In my last post I talked about a column I’m reading in a Muscular Development magazine, about contest preparation theory verses science and from a scientific point of view, why water depletion isn’t a good idea and why it’s simply doesn’t’ work.
Sodium depletion is another typical contest preparation and the results can be just as disastrous.
The article talks about sodium balance directly affecting your fluid dynamics and blood volume and because of its effect of blood volume it also effects blood pressure and since blood pressure is kind of a big deal there is a very tight regulation on blood sodium levels.
The kidneys will decrease or increase sodium excretion, depending upon how much sodium you take in. The more you take in, the more the excretion of sodium will be in your urine and if sodium is reduced, the kidneys will decrease their excretion of sodium and increase the re-absorption of sodium back into circulation.
A study was performed and the researchers restricted the sodium to practically zero for 6 days and examined the results for your serum (blood) sodium, urinary sodium and aldosterone (aldosterone is a hormone that causes re-absorption and retention of water and sodium)
After 6 days of zero sodium, the blood sodium concentrations were perfectly conserved. In fact, by the 6th day, the kidneys had almost stopped limiting sodium all together, so all that sodium depleting you did for a week doesn’t even charge the actual blood sodium levels.
There are some things that the sodium depletion does do however, it increased the hormone aldosterone big time, and after just 2 days of sodium depleting your aldosterone has almost double and almost tripled by day 6
Elevation in aldosterone will cause an increase in water retention, as the kidney reabsorbs both the sodium and water back into circulation, compounding this with the fact that the deficiencies in sodium with lead to a drop in blood pressure, means that plasma water has been push out of the vascular system.
Now instead of having water in your blood vessels making you look full and vascular, it will be around the vessels interstitially (i.e. subcutaneous) making you look softer
The article continues to say, if you haven’t realized that sodium depletion is a pie-in- the- sky fallacy by now, perhaps this will change your mind…
During the contest preparation, some bodybuilders also deplete their carbohydrates. The idea being that depleting the sodium will make you tighter and when carb loading (after 3 day of depleting) will fill you out to skin-stretching proportions.
I already stated how depleting your sodium will actually make you softer, but did you know that it will also impair your ability to achieve fullness as well.
SLGT-1 is the co-transporter in the intestine that is responsible for glucose (blood sugar) absorption. It is called the co-transporter because it uses sodium concentrations to drive the glucose from the intestine to be absorbed.
Research has demonstrated that sodium restriction will actually reduce the expression and activity of this transporter, limiting your ability to absorb glucose and thus preventing you from achieving the great fullness you desire.
Now all that undigested glucose is going to remain in the small intestine and pull water into that area in order to maintain proper osmolarity, and it will cause bloating in the small intestine.
So now you managed to put water in two places you didn’t want, the subcutaneous layer and the gut, making you appear softer and bloated
They end by saying that we have all heard someone say they looked soft and flat on stage and then talk about how much better they looked after they went out after the show and pigged out.
Most people think this means they didn’t carb up enough, but that simply isn’t true because they loaded carbs for 2-3 days… the pig-out meal contained lots of sodium and they drank a lot of water with it… The result, the sodium and water finally allowed them to fill out properly
Part 3 next months issue they will be offering some recommendations for proper peaking
Oh boy, I can’t wait… stay tuned
Time for a protein drink
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