drip or spill when carried.
• Platypus and Camelback: Platypus water bottles are flat when empty and fill up like a tick. They may fit better into a pack and are easily stores. Camelback water carriers ride on your back, with a flexible tube straw to drink from.
• Carriers: Once you have selected your bottle, how do you carry it? Carrying it in the hand puts too much strain on the wrist and elbow. A hip pack with a bottle holder is a good way to carry it at your center of mass, the best place to add weight to not strain your legs. Many backpacks also have special pockets for carrying water bottles without having to dig to the bottom of the pack to find it when you want it. Look for the carrier that suits you best at a sports or outdoors store.

Sports Drinks
When your walk is going to be longer than an hour, a sports drink can help with water absorption in the body as well as replacement of salt and energy. It does not replace your need for plain water. When exercising longer than an hour, the body may need a little sugar and salt in a drink to help absorb water and to replenish what has been lost in exercise. The American College of Sports Medicine says there is little basis for anything other than plain water when exercising for an hour or less.

• When exercising intensely for more than an hour, a drink with four percent to eight percent sugar (50 to 80 calories in an eight ounce serving), can promote fluid retention and delay fatigue. Salt is not strictly necessary at this level it makes the drink more palatable, but the body has enough salt without replenishment.
• When exercising intensely for four to eight hours, salt replacement becomes more important and a drink that replaces salt as well as carbohydrates can be beneficial.
• Sports drinks are widely advertised and widely available. Check the ingredients to see if it has more sugar than needed, and dilute it with water if it is too sugary.

Do-It-Yourself Sports Drink
A homemade mix is easy to do. The following is from the University of California-Berkeley Wellness letter: Dissolve a tablespoon of sugar and a pinch of sale in a tablespoon of orange juice or in two tablespoons of lemon juice. Add 7.5 ounces of cold water and stir.

What About Juice or Soda?
Juices and sodas are generally too sugary. Juice sugar is fructose, which is harder for the stomach to digest than glucose. The sugar sits in the gut attracting water out of the tissues exactly the opposite of what you want to happen. Carbonation may produce unpleasant belching or a bloated feeling.

Energy Drinks
Drinks on the market tout ingredients such as taurine, guarana, ginseng, caffeine and all kinds of supplements for energy. These may indeed give the long distance walker a boost, but should be tested on training walks to watch for any unpleasant side effect such as stomach upset or cramping. Never use anything new or untried on a long-distance was such as Challenge Walk MS.

Walking for Beginners  |  Physical Training Program  |  Essential Gear
Hydration  |  10 Steps to Avoid  |  Injury Prevention