hardkor

As mentioned in the "cutting water" thread, a well known bodybuilder, contest prep coach, and writer for MuscleMag has givin a whole new perspective on the effects sodium has to a bodybuilder/athlete. I believe this article was published in MuscleMag a while back. I hope this helps all you fellow IM'ers out as much as it has for me.
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VENICE BEACH - SODIUM
When searching for experts of the very best pedigree to inform our readers of the difference between what is valid and honest bodybuilding instruction and what is no more than misinformed gym talk and hog wash we knew just where to go. To combat the verbal garbage and, worse still, dangerous habits brought on by brainwashing from mega -corporations motivated by the almighty dollar, we looked no further than Scott Abel. Although long established as a force to be listened to very carefully on all manners of topics concerning bodybuilding diet, supplementation and training advice, it is not until recently that Scott Abel and his depth of knowledge has captured the attention of foreign and domestic mainstream media.
When we asked if he would be prepared to share some of his expertise with our readers, he agreed saying that he hoped to clear up many of the controversial issues that lead to confusion and counterproductive results among many of today's amateur-level bodybuilders. He has chosen as his first sermon (he is almost religious in his need to dispel bodybuilding
nonsense and preach the truth) the very much needed place for salt in every bodybuilder's diet.
Has anyone ever pondered where old cliches and old expressions come from? It is true that most adages handed down through time come from the experiences and cultural milieu of their time period. So try to imagine how expressions such as "he's salt of the earth" or "that man's worth his salt" came to pass. In ancient times salt was precious. It was traded as the
most valued of all commodities. Having salt was as close to life insurance as one could get. Given the preponderance of modern-day phobias surrounding salt and sodium we seem to have a paradox here. How could something so important to survival during one epoch be considered so necessary to avoid during another? The answer may surprise you. While times have definitely changed, human biochemistry and physiology have not changed that much. Few of us toil under the sweltering heat of a pounding sun any more and modern society has contributed much to the many modern stress-related
ills such as hypertension.
Never the less, our needs for the most important of electrolytes in our bodies has not changed. In particular the metabolic needs of high-performance athletes probably most closely resembles the needs of our ancient forefathers, especially in regard to electrolyte ingestion. Truth be told, the anti-sodium campaign began as a commercial movement to sell different
foodstuffs and snacks under the guise of being healthier. Much like the low-fat advertising movement, manufacturers care not so much about accurately in advertising as much as they do about what works in advertising. As soon as the low-sodium content commercials were shown to create dividends, other food and supplement companies followed suit to the point where, by default, consumers started to believe that low-sodium was good and salt was in general was bad. People failed to see that they had been internalizing advertising and not actual scientific information. For generations manufacturers have been marketing products by bombarding the public with what ingredients their brand either does or does not have to make
their product sell better than the competition's. Pure snack/junk food companies tend to focus mostly on better taste whereas companies who aim at the health-conscious consumer will focus on the bad ingredients they did not put in their product because they care so much about the consumer's health. Like sheep, we follow along buying the low fat this or no sodium that product not realizing or questioning the motivation to do so. In regard to sodium intake, studies are coming in regularly refuting its bad reputation and negative impact on human health, performance and physiology. Studies in Canada at McGill and McMaster Universities have concluded that unless one has a specific and serious condition which would preclude him from taking in salt, then salt intake will produce no negative health problems and could actually be health promoting.
As an introduction this may well be more information than you wanted to know, but it goes much further. High-performance athletes actually need to go out of their way not to avoid sodium. In fact, they need to ensure they get adequate amounts of salt daily to prevent negative metabolic consequeces, and to ensure maximum performance. That is the focus of this
article.
Athletes who are concerned about maximum performance (and who among them are not?) are decisive about what they eat for several reasons. Most athletes know that the body is a complex computer that one can either program by understanding sound dietary strategy, or not be in charge of by letting the body program itself by using haphazard and misconstrued eating
patterns. Different athletes eat for different reasons. Three of the main ones are 1) they eat as a preventive measure to help them stay free from illness 2) They eat for fitness by ensuring optimum energy stores, recuperation and restoration 3) bodybuilders especially, find it vitally important to follow certain eating regimens to produce a cosmetic effect i.e. a leaner,
harder physique.
Having said that, the truth of the matter is that a high-sodium diet fulfills all three of the above criteria for athletes eating to improve performance. As a matter of scientific fact, many negative problems having to do with athletic performance or submaximal athletic performance or even failure to improve begin when athletes and health enthusiasts mistakenly eliminate sodium from their diets and these can last for a long term. While addressing sodium is the primary focus of this article, no nutrient acts on metabolism only by itself. Any discussion on sodium is incomplete without mentioning potassium and the hormone aldosterone.
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As an electrolyte, sodium is the positively charged ion on the outside of the living cell. Cations, anions and ions exist in an exact balance outside and inside cells so that a change in the balance of one or more cations or ions will cause a change in other cations and ions in order to maintain cell integrity. Simply put, sodium is responsible for regulating blood volume and
blood pressure - although it serves other functions as well. During a set of high-intensity muscle contraction blood pressure rises; this is a primary response of high-intensity training. During high-performance exercise the metabolism of the body is better served by a higher blood volume since this translates into better oxygen and nutrient delivery to working cells. Just as
importantly, a higher blood volume results in a more efficient removal of fatigue toxins such as lactic acid. A low sodium intake translates into a lower blood volume, which is disastrous to an athlete. Even in healthy people, low blood volume produces a myriad of problems. Studies at the University of Bonn concluded that a low-sodium diet (and the resulting lower blood volume) was more health threatening than hypertension itself - the main reason people are put on low -sodium diets to begin with. These effects are even more pronounced in an athlete's body. In a low -sodium situation the resulting low blood volume delivers less oxygen and nutrients to working muscles and also allows for greater accumulation of fatigue toxins that
might not otherwise occur with a normal or higher blood volume. The consequences are overwhelming in terms of reduced recuperation and overall weakness - pretty much the last thing that hard-training and hungry-for-progress athletes would want to happen to their bodies. These are the result of trying to eliminate crucial electrolytes like sodium from one's diet.
This is merely the exercise and performance aspect of low-sodium diets. Upon closer inspection of electrolyte potassium it becomes even more clear than a low-sodium diet makes the situation even worse in regard to optimum electrolyte metabolism since potassium is dependent on sodium to be effective for a number of reasons.
Potassium's responsibilities are primarily the regulation and control of skeletal and cardiac muscles. The vagus nerve, which controls heartbeat, is totally dependent on potassium. The opposite of sodium, potassium is the positively charged ion inside of the cell. While its independent functions in the control of muscles has been pointed out, potassium itself is dependent on
sodium to maintain cell integrity - that exact balance of cations and ions inside and outside cell walls, remember? Everyone has been told of the benefits to muscles of eating and having potassium present in the muscle cell. But, how does potassium get to be inside the cell to begin with? It is the responsibility of sodium to deliver potassium inside the cell. The cell wall is partially permeable to potassium. It takes three molecules of sodium to get one molecule of potassium inside the cell and the process by which this is achieved is called "active transport." Potassium cannot enter the cell without sodium.
Sodium acts as a chaperon in the delivery of the all-important potassium into the cell. Therefore, for optimum cell integrity and optimum potassium delivery there must be ample sodium present. This is even more crucial in athletes where electrolyte balance and exchange takes place more rapidly and is more crucial for optimum performance. Also, since the active transport of potassium inside the cell by sodium is metabolically expensive, the activity of sodium-potassium pumps can be adjusted by the thyroid hormones in order to regulate resting caloric expenditure and basal metabolic rate (BMR). It
follows then that in a prolonged low-sodium situation the body may lower BMR in order to control this metabolically expensive function. This spells disaster for the dieting bodybuilder or competing athlete who wants his BMR as high as possible and not lowered by a body compensating for costs it cannot afford to incur. Even more importantly in this metabolic circumstance is that cell integrity is jeopardized and less potassium can be delivered less often to the cell. This is disastrous for any serious athlete. It becomes painfully obvious that this is the most negative electrolyte situation an athlete, especially a bodybuilder, could get into.
It is easy to illustrate how a body could get into such a state of disarray. The primary avenue for the loss of sodium is through sweat glands. No one, except our ancient forefathers, sweats as much or more than high-performance athletes and bodybuilders. High-intensity training combined with cardio activity (Two sessions per day) and tanning, done consistently
week in and week out, produces an abundant loss of sodium through sweating. Combine this with the extreme and prolonged attention bodybuilders, and well-meaning athletes, give to keeping sodium out of their diet and you can see how bad a situation becomes chronic. The body, in its efforts to maintain cell balance, takes matter into its own hands. In
extreme (but never the less all too common) cases the body sends potassium to the outside of the cell in order to maintain some kind of cell integrity. Remember cell electrolyte integrity is maintained in specific and delicate ratios and balances. In an emergency situation, the body can only maintain some kind of cell integrity by sending potassium (a positively charged
ion) outside the cell to replace the sodium that should be there. The result of these metabolic consequences is, of course, weakened cell integrity. Sometimes depolarization between electrically charged ions happens and, since potassium has left the cell, there is muscle weakness, cramps, listlessness and lethargy. Note that it is not the low -calorie diets that produce these physical and psychological symptoms, rather it is due to a prolonged lack of sodium intake. The problem can be understood better by discussing the hormone aldosterone. We can also understand why sodium undeservedly gets a bad rap and, of course, how to remedy the situation.
In a normal metabolic situation electrolyte balance is delicately maintained by urinary output. The kidneys regulate the concentration of plasma electrolytes of sodium, potassium, and calcium by matching almost exactly the amounts ingested to the amounts excreted. The final amounts of sodium and potassium excreted in the urine are regulated by the needs of the
body. Problems for athletes begin when they needlessly start eliminating sodium while at the same time their bodies are regularly losing too much of it through sweat and cellular activity. This produces the negative stress response of the release of the hormone aldosterone. Normally people have low levels of circulating aldosterone. It is a hormone released in
response to metabolic or physiological stress. The release of this hormone serves several functions. The main effect of aldosterone secretion is a reabsorption of sodium through the distal tubules of the kidneys. Thus sodium that normally would have left the body is retained because of the presence of this hormone. Normally individuals can excrete a huge 30 grams of sodium daily when aldosterone is not present. Yes that's 30,000 mg! This is an average person, not a hard-training athlete. When aldosterone is present there is absolutely no sodium in the urine at all, none. Most importantly, water always follows sodium because sodium is positively charged while water is negatively charged. Therefore, the more sodium excreted, the
more water leaves the body. But since, in the presence of aldosterone, sodium is reabsorbed and kept in the body, and water follows sodium, water too is not secreted. The result is water retention. Remember that the body is a complex computer system, which will always program itself in favor of survival. Maybe well-meaning, but misinformed, athletes and bodybuilders are now starting to get a clearer picture of how important sodium is to the body, and the hormones, and their back-up systems.
There is another side to the aldosterone hormonal response, which can also spell disaster for an athlete. Not only does aldosterone cause a reabsorbtion of sodium, because of this aldosterone secretion also causes a pronounced excretion of plasma potassium. Again, in the absence of aldosterone virtually no potassium is excreted in the urine. When aldosterone secretion is maximal, however, there is up to 50 times more potassium excreted than what is initially filtered by the kidneys.
A reexamination of the situation reveals that a negative situation exists in such a physiological environment. First sodium is reabsorbed. Second, because water follows sodium, there is water retention. (This in turn creates an osmotic imbalance.) Third, because aldosterone also produces pronounced potassium excretion, the result is further muscular weakness,
cramping, performance infringement - and usually the appearance of a very flat, tired -looking physique. Again, all of this results from the body's primary response to retain sodium in order to regulate blood pressure and volume.
This whole misunderstanding of electrolyte function has led to ridiculous myths and misapplications of proper nutrition in the athletic and bodybuilding communities. One of the most bizarre, which comes to mind is the practice of bodybuilders to supplement potassium (e.g. taking Slow K) just before a show. Why is this bad? Two reasons. One is that it is impossible to
load potassium inside a cell - cell equilibrium is always maintained in exact ratios. If a certain amount of potassium enters a cell, therefore, that identical amount must leave. This creates the second problem of potassium supplementation.
Aldosterone secretion is not only triggered by excessive potassium in the blood. This leads to every single negative metabolic situation already mentioned being created via a different route.
Is there a way to avoid such negative circumstances for an advanced athlete or bodybuilder? Of course, there is. The problem begins with the extremist-type mindset of many athletes especially bodybuilders. Bodybuilders need to understand that this extremist nature is actually hindering them. It is important not to treat any dietary element as either friend or foe. Not even fat should be treated as a dietary danger when taken in the right context, but that is a whole other article. Back to sodium. Remember excess sodium is excreted and because water follows sodium so is water.
Measuring sodium needs is relatively easy because making sure of its presence in the diet is the main priority. A general rule of thumb is that two grams of sodium should be taken with each liter of water replacement. Since most athletes are under -hydrated water needs should also be assessed. Athletes, male or female, below 150 pounds who train at high intensity levels should take in at least two or three liters of water daily. Athletes at the 200 pound level should be taking a minimum of three to four liters daily. Athletes who weigh in excess of 225 pounds should take in a minimum of four to six
liters daily. At two grams per liter of fluid replacement, it is obvious that most athletes do not take in nearly enough sodium. For example, a 225-pound athlete would need to ingest between eight and twelve grams of sodium daily. That's right, 8,000 to 12,000 mg a day. This gives some indication of how flat-out neglectful athletes are to their electrolyte needs.
The way to ensure ample sodium intake is through the prodigious use of salty condiments. Ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce, etc. are smart choices to ensure ample amounts of sodium. However, be wary of MSG. Although it is high in sodium, MSG had been shown to be a negative partitioning agent, which is to say it may channel nutrients toward fat storage whether the nutrients contain fat or not. Most athletes associated with the high sodium diet have been reporting substantial progress by ensuring adequate sodium intake. They are encouraged to do this by eating pickles on a daily basis. Pickles on average contain about 20 to 30 calories and almost a gram of sodium, so chopping them up into one's food makes good sense as does eating them as a snack. Bodybuilders must get over this sufferance thing when it comes to diet. Food is allowed to taste good and having food that tastes good will make it much easier to stay on a prolonged diet. It's funny, but even water -packed tuna canned with sodium chloride (salt) as a preservative will add some much needed sodium and will be cheaper and easier to find than water -packed tuna with no sodium. Athletes who have been trying to avoid sodium for prolonged periods of time and who switch to this high-sodium approach will experience a temporary osmotic imbalance resulting in water retention. This initial effect is only the body's attempt to
hold on to the sodium so rarely given to it. This retention is merely temporary and will dissipate as long as sodium and water intake, remain high. The athlete will then notice a higher volume of urinary output, more sweating, the appearance of a leaner, harder physique, and more pumped and full muscles in the gym. Amen! Here endeth the sermon on salt. If I come across so strongly as to be perceived as preaching the word on sodium, or any of the other confusing but essential issues that affect bodybuilders today, there is good reason. I feel passionate about what I have come to understand over the years as irrefutable truths. I have tested the precepts of what I prescribe to my top-level amateur and professional bodybuilding clients time and time again with very exacting results. I look forward to sharing some of these truths with all MuscleMag readers so they can learn from their experiences and carve their own path to quicker results. It is important to
me that athletes who are serious about making a career in bodybuilding don't waste time making the same mistakes that so many bodybuilders have made before them. My best advice to any career -minded bodybuilder is to get professional bodybuilding advice from properly qualified and experienced trainers.

Egill

good article hardkor.

I agree.


I also might add that probably the single biggest piece of misinformation about sodium is that it causes high blood pressure. Sodium does not cause high blood pressure. If you have hypertension excessive sodium may aggravate it, but if you don't have hypertension sodium will not cause it.