Huddle with Andy Blow - Ep. #17

Inside Sports Nutrition

In this Huddle, Bob and Dina chat all things hydration and sweat with Andy Blow, Sport Scientist and the founder of the Precision Fuel & Hydration company. As athletes, we can’t neglect the role hydration plays in our performance and recovery, no matter what kind of athlete we are or what kind of sports we do. You’ll walk away from this episode with a new appreciation of sweat and hydration, how unique we each are, and why being proactive in learning your body will serve you well in your athletic endeavors.

We chat with Andy about:

· Why is hydration so important (and overlooked)?

· When is “drink to thirst” or “drinking to a plan” an okay approach, if ever?

· What do we know about Masters athletes and hydration?

· The benefits of sweat rate testing - if you’re doing it right

· Surprising findings of team sport athletes such as those who play football and baseball

· The Luke Henderson Ironman case study

· The ins and outs of exercise-associated muscle cramping

· The physiology of sweating

· Sweat composition testing methods

· Some questions from listeners: Can we just salt our foods to get extra sodium? Why do we pee more when it’s cold out? How do I know if I’m taking too much sodium? What’s the impact of our daily sodium intake upon our sweat sodium composition?

· Andy’s Top 3 practical tips for athletes

Quote from Andy:

“There’s no one size fits all answer, so go on a journey to figure out what works for you with your physiology and the situation that you’re in. Don’t look around and copy people. Listen and read and interpret and look at the science, but n of 1 is the phrase there.”

Good reading from the Precision Fuel & Hydration Knowledge Hub:

· Why sodium is crucial to athletes performing their best

· Why athletes suffer from muscle cramp

· Should your hydration strategy change as you get older?

· How to measure your sweat rate

More about our guest:

Andy Blow is a Sports Scientist and the founder of Precision Fuel & Hydration. Andy was formerly an elite-level triathlete who can count top-10 IRONMAN finishes and an Xterra Age-Group World title to his name. It was during his racing career that he discovered how personalizing your own carb, electrolyte and fluid intake can make such a big difference to performance, and this led to him setting up precisionfuelandhydration.com - a company that specializes in helping athletes nail their fueling and hydration strategies for training and competing.

Andy has a BSc (Hons) degree in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Bath, UK. He currently lives in Christchurch, Dorset, in the UK with wife Lucy and their 2 young children Bobby and Bethany.

Got a sports nutrition question for Bob & Dina? Email us your inquiry at [e-mail] and we’ll get it on a future Q&A episode. Learn about Bob and Dina’s services: Find Bob at www.enrgperformance.comand Dina at www.nutritionmechanic.com