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Hydration & Overhydration in Endurance Sports: Book Review of Waterlogged by Tim Noakes

April 25, 2014 By Stano Faban 2 Comments

waterlogged-book-tim-noakesWaterlogged book overview:

  • Usual full price: around $25.00 USD
  • Pages: over 400
  • Pros: lots of details, very useful, fairly easy to understand, chapter summaries
  • Cons: lots of similar stories to drive the point home
  • Suitability: from beginners to serious athletes in any sport, lots of great knowledge and practical advice
  • How we go it: Birthday present (disclosure notices)

Bottom line:

In my opinion, “Waterlogged – The Serious Problem of Overhydration in Endurance Sports” is a must read for anyone that is interested in hydration. Tim Noakes – a well respected and credible sports scientist – effectively dismantles lots of myths and pseudo-science that were promoted onto the sports community in the last 30+ years.
In order to get the most out of the book you do not have to read it cover to cover, unless you need every single detail to convince you he is right.

Amazon carries the Waterlogged:

  • $16-25 at Amazon.com

Book description and Our review:

The book was published on May 1st, 2012 and the 400 pages make quite the bible! However, once you start reading you quickly understand that Tim Noakes spent over three decades to research hydration and overhydration himself as well as he reviewed over thousands of scientific papers and books published on these subjects to present us with his conclusions.
Noakes mostly wrote the book to prevent any future deaths from overhydration during endurance sports but in the process he also answers why, what, and how much do we really need to drink to maximize our performance.
He also exposes the hydration industry for its misleading information:

Dehydration in those who drink ad libitum (at one’s own thirst) has no proven detrimental effect on athletic performance. – Tim Noakes in Chapter 5 where he discusses Gatorade at length
Neither muscle cramps nor heat illnesses are caused by sodium deficiency. – Tim Noakes

Waterlogged chapter list to show you everything Noakes discusses:

Chapter 1 – Perspectives on Human Physiology and Hydration

Chapter 2 – Thirst as a Signal for Fluid Intake

Chapter 3 – Water’s Role in Thermoregulation

Chapter 4 – Salt Balance in the Body

Chapter 5 – Emergence of the Sports Drink Industry

Chapter 6 – The Shaky Science of Hydration

Chapter 7 – Early Drinking Guidelines

Chapter 8 – Discovery of Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia

Chapter 9 – The Biology of EAH

Chapter 10 – EAH and EAHE on a Global Scale

Chapter 11 – Guidelines for Fluid Intake

I went on to read this book some months after watching couple of Tim Noakes presentations that I found on YouTube. Through those videos as well as further reading-up on him as a scientist I opened the book with great enthusiasm and a general belief that what he concludes should be true. This allowed me to skip pages occasionally as Noakes, for me, went into too much detail and repeated similar examples/stories too many times.
Each chapter seemed to be constructed roughly the same – he presents what he found or thinks, then provides overwhelming evidence to support this, dismantles old beliefs, and nicely goes onto summarizing the whole chapter knowledge and recommendations on just one page. So just like a I said above, if you believe him as a scientist, you do not have to read every single paragraph or even page.
In this 4 min video Tim Noakes discusses basic principles of hydration:

And if you care, in this 15 min TEDx talk Tim Noakes discusses his body of work which also includes Central Governor theory that basically states that not (only) muscle fatigue but brain regulates athletic performance:

Pros:

  • Tons of detail and scientific evidence.
  • Lots of practical advice and knowledge you can apply to your every day life and training.
  • Superb value for the buck.
  • Fairly easy to understand.
  • The summaries at the end of each chapter are well done and easy to understand.

Cons:

  • It’s long.
  • You might need to look up some medical and biology terms, but not too often.

Waterlogged on Amazon.com:

  • $16 – $25 at Amazon.com (various models)

Filed Under: Gear, Tech & Food, Reviews, Training, Tricks & Tips Tagged With: dehydration, Hydration, Tim Noakes, Waterlogged

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Stano Faban says

    April 27, 2014 at 1:55 pm

    Hey Brian!
    Just like you, I as well experienced and witnesses many great endurance performances without much drinking or even carbs replacement. I am not saying we don’t need anything but rather just like Noakes I believe the “stories” of what we need are being exaggerated in order to keep the machine going.
    BTW, how’s Alaska these days? Any Pierra Menta posts you want me to link to?

  2. brian harder says

    April 26, 2014 at 7:42 am

    Yeah, love this book. After reading it, the open minded will be pissed off and forever question the marketing tactics of every purveyor of fluid replacement drinks, electrolyte what-nots and super technical hydration packs. There is so much money to be made perpetuating the fear that drives hydration in sport that, unless you go to the alter of Noakes, you may never know. The guy’s done his homework.
    He confirms what many of us have witnessed in various sports but even more so in skimo. I can’t keep track of the number of winners of skimo races that said they didn’t drink a drop the whole race. In spite of what we’ve been force fed for the last 30 years, you can do just fine, and maybe even excel, with less than you think. It’s a must read. And, BTW, your pack gets a lot lighter.
    “Hydrate or die”….pleeeze!

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