"Sports drinks"

[archer1960]

I suspect the guy who started this thread was actually referring to energy drinks like Red Bull or Monster (stuff with caffeine and other strange chemicals in it). Which I suppose might be slightly more contentious than sports drinks like Gatorade.

As for those who vilify sports drinks, it's really not much different from a soft drink in terms of sugar content (good thing, or bad, depends on your preference for sodas). When I cycle, I bring 2 bottles, 1 with a sports drink and 1 with water, and simply go with what I feel like -> your body tells you what you need, so listen to it. Usually that amounts to sipping both, although more of the sports drink.

Here's my question, related to diving - typically, on dry land, cramping occurs due to a) lack of water, or b) lack of electrolytes. Muscle fatigue is usually not an issue. Simply fuel up with a sports drink/water/food and the cramps go away quickly, before there can be muscle recovery. And cramping is a fairly common issue among divers, I myself have felt a twinge or two sometimes.

Given that a) even a tiny bit of sea water ingested would amount to a large amount of electrolytes (and we surely ingest a bit), and b) I frequently find myself running to the loo after dives and peeing clear pee (indicating a decent level of hydration), why do I/divers still get crampy sometimes? Hope this doesn't come across as being too daft.

Over-working muscles that aren't conditioned it for will cause them to cramp up.

 

[danvolker]

I suspect the guy who started this thread was actually referring to energy drinks like Red Bull or Monster (stuff with caffeine and other strange chemicals in it). Which I suppose might be slightly more contentious than sports drinks like Gatorade.

As for those who vilify sports drinks, it's really not much different from a soft drink in terms of sugar content (good thing, or bad, depends on your preference for sodas). When I cycle, I bring 2 bottles, 1 with a sports drink and 1 with water, and simply go with what I feel like -> your body tells you what you need, so listen to it. Usually that amounts to sipping both, although more of the sports drink.

Here's my question, related to diving - typically, on dry land, cramping occurs due to a) lack of water, or b) lack of electrolytes. Muscle fatigue is usually not an issue. Simply fuel up with a sports drink/water/food and the cramps go away quickly, before there can be muscle recovery. And cramping is a fairly common issue among divers, I myself have felt a twinge or two sometimes.

Given that a) even a tiny bit of sea water ingested would amount to a large amount of electrolytes (and we surely ingest a bit), and b) I frequently find myself running to the loo after dives and peeing clear pee (indicating a decent level of hydration), why do I/divers still get crampy sometimes? Hope this doesn't come across as being too daft.

I think this diver with cramping issues phenomenon, is more about most divers having the primary muscles used in fin swimming, untrained for this activity.....Whether their primary "training" is walking, or just day to day moving around house or office, this does a poor job of preparing their muscles for the kind of muscle contractions required for fin swimming.....they end up with the muscles that are almost never used, or parts of these muscles, getting insufficient blood flow, and running out of glycogen as well as building up too much lactic acid.
When you train muscles for a specific activity, you develop greater bloodflow to the muscles with more capillary development in and around them, and the muscles begin to store more glycogen ( stored energy). With greater blood flow, lactic acid is also removed more effectively. With training, aerobic power improves, and the leg or foot muscles that had previously cramped, can now be powered aerobically--without requiring anaerobic respiration to achieve the necessary power....so no lactic acid concentration develops.

Bicycle riding, is actually the BEST method I have seen for conditioning the fin swimming muscles we use in diving. This is particularly so, if you are on a real race bike with clip on pedals, use optimum height of the seat for near maximum leg extension, and you use a toe pointing technique for pedaling---so you develop youir aerobic power for the foot in the toe fully pointed angle.....which is also going to provide more leverage for the quadriceps and hamstrings to push against--it effectively lengthens the "lever". For the diver this is good, because you walk around flat footed, with very little toe pointing, meaning you do little to condition your calf muscles in the angle of contractions required for when your toes are pointed as they are when doing flutter kick. Cycling with a toe pointing pedal stroke, does this beautifully.

The other "anti" cramp tip I would offer, is to wear "orthotics" in your booties---feet pushed flat onto a flat footbed, compressed by the fin, is not good for a normal or high arch. Most divers would benefit a great deal with orthotics--and the more vigorously they are swimming, the more this comes into play.

 

[Sandie7]

I suspect the guy who started this thread was actually referring to energy drinks like Red Bull or Monster (stuff with caffeine and other strange chemicals in it). Which I suppose might be slightly more contentious than sports drinks like Gatorade.

The "guy" who started this thread is a woman, and no I was NOT referring to "energy drinks", but "sports drinks".

 

[dmaziuk]

Bicycle riding, is actually the BEST method I have seen for conditioning the fin swimming muscles we use in diving. This is particularly so, if you are on a real race bike with clip on pedals, use optimum height of the seat for near maximum leg extension, and you use a toe pointing technique for pedaling---so you develop youir aerobic power for the foot in the toe fully pointed angle.....which is also going to provide more leverage for the quadriceps and hamstrings to push against--it effectively lengthens the "lever".

This should be good but keep in mind that effective flutter kick is leg fully stretched, toe pointed as in above (or the "ballerina" stance), but your effort is actually at 90 degrees to that line instead of along it. The other part of it I believe is being weightless and relaxing the muscles that don't normally relax because there's always body weight on them (except in bed asleep). I.e. you remove the load they're used to and instead add the load they're not conditioned for. So you're pushing when they're weak, you get over-tension where you don't need it and on top of that you may need to control the fins' attempts to twist sideways. (I suspect this last bit is why some people like splits: they should be easier to keep straight.)

 

[Skittl1321]

The "guy" who started this thread is a woman, and no I was NOT referring to "energy drinks", but "sports drinks".

Seems like if you had been referring to energy drinks you would have called them that. What a weird assumption.

 

[dmaziuk]

The "guy" who started this thread is a woman

(chuckle) we won't hold it against you, you'll always be "one of the guys" here I promise

 

[Storker]

Isn't "guy" more or less gender-neutral these days?






At least that's my excuse when I fcuk up the terminology...

 

[Lorenzoid]

Seems like if you had been referring to energy drinks you would have called them that. What a weird assumption.

In fairness, I think I see cwoco's source of confusion. The OP asked two questions: Are they ok to drink before and after diving? Are they better than water?

The first question implies there is a possibility that sports drinks might be harmful--that they might NOT be "OK" to drink before or after diving. A possibility that Gatorade, Powerade, etc., might be harmful to drink before or after diving probably has not occurred to most of us, as these are generally regarded as pretty benign products. But I can see how the first question might have led someone to think the OP was referring to Red Bull or Monster energy drink products rather than sports drinks.

Whether sports drinks are any better (or worse) than water--the SECOND question--is a different matter, and what most of the replies addressed.

 

[Storker]

Sometimes I have to chuckle a little about the "hydration" fad. Particularly when I see teenaged or twenty-something girls (yeah, I'm old. Calling twenty-somethings "girls" just proves you're an old geezer. Now get off my lawn!) in the gym, sucking their water bottles like they were toddlers' pacifiers, not a single patch of sweat on their clothes. But I hafta admit they've got great hairdos, nice makeup and rather aesthetically pleasing clothing...

 

[delmolino]

Cycling is my other hobby and on weekends I go for some very long rides (70+ miles). Under this situation I always have 2 big bottles of water and in one of them I put 2 tablets of Nuun on it: Amazon.com: Nuun Active Hydration, Electrolyte Enhanced Drink Tablets, New Mixed Flavor 4-pack: Strawberry Lemonade, Fruit Punch, Grape, Tropical Fruit (4 Tubes/12 Tabs Per Tube): Health & Personal Care

It has no high fructose corn syrup (or any other sugar added) though it has some high sodium proportion, but since I am those people who sweat a lot I feel the need for it. Coconut water is the other drink for hydration of my choice. It has been about 2 years since my last Gatorade and the likes and it will probably take much more than that for the next time. I noticed that my performance started to get better and I managed weight much better without these things: better climbing!

For diving, I believe that water and coconut water is enough, maybe one table of Nuun in a gallon of water...