VALO'S ARCHIVE

Chantal A. Vella, M.S and Len Kravitz, Ph.D. Introduction Maintaining ample hydration can be challenging for participants in outdoor and indoor aquatic exercise classes. Sustaining hydration is essential for normal bodily functions and for peak exercise performance. Many of your students do not associate aquatic exercise with any potential risk of dehydration, however, this is a fundamental issue in aquatic exercise. This article will overview, discuss and explain some of the key physiological concepts of body temperature regulation and hydration for aquatic exercise professionals. In addition, specific recommendations for optimal hydration during exercise and aquatic exercise are provided. How does the body regulate body temperature?  The human body regulates temperature by keeping a tight balance between heat gain and heat loss. Your temperature regulation system is more analogous to the operation of a home furnace, as opposed to the function of an air conditioner. Humans...

Though some like it hot, inducing heavy sweating is not an effective method of ridding your body of toxins — though it's very good at ridding your body of vital fluids, potentially leading to dehydration. Sweating releases traces of toxins (less than one percent of the body's total content), but in reality, its sole purpose is to prevent overheating . The liver and kidneys (not the sweat glands) are the body's true detoxifiers. They filter toxins out of the blood and the body releases them through urine and feces. When someone is dehydrated, these filtration mechanisms go haywire because of a reduction in the plasma level in the blood causing side effects like you experienced post-workout. During physical activity, the body naturally "thermoregulates" (cools itself down) in a variety of ways: radiation, conduction, convection, and evaporation (sweating). If the environmental temperature exceeds skin temperature like in hot yoga where the room is often heated...