Exercising and Dehydration Vs Over-Hydration

Is it possible to drink too much water while exercising?

The short answer is Yes.

It is rather difficult, but still possible. All that is really needed is for a person to think they are dehydrated, drink too much water, and keep drinking because they think the symptoms they are experiencing are from dehydration - when in fact the symptoms of over-hydration are remarkably similar to dehydration.

The long answer requires us to explain the effects of dehydration and over hydration, especially the symptoms.

Dehydration is caused by the excessive loss of water from the body, which causes a rise in blood sodium levels. Since dehydration is most often caused by excessive sweating, vomiting, or diarrhea, water loss is usually accompanied by a deficiency of electrolytes.

Mild to moderate dehydration symptoms

• Dry, sticky mouth
• Sleepiness or tiredness — children are likely to be less active than usual
• Thirst
• Decreased urine output
• No wet diapers for three hours for infants
• Few or no tears when crying
• Dry skin
• Headache
• Constipation
• Dizziness or lightheaded

Severe dehydration symptoms

• Extreme thirst
• Extreme fussiness or sleepiness in infants and children; irritability and confusion in adults
• Very dry mouth, skin and mucous membranes
• Little or no urination — any urine that is produced will be darker than normal
• Sunken eyes
• Shriveled and dry skin that lacks elasticity and doesn't "bounce back" when pinched into a fold
• In infants, sunken fontanels — the soft spots on the top of a baby's head
• Low blood pressure
• Rapid heartbeat
• Rapid breathing
• No tears when crying
• Fever
• In the most serious cases, delirium or unconsciousness

Over-Hydration is an excess of water in the body. People can develop over-hydration if they have a disorder that decreases the body's ability to excrete water or increases the body's tendency to retain water. Drinking too much water rarely causes over-hydration because normal kidneys easily excrete excess water.

Mild to moderate over-hydration symptoms

• nausea and vomiting
• headache
• changes in mental state (confusion or disorientation)

 Severe over-hydration symptoms

• dangerously low levels of sodium in the blood (hyponatremia)
• muscle weakness, spasms or cramps
• seizures
• unconsciousness
• coma

Preventing Over-Hydration

Endurance athletes such as long distance runners can reduce the risk of over-hydration by weighing themselves before and after a race to determine how much water they have lost and need to replenish.

Individuals exercising should avoid drinking more than one liter per hour of fluid. Drinking more fluids before and during a race or an intensive athletic exertion can also help you avoid the need to drink too much water afterwards. Sports beverages that contain the electrolytes sodium and potassium are also recommended, as both are lost in sweat.

If you have an underlying medical condition, such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, or kidney problems, talk to your doctor about the best treatments for those conditions. If you experience excessive thirst or an overly strong urge to drink water, contact your doctor before you develop symptoms - it could indicate a problem that requires treatment and careful monitoring.

Drink healthy!

Bullseye at 195 feet with an Antique Recurve

Personal Note

Today for fun I decided to try shooting an antique recurve bow at 65 yards (195 feet) on a windy day (gusting 15 to 25 kmph).

Now it should be noted that antique archery equipment doesn't always stand up to the test when being shot for accuracy, especially at longer distances - but the bow in question is a true beauty. A 1975 Browning Wasp, a 50 pounder.

On the right here is three Browning bows, all of them antiques. It was a rare coincidence when three archers with older Browning bows were all at the Toronto Archery Range together and we decided to take some photos of the three bows together.

On the left is a 25 lb Browning Cobra.

In the middle is my 50 lb Browning Wasp.

And the bow on the right is a 55 lb  3-piece Browning recurve bow (model name forgotten, I shall find out the next time I see the archer who owns it).

Now you might wonder - why I am shooting such an antique bow? It is literally older than I am. Well, I firmly believe that the older bows are both beautiful to look at and will often surprise you with their quality and accuracy, even after 41 years like the Browning Wasp does for me.

I had also never shot a 50 lb bow at 65 yards ever before, and I wanted to see just how much accuracy I could get with the antique - despite the strong winds. Had I picked a less windy day to try this on I might have fared better, but not much better than a bullseye I would wager. (A warmer day would have been nicer too.)

I have had bullseyes before at targets between 50 and 70 yards, so that is nothing new, but achieving that on a windy day - with a bow most people would be skeptical about - had me so happy I was grinning like a Cheshire cat and hopping up and down (as one friend pointed out later) like "a kid in a candy shop". Nothing like a long distance bullseye to make you very happy for the rest of the day.

Note - I don't always get so excited about a single bullseye. It was the combination of wind, long distance, older bow and other factors that made that one shot so much more interesting.

Maybe next time I shoot at that distance the wind will be more cooperative and I will get multiple bullseyes. Won't know unless I work at it. During the summers I routinely like shooting at longer distances because it forces the archer to concentrate harder on their goal in an effort to attain ideal form and thus execute more controlled and accurate shots. The added concentration levels of facing a difficult challenge I find is beneficial to improving the quality of one's accuracy.

Below my bullseye of the day. Huzzah!

If you are looking for archery lessons in Toronto or if you need some archery advice, feel free to ask.

Five Exercises for Increasing Your Metabolic Rate

Increasing your metabolic rate is one of the easiest ways to get in shape and lose weight. Below are five exercises that boost your metabolism - and they're frugal, using only your bodyweight.

The primary purpose of these exercise is to get your heart rate up, which kickstarts the Afterburn Effect - a major boost to your metabolic rate and starts a fat burning process in your body. You should do the exercises until your heart feels tired, and then rest.

Best of all, these are exercises you can do every day, for 1 to 2 minutes each. 5 to 10 minutes per day isn't much, but if you are getting Afterburn Effect going then it will give you more energy for the rest of the day as you will feel more energetic, more alert, and you will be burning fat for approx. 24 to 48 hours after the exercises. Do them every day, and the Afterburn Effect is extended and multiplied, causing rapid fat burning.

Note - If you have a known heart condition you should consult your doctor before doing any exercises which could effect your heart.

Step-Ups - use a step or platform that is about 4-6 inches high. Stand with your feet hip-width apart and jump onto the step or platform at least 15 times. Repeat after walking around the platform in a complete circle.

Squats - stand with your feet hip-width apart and place your arms to your side. Pretend there is a chair behind you and almost sit bringing your arms out in front keeping your back flat and abdominal muscles pulled in.

Push-ups - begin on your knees or feet and place your hands shoulder-width apart on the step or platform. Inhale as you lower your body to the step and exhale as you push yourself up. Repeat for 15 repetitions. Pay attention to your form while doing push-ups, you want to do them properly to get the full effect.

Tricep Dips - sit with your back to the step and place your hands behind you on the step. Lift and lower your body using your tricep muscles to do the work keeping your elbows in line with your wrists. Repeat 12 times.

Lunges - stand with one foot on the step and place your other foot behind you so that your front knee is over your heel. Lower your body keeping your shoulders in line with your hips at least 12 times for each leg. Repeat on the other leg.

BONUS EXERCISE

Jumping Jacks - These old school exercises are actually amazingly effective as they get your heart racing fast, use both upper body and lower body simultaneously, and they require minimal space to do. Jumping Jacks are amazing at boosting heart rate and consequently your metabolic rate.

Whistling and Howling Arrowheads

Sometimes it is fun to shoot whistling or howling arrowheads as part of recreational archery. The trick here is that they are either:

More expensive than regular arrowheads.

Or homemade, which means you likely spent a good chunk of time making them.

Whistling or Howling Arrowheads come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, antiques, steel, brass, homemade, traditional designs, modern designs, and so forth. Historically whistling or howling arrowheads to send signals to allies on the battlefield, or to scare the enemy by shooting thousands of them all at once.

If you decide to make your own, there are some relatively cheap and easy ways to make your own whistling / howling arrowheads. The process of making them can be fun by itself, let alone the fun of shooting them.

Recreational Archery Instructor Certificate Program

Cardio Trek's Recreational Archery Instructor Certificate Program

There are lots of archery instructors in Canada, but there is no one school or academy that teaches archery instructors. It simply isn't popular enough to support a large school geared towards the topic, unlike countries like South Korea where archery is so popular it is routinely taught in high schools Canada simply doesn't have infrastructure, resources or the numbers of people to support any such academy.

Archery Canada for example is a governing body for organizing competitions. They play an active role in connecting athletes to instructors / coaches, and certifying certain types of coaches - but they don't operate a school or academy for coaching or for instructors. They leave that to the larger archery community.

Note - Archery Canada has also become rife with allegations of favouritism, corruption and nepotism - which explains why Canada does so poorly compared to other countries like the USA and South Korea.

Archery Dojo in Japan

Money is a big factor when it comes to building archery academies. In Japan there are archery dojos dedicated to the practice of Kyudo. In South Korea, archery is ridiculously popular and taught in high schools, universities, etc. eg. I learned Olympic archery while I was living in Jeonju, Jeollabukdo - at Jeonbuk Daehakkyo (University) / 전북대학교. And then there are the Americans, who are obsessed with winning competitions are basically just throw money at the problem so that they have a monetary advantage when it comes to training.

But in Canada, where hockey is our universally accepted sport, just finding an archery range to practice in is difficult. Finding a hockey rink is significantly easier, I have two hockey rinks just down the street from my home. Tennis courts are more popular. We are fortunate in Toronto however to have the Toronto Public Archery Range located at E. T. Seton Park (generously donated in Ernest Thompson Seton's will to the city). But most Canadians don't have access to a proper archery range - and indeed, the Toronto range isn't really a proper range because it faces east-west, instead of north-south which would be proper - so you are facing north and the sun isn't in your eyes while shooting (the reverse is used in the southern hemisphere).

Thus, since we Canadians don't have any such academy or school for training archers or archery instructors, I have determined that maybe it is time I introduce a certificate program for archery instructors. As the saying goes "If you want to promote an activity, you should teach it." Which logically means that if you want to really promote an activity, you should train more teachers.

In the past I have already trained several archery instructors, mostly people who wanted to teach archery at their high school or at summer camps. Which is good in my opinion, because it truly is a matter of teaching people while they are young and if you plant a seed in their imaginations maybe they will continue to nurture that seed.

Thus my goal here isn't to be teaching archery coaches for competitions. No, my goal is to be teaching Recreational Archery Instructors. And here is my reasoning. Over 90% of archers practice archery for recreation. Less than 10% of archers do bowhunting or bowfishing. Less than 1% actually compete. Thus if we truly want to promote archery as a sport, we need instructors who are willing to teach archery as a hobby. Teaching archery for the sole purposes of hunting / competing is really only promoting the sport to a tiny fraction of people who are interested in such things.

Thus if you are looking to teach recreational archery, believe in promoting the sport like I do, if you want to hone your skills as an instructor - contact me via cardiotrek@gmail.com to learn more about the program.

The Recreational Archery Instructor Certificate Program focuses the following:

Developing your Social Skills as a Teacher to become More Personable

• One of the things I have been praised for in the past is my people skills with students, making them feel relaxed and enabling them to enjoy the activity they are doing. Not everyone is a people person however, and even those of us who are still have room for improvement. Thus these skills should be honed and practiced so you can become better as a teacher (with a side benefit of boosting your overall social skills).

Explaining Positive Archery Habits in an Easy to Understand Manner

• Accuracy is all about building good habits that create a more stable shot sequence, however many factors come in to play which can hurt accuracy - often due to the bad habits many beginners start with. Explaining good habits vs bad habits to students in an easy to understand manner is a bit of an art form by itself - and sometimes requires tailoring it to the person so they can understand it easier. (This is especially important when teaching children or teenagers, and also handy for teaching people who have a learning disability.)

Demonstrating Archery Skills Methodology

• I will be teaching would-be instructors how to demonstrate certain skills in a way that students can pay attention to the skill they are witnessing, and how to explain the skill so that when they attempt to do it themselves they are more likely to be able to replicate what they witnessed. Some students learn faster when they can see the skill being performed, thus being able to show students how to do (and how not to do) a particular action is very handy.

The Physics of Archery and How to Explain Archery Physics to Students

• We will be discussing archery physics in easy-to-understand terms so that when you teach archery physics to your students you can use the same terminology and phrases so that will understand you easily.

Making Archery Fun while Challenging Students to Focus Harder

• This is perhaps the most important part of teaching Recreational Archery - if the student isn't having fun, they will likely get bored of archery and any archery equipment they purchase will end up collecting dust in the closet. The trick is to give students new challenges that are fun and interesting, thus allowing their imagination to expand - and to realize they can do those shots they previously thought were impossible / beyond their skill level, all while having fun doing it.