Thanks to Claire at 4th Discipline in Birmingham and Precision Hydration (PH) I was lucky to receive a free PH Sweat and Sodium test.
So what is a sweat test? This is something I wondered and was it really something that would benefit me? Im no elite athlete! If you are like me automatically think they will have you running on a treadmill till your body is crying (sweating), or sticking needles into you. STOP!!
There is no physical exertion or needles in sight.
I was in with Claire for around an hour, answered a few questions to help with the data. Covering how I train, and what I actually do for hydration (Im so bad at hydration, must drink more). Claire is lovely and made me feel comfortable and explained everything as we went along. I feel like I picked a lot up from the appointment including the importance to load my feet (yay for being injury prone).
So the actual test is painless. The arm us wiped, two pads are places on the arm to electrically stimulate a small area of the arm to encourage the sweat glands to produce sweat. Apparently you could feel tingling to the area, I didn't feel anything (does this make me less special?). This part of the test takes about five minutes. Once the the pads are removed you will have a red circle, this is the stimulated area.
A sweat collector is placed over the stimulated area, and secured in place with a strap. Im not sure how long this stayed in place maybe 20-30 minuets, but time went very quickly whilst we were chatting. The collector has a dye that turns the sweat blue, the sweat is collected in the small tub. Some people sweat more than others apparently I wasn't a big sweater in the short amount of time.
Once there is enough sweat, it is then analysed by a magic box. Ok it might be more science but what's the fun in that!
A sweat collector is placed over the stimulated area, secured in place using a strap. This process is then repeated on the other arm or leg. Your child will have to wait for 30 minutes while the sweat is collected. During this waiting time, they can play and eat normally,although salty foods such as crisps should be avoided to minimise any risk of contamination. The sweat collector is then removed and sent to the laboratory for analysis. The machine gives a reading of the amount of sodium you lose well exercising. This data is then combined with the information gathered via the interrogation (questions asked nicely) to generate a personal hydration strategy. It will advise when, what and how much to drink pre, during and post training and competitions. It gives a recommend strength electrolyte drinks that will work best for you.
I can admit to you all that I am dreadful for keeping on top of my hydration, even when I feel thirsty I can still hold off drinking. During the appointment I had some ideas as why I am like this, but really its down to being lazy and well, water doesn't excite me. Claire said that if water doesn't cut it that's ok, sugar free squash is fine and also said that coffee and tea aren't that dehydrating. The challenge was set, get a bottle and set goals. First goal is to drink a full bottle by lunch and then a second one by the end of work. I was asked if I though I was a salty sweater and I thought I was about average.
So my results came out as i'm a salty sweater (I was wrong). I lose 1576mg of sodium per litre of sweat. Claire put all the information online and PH who supply the tech pinged back the results and sent over a hydration plan. Claire had instant access to this information and talked through everything with me and they sent me an email with a summary of the test results and a link to a hydration plan just for me.
PH will now send me emails recapping the key parts of my strategy over the next few weeks. What I find brilliant is that both Claire and PH have said that if I have any questions to contact them so I don't feel like that's it. I also don't feel like i'm being bombarded with sales of PH products.
The second part of my prize is a tester kit of the PH products, so I am looking forward to them arriving next week. However, I will have to hold fire on testing them until my sprained ankle is healed and I can get back into a running program but don't worry, I will be back to tell you all about the products and I will give you my honest opinion.
If you would like to find out more hit up www.precisionhydration.com and www.4thdiscipline.co.uk