Athletes biking

Dehydration: what happens in your body and how you can avoid the harmful effects.

Fact: When you go out for a run or for a ride, your body’s heat production can increase up to twenty-fold compared to rest.

What happens in your body:

Loss of body water through sweat manifests primarily in a lowered blood volume, or hypovolemia.
When blood volume is low, it compromises the body's ability to deliver oxygen as efficiently.
To compensate, heart rate and respiratory rate increase.
If dehydration, and therefore blood volume, continues to worsen, circulation can be reduced to the extremities, in order to preserve critical oxygen levels for the vital organs.

How it affects you:

87% of endurance athletes are physically impaired during their workouts and competitions due to dehydration.
In addition to physical impairments, mild dehydration causes cognitive impairments up to 20% affecting speed, accuracy, and memory.
Mild dehydration can result in an endurance performance impairment of up to 29%.
When an athlete consumes only water and neglects to replenish electrolytes, hyponatremia can occur, which causes the body’s cells to swell and can be life-threatening.

To avoid dehydration:

Hydrate early. By the time you feel thirsty it's already too late.
Put in as much effort to properly hydrate during short distances as you do for longer distances.
Ensure that you're consuming both water and electrolytes as your body needs both in order to avoid dehydration.

*Nix provides real-time hydration data that tells athletes when, what, and how much to drink during a workout. Athletes can view their individual sweat data on a phone, watch, or bike computer. For more information visit nixbiosensors.com.

Dehydration: what happens in your body and how you can avoid the harmful effects.

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