INTRODUCING NUTRITION TIPS FROM DR. MIKE FOR GORUCK TRIBE 'N TRAINING

DR. MIKE // Q&A

FAVORITE RUCKSACK?
My original 26L Black GR1. I’ve had it for 8 years and have taken it everywhere from Palo Alto to Dublin to the backwoods of Vermont.

FAVORITE GORUCK EVENT MEMORY?
I did a Challenge (Tough) in Buffalo late one Spring. It was probably around 1am. We ruck up to a high concrete wall along an offshoot of Niagara River. We took our rucks off and needed to jump into the river and swim to the near shore. We then did burpees to keep warm until everyone finished jumping. There was someone in the group with a lifelong fear of water. They opted to sit out of the evolution. But by the end, seeing everyone jump in, they wanted to do it too. Spotters got into the water where the person was going to jump. The person jumped in and was guided to shore. Everyone went nuts, the person was crying tears of happiness. It was so cool to see how a group of strangers rallying around an ideal could help/motivate someone to confront a lifelong fear.

FAVORITE TRIBE 'N TRAINING WORKOUT?
The very first one. It was the Miller Hero WOD. I did it in my small garage gym with my oldest son who was 12 at the time. It was the last day of the month and was probably 33 degrees in the garage. It was cold and by the end we were literally steaming. But it was great to grind it out with him, show him how to focus on the movement at hand (not worry about doing the entire workout) and how to set microgoals like being halfway to halfway done to keep motivated during long trainings.

THE TRUTH ABOUT YOUR POST-RUCK BEER

Every GORUCK event that I’ve done has always ceremoniously ended with beers in the parking lot. I will wager that this is the best tasting beer you’ll ever have in your life…but isn’t beer dehydrating?

Surprisingly, not necessarily.

Let’s look at the science a little bit.

A 2016 study from Netherlands found that when people drank any of the following: alcohol free beer, light beer (2% alcohol), regular beer (4% alcohol), or a sports drink post exercise, they were still equally dehydrated after 5 hours. That’s right, even after drinking enough sports drink to replenish the fluids they lost during exercise, those people were still just as dehydrated as the people that drank beer.

There were a couple things from this study that we can learn from.

1. DRINK MORE (WATER) – The people in this study were only given enough to drink to replace what they sweat during their workout. A good recommendation is to drink 150% of what you sweat out. Since most of us aren’t measuring how many droplets of sweat we sweat out during a ruck, we need to have a general idea of how much we sweat (this is largely impacted by the intensity and duration of our workouts plus the temperature outside) and then drink more than we think we should. More will allow us to capture that extra 50% we need to fully rehydrate. While in this study, the participants exclusively drank what they were given (for example, if you were in the light beer group, you could only drink light beer), you should be drinking water in addition to whatever beer you have.
2. GET SOME SALT - There aren’t very many electrolytes (e.g. salt) in beer, it is pretty much just water and alcohol. But I cringe when I see scientists recommending that people add salt to their beer! Let’s NOT do that. Instead, have some nuts or beef jerky. That will give you all the salt you need, helping you rehydrate a little faster. The salt will also stimulate thirst, getting you to drink more fluids and further helping with rehydration.
3. ENJOY, BUT DON'T GO OVERBOARD - Alcohol itself can promote dehydration through what’s called “alcohol-induced diuresis” (AID) - basically, it makes you pee more. This phenomenon can kick in as quickly as 20 minutes after your first drink! The effect actually varies greatly but generally tracks with the amount of alcohol you consume (more alcohol means more peeing). So, you probably want to avoid the fancy craft microbrew that are 8% ABV post ruck. In a review of beer and exercise, researchers from the Human Performance Laboratory at Old Dominion University recommended that you keep your beer consumption below 24oz to “minimize any increased fluid loss” (e.g. excessive peeing). Basically…1 or 2 celebratory brews and then water it is!

So, if you want to enjoy a post-ruck beer with your Tribe, go for it. But don’t forget to drink water and have a small salty snack, too.

Dr. Mike Roussell