str8flexed’s BodyBlog

I hear people talk all the time about using a diuretic to lose subcutaneous water. Absolute bunk!!!!!!  Water is held in a constant distribution between intracellular & extracellular space about a 70:30 ratio  This is good.  If you add a diruetic sure you lose some from the extracellular space, but like any chemical system you can’t just push the pendulum one way and expect it not to swing back. It will also pull water from inside the cell in order to maintain the proper gradient. If you actually could change this gradient it would cause all kinds of hell. This concentration gradient is crucial for the osmolarity in the cell as well as the correct balance of ions across the cell membrane. So you lose it in the same distribution (70:30) and so all you’ve done is manage to lose total body water and flatten yourself out.  This is bad.  Anyone who tells you a diuretic will remove water ONLY from the extracellular space and not the intracellular is straight selling you nonesense, or they just don’t understand physiology. It’s quite simply, it’s taught in basic chemistry: Le’ Chatelier’s Principle which states: "If a chemical system at equilibrium experiences a change in concentration, temperature, volume (ie water volume), or partial pressure, then the equilibrium shifts to counter-act the imposed change."  I know that’s not the sexy answer, but it’s the TRUTH. Something not many people like hearing these days. Much easier to dream about a magic pill or peaking strategy.  Here’s a peaking strategy. GET SHREDDED. PERIOD! END OF STORY!   cutting water will have a very similar effect as a diuretic. sure you’ll lose some subcutaneous water, but you’ll actually lose a greater proportion from the intracellular space in order to maintain the proper gradient. This is chemistry class 101. I actually remember seeing this in my AP chem class in high school where they used a semi-permeable bag with water on the inside & outside to show us. They sucked some water out of the outside of the bag (outside the cell) and sure enough. Water from inside the bag crossed the wall to the outside in order to maintain the same proportion. Again, very basic stuff here.  The body is a master of homeostasis and nobody is going to ‘outsmart’ a million years of evolution. Well technically since the cell gradient thing has been around since single celled amoebas how about raising that to half a billion years of evolution. Ain’t happenin’. Stop looking for a miracle cure to peaking properly. The only way to ensure you look shredded onstage is to… DUH get shredded and lose as much bodyfat as possible! Crazy final week protocols are the snuggie of contest prep. It’s like buying the products on midnight cable. They don’t work and they’ll make you look stupid if you buy them.  -Layne

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 9:38 pm and is filed under Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.