Sodium Loading for Max Attempts

[co05]

I read a bit about it in this Tmuscle article: TMUSCLE.com | 6 Dirty Tricks to Instantly Increase Muscle and Boost Performance

I'm going to eat some ramen packets today a few hours before I lift but I was wondering if anyone knew more about it and the science behind it.

 

[BigBen]

What happens is basically what he says happens. Your body Increases the amount of water it retains bc their is more salt present. This action occurs through ADH( anti diuretic hormone) It signals your kidney tubules to increase the uptake of water. As a result of the ADH the urine is usually more concentrated, unless of course you drank more water than normal. Also your body retain more water.

Think of your body as a solution that needs to keep certain proportions and can only work with certain amounts of elements present. Thus the terms poisoning and starvation that apply not just to calories but to all things that become harmful with excess and harmful if absent in the diet. When you add more salt to your solution you need to keep more water in the solution or add more water to the solution(your body). Their is of course a range that is identified with normal cellular function, and this range is what your body is trying to maintain.

To further explain what he is saying, yes, when the body retains more water their is the possibility that the joints will feel more cushioned and a person would be able to handle heavier weight with less stress on the joints. Does sodium loading make the skeletal muscle itself capable of greater performance? That idea seems plausible b/c of the presence of more electrolytes, but it seems more likely the extra sodium would be related more so to endurance than a one rep max situation. Now if you have more stability due to the extra tone(the tightness of the muscle when it is relaxed) that has potential to add to a one rep max, but it is something you would have to try.

With all that said I would not load extra sodium into your system intentionally on a consistent basis. With the extra water comes extra pressure on your vascular system. High blood pressure is not something that should be sustained over a long period of time. I would load extra sodium infrequently and only when you plan on having a day where you try for a max or have an notable increase in volume, or workout duration.

 

[PrinceVegeta]

If you are in a strength/offseason mode, i dont that extra sodium loading would do much, because you should already have normal or higher levels of sodium due to hig cal diet filled with a variety of food...right?

 

[tim290280]

I can't see it helping much for anyone with a proper diet and water intake.

Plus the window would be pretty small. Your kidneys are damned efficient.

Also has anyone else noticed the drop-off in T-nation articles? They were doing 5 a week, now they are doing a couple, they used to be less blatant advertising, now they seem to edit it in where-ever they choose.