Ergogenic aids for Open Water Swimmers

Creatine + Glycerol helps Open Water Swimmers?

After the death of American open-water swimmer Fran Crippen, 26, who died during an event Saturday near Dubai, scientists have been looking at the effect of water temperature on swimming performance. Increased water temperature has been shown to increase the risk of heat illness if the swimmer is poorly hydrated. If water temperature is high, open water swimmers can lose more than 3-4 percent of their body weight due to lost water, which reduces their performance.

What is there to help hyperhydration: the maximising of increase water levels. Nutrition Researchers from the University of Glasgow studied the effect of hyperhydration by a cocktail of creatine and glycerol. Hyperhydration is one step more complicated than just water drinking. Just drinking lots of water does not work. The extra water quickly leaves the body through urine.

What does work is the water is administering a substance that causes the body longer hold additional water stores. A proven strategy is the administration of creatine with glucose. [Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2004 Aug; 14 (4) :443-60.] For one week, 2 times per day 10 grams of creatine and the amount of water in your body increases at 400-800 ml. It works best if you take creatine along with carbohydrate. This increases your body's creatine and a 50% better.

Another strategy is to drink water with glycerol. [Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2002 Mar and 12 (1) :105-19.] You take 4 hours before training 1 - 1.5 g glycerol per kg body weight by 1.5 - 2 liters of water. Even then you take water reserves at 400-800 ml.

In 2007 scientists discovered that you can combine these two approaches. [Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. 2007 Feb; 17 (1) :70-91.] And the researchers from Glasgow too did the same. They gave 15 male endurane cyclists for a week-long 2 times per day 10 gr creatine, 1 gr glycerol per kg of body weight and 75 gr of a glucose polymer. This approach did the weight [BM] of the athletes increased by 0.85 kg. That was for the most part water [TBW]. The subjects had after the first half hour and week cycle at 10 degrees Celsius to 60 percent of their maximum oxygen uptake. Then they rode another half hour with the same intensity at 35 degrees Celsius. The humidity was 70 percent.

At the session of 10 degrees, the hyperhydration no effect. At the session of 35 degrees led the hyperhydration however to a lower heart rate [HR], a lower body temperature [Tcore] and reduced fatigue [RPE]. Effect on maximal oxygen uptake or the combustion of nutrients found the researchers. Maybe it's because the movement intensity and duration on the modest side were.

Although you might infer from the results that hyperhydration endurance athletes perform better late in summer conditions, the researchers draw conclusion. According to studies, there is a positive correlation between the amount of water that endurance athletes lose during matches and their performance. One theory is that weight loss makes movement less stressful, and just leads to better performance. [J Sports Sci. 2004 Jan, 22 (1) :39-55.] If this theory is true, what do endurance athletes hyperhydratie?

The researchers call for further studies.

Source: J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2011 Dec 16; 8 (1): 24. [Epub ahead of print].