You about to travel 6.2 miles on your own power. For some this is your first time, for others this is 10k number 43. New or seasoned I’ve got a dirty little secret no ones ever told you about. It’s about your water. What, Water is water right? WRONG!!

I’ve talked/listen to several participants with various levels of experience, from professionals to beginners, and we all are always trying to tweak different aspects of our life to have a faster finishing time. They mentioned how they increased or decreased their mileage. They talk about how they’re doing more or less speed work or how they’re lifting more or less weights. Some discuss their diets…they are eating more/less carbs some are eating more/less protein or fats. How about the newest supplement that’s out and suppose to do this or that. As athletes we are always looking for that competitive edge to the point that we are obsessive about what we wear. Which lightweight clothing are you wearing or which brand running shoe works best for you. Maybe you wearing the or you’ve decided to compete like our ancestors of Greece that ran the first marathon…bare footed. Actually this is how I want you to think about water way back in the day when there was no processed bottled water, sports/energy drinks or specially manufactured food and clothing just plain ole fresh ingredients like pure WATER.

There are two aspects of water that need to be discussed. Quantity and Type. First let’s talk about the quantity of water we should be drinking. The standard answer to this question is 8-10 8oz glasses. Did you know that this is only the amount that your body loses from everyday bodily functions? This amount is for someone that does little to no activity. This definitely is not you. Also how can a person weighing 120lbs need to replenish with the same amount as a 185lb person. Sorry, but this does not compute. The amount normal/healthy person should minimally be hydrating with on a daily basis is ½ of your body weight in ounces. So if you weigh 150lbs then 150/2 = 75oz. 1/2gallon = 64oz so a little more than 1/2gallon.

Listen to this concept because it’s key. Your body is approximately 70-75% WATER. In other words this is the MAIN component/ingredient of your body. Now let’s say you’re baking a cake from scratch. We know that the main ingredient is flour. Let’s say we decide to cut back on the quality of flour used. Will that cake taste as good as it can? Probably not, but we can just throw it away and make another. How about someone receiving a hip replacement, if medical grade materials are not used they probably might not live long enough to appreciate that new hip because the best/safest materials/ingredients were not being used. So why do we settle for inferior WATER which happens to be THE MAIN COMPONENT/INGREDIENT of our body.

To accentuate how important HYDRATION please note the percentages of WATER the different body parts are made of:
Bones – 20%
Muscles – 75%
Heart – 80% Do you think it would be OK if this organ was DEHYDRATED just 5%
Brain – 85% Ever heard of FOGGY thinking
Lungs – 90%
Blood – 90%

Because the human body is such a resilient machine it allows us to ingest inferior ingredients in order to work, although not at optimum capacity. But don’t be fooled because you don’t see the immediate effects of the poor ingredients being consumed on a daily basis. What would happen if we put the wrong type of gas in our cars? The car will probably sputter and shut down before we make it to the end of the street. Hydrating with inferior water causes that CHECK ENGINE light of the body to come on alerting us in the form of this condition or that condition.

Next is type. No I’m not talking about grape or apple flavored, I’m talking about ACIDIC versus ALKALINE. Have you ever looked at a nice clear glass of WATER that way? Because, basically over 90% of water, in its consumed state, is ACIDIC. Now what does this mean to the most amazing machine ever created that we call the human body. To help you better understand the ACID/ALKALINE balance of the body it helps to have a minimal understanding of the pH scale. Below is a color coded chart of the pH scale. The scale runs from 1-14 with 1-6.9 representing the ACIDIC (SICK) side, 7.0 being neutral, and 7.1-14 representing the ALKALINE (HEALTH) side.

As a former member of the Charleston Battery Soccer team, NCAA division I soccer player and cellular hydration specialist I was told by my trainers and later educated that when we exercise (run a 10K) a by product of that exercise is lactic ACID and pyruvic ACID. There’s that dirty word (ACID). So what we (our bodies) want to do is quickly eliminate that ACIDITY in order for us to continue to push our bodies further. Ways we accomplish this is through light exercise, stretching, massage and HYDRATION. Below is a chart of the typical and not so typical varieties of liquids consumed to hydrate with. Pay attention to where these liquids relate to being ACIDIC or ALKALINE on the colored pH scale.

Based on the information above why would an intelligent athlete that knows your body creates ACIDITY as a byproduct of the workout, top off their ACIDITY with an ACIDIC liquid. Also don’t be misled into thinking tap water is okay because it’s on the alkaline side, because there is chlorine in tap water. As you know most filters, like Brita, take chlorine out but look at what happens to this water, in terms of the ACID/ALKALINE chart. It sends it towards the ACIDIC side.

Other qualities to look for in your liquids are:
Does the liquid you consume (water or recovery drink) OXIDIZE you or is it an ANTI-OXIDANT?
Does the liquid you consume (water or recovery drink) ABSORB into you as well as you think?

What is OXIDATION?

There are 2 analogies that I like to use when referring to oxidation.

What we see here in these analogies/pictures is the acceleration of the breaking down process. Almost all recovery drinks consumed (water/sports drinks) fall into this category. What’s happening here is free radicals are breaking down these items just as they break down the cells of the body. So we consume anti-oxidants like vitamin C and green tea to eliminate the FREE RADICALS that are breaking our body down and accelerating the aging process. The characteristic of an ANTI-OXIDANT can be measured using an Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) Meter. See link below

Absorption

Just because you consume something does not mean you are assimilating it. This applies to WATER as well as nutrients. The molecules of liquids that are consumed are rather large and come in clusters of 10-15 therefore making it difficult if not impossible to penetrate the cell in that size.

Imagine your cell wall is like a chain link fence. If you have water or sports drinks with molecules the size of golf balls and you throw a bucket of golf balls at the fence, some will penetrate and some will deflect back. This is a perfect example of consuming (drinking) water but NOT ABSORBING it

Your Solution

What if I tell you there is a water out there that has the 3 GREAT qualities we should be looking for in WATER:
ALKALINE in pH where the body thrives and is HEALTHIEST
ANTI-OXIDANT rich to help eliminate FREE RADICALS that accelerate the breakdown and aging of the body. So much that it is 10X stronger than one of the most powerful antioxidants known to man (GREEN TEA)
MICRO-CLUSTERED size molecules so more water can be absorbed by the cell/body because consuming RESTRUCTURED water means your ABSORBING it.

The name of this alkaline, anti-oxidant rich, micro-clustered water is called KANGEN WATER™.