🏃‍♂️💧New in #PerformanceNutrition: Alan McCubbin (@nextlvlnut) reviews sodium intake strategies for athletes before, during & after exercise. Key takeaway? It’s not just about sodium loss—it’s also about fluid balance. 🔗Read the article here: https://t.co/FQ2doGOqoS

3/3 Big thanks @gareth_wallis & the editorial team at Performance Nutrition for inviting me to put this together, and of course colleagues, students & collaborators @MonashNutrExer & beyond who've contributed to work in the sodium space over the past 9 yrs

2/3 The paper is written specifically with practitioners in mind. It critically examines the common rationales given by athletes/coaches/practitioners/companies for sodium intake, and where possible provides implementable guidelines & scenarios for use. Open access = no paywall.

1/3 Excited to see this published in the journal Performance Nutrition. For all the great research done, there's been a lack of clear, quantifiable guidelines for sodium intake before/during/after exercise, leaving a void for product marketing to fill.

Incredibly happy to see this review from @Petermc8's PhD published in Comprehensive Physiology...with an online heat acclimation predictor! https://t.co/XpgS14HbqW https://t.co/mBWN8SQZX5

🚨 Calling all Western States Endurance Runners! 🚨 We’re recruiting for a research study on nutrition, core temperature, and GI distress during WSER! 🏃‍♂️🔥 If you're racing WSER 2025 and want to contribute to science, get in touch! 📩 Scan for details & please share!

Two papers. On the left, a non-randomized, non-crossover study showing that a one-off sauna exposure significantly decreased arterial stiffness, with implications on cardiovascular health. On the right, a randomized, crossover (more robust) study, showing no benefits on

Thank you very much @nextlvlnut for inviting me to the podcast. A very well recognised and necessary project led by one of the best in the business. So happy and grateful to be a little part of it, even if my English is not ideal (I tried it...) :) :) https://t.co/BiFezWwmWJ

Great to have @MckayAlannah on the pod last wk sharing the best way to take iron supp's. https://t.co/jnSJnA2ldm She's currently recruiting female runners/triathletes in Melbourne for the first ever head-to-head study in athletes of the 2 main iron supp types on the market 👇

Introducing T-12, a 6-part podcast series following an athlete's nutrition prep for @UTAAUS in May. Each ep we cover different aspects of race-day nutrition: from accom & race foods, gut training & hydration, taper & the day before the race. 🎧Ep 1: https://t.co/4LCqJ3z5vx

Calling all Australian triathletes! 🏊‍♂️🚴‍♀️🏃‍♂️ Interested in how your training compares to other triathletes? Join Deakin’s study on triathlete training load! Have 12+ months of triathlon training? 🔹 Share your insights & TrainingPeaks data. 👉 Details: https://t.co/y6tJibZx7k

Big shoutout to my co-author @irwin_cg from Griffith University who did the heavy lifting with the meta-analysis & meta-regression.

So pre-ex. hyperhydration may improve flat cycling TT perf. in non-elite males, & for everyone else it's hard to say. Future studies should address this & provide more realistic (lower) fluid intake in placebo trials, pref. blinded using NG tubes like during-ex hydration studies.

We also looked at secondary outcomes (HR, core temp, thermal comfort, RPE, thirst) but didn't see anything hugely exciting. We did notice a major lack of studies in elite athletes, females, & weight sensitive sports (e.g. running) performance (vast majority were cycling ergo).

Doing this we found a small but significant effect of hyperhydration on endurance (>1hr) TT performance. We did meta-regression to see if the fluid vol. retained, ambient temp, osmotic agent, or running vs cycling mattered. None did, but likely due to lack of study heterogeneity.

We were more interested in the effect of actually being hyperhydrated (rather than if the osmotic agent could achieve this state), so we only included studies that reported significant differences between osmotic agent & placebo for body water &/or fluid retention pre-exercise.

This methodology is good for evaluating if the osmotic agent is effective at fluid retention, but I don't know any athletes drinking 10-25mL/kg pre-exercise without glycerol or sodium. They either drink a large fluid volume with an osmotic agent, or a smaller volume without it.

One thing we quickly realised is most studies in this area investigate the use of osmotic agents (glycerol or sodium loading) to retain a large (10-25mL/kg) fluid load pre-exercise, compare it to placebo taken with the same fluid volume (for blinding), then measure performance.

After patchy uptake of hyperhydration at the Tokyo Olympics, from what we've heard was a mixture of practicality issues & doubts about the robustness of the evidence to support it, we decided to take a look 👀

A bit late to promote my own publication due to summer holidays, but great to get our meta-analytical review of pre-exercise hyperhydration and endurance performance published in @APNMjournal.