What exactly does sodium depletion do?

[Essex boy]

Excuse my ignorance, I have done a search and while there are plenty of posts about how to do sodium depletion, I can't find an explanation of what it exactly achieves.

Does it just help eliminating water or is it more to increase blood volume and therefore improve vascularity, and in either case, how does it actually achieve this?

Thanks for any replies.

 

[grafixLSUalum]

it is good for elimanating water, but make sure you do a sodium load before your carb up, like night before

 

[Essex boy]

it is good for elimanating water, but make sure you do a sodium load before your carb up, like night before

Why?

 

[AngerOut]

There are long, technical explanations involving biochemical terms, physiological responses, ect. but here is the cliff note:
Think of it like a pendulum. The further you pull it back to one side, the further it swings to the other. By loading sodium, you cause the body to enter a stage where it really wants to get rid of it (pendulum swings right), then by cutting it out (pendulum swings left) and cutting water (pendulum is pushed left), water leaves the body at at greater rate. BUt remember the harder you push the pendulum left, ie. dieuretics, dehydration, etc, the harder it swings back, water retention, bloating, ect.
AngerOut

 

[Essex boy]

thanks

 

[durabol]

Why sodium load?

Well, the science behind sodium loading, followed by depletion, goes like this:
A LOW Na+ intake, and thus a DECREASE in Na+ concentration going through the kidney, will cause the secretion of a protein called renin from the kidneys. Renin converts angiotensinogen into angiotensin I....then ACE (you've heard of ace inhibitors) converts Aromatase inhibitor (AI) to AII. AII (angiotensin II) causes the release of ALDOSTERONE from the adrenal glands. Aldosterone is primarily responsible for Na+ absorption in the kidneys. As more Na+ is absorbed, so is more water retained.
So how does this work for BBing? Well, when you Na+ load, you will supress the release of renin from the kidneys because the Na+ concentration is high, the rest of the pathway is also supressed, so there is actually a decrease in Na+ reabsorption in the kidneys. Once you Na+ deplete all of a sudden, this entire pathway is suppressed and therefore less Na+ & water will be retained.
But after about 2 days your body is back to secreting normal amounts of renin (as a result of the low Na+ concentrations), at which point Na+ & water retention will start to increase.
So, you want to Na+ load until 2 days before the show and then cut Na+ out to nothing all at once. That way you will be in that "window".

Hopefully I wasn't too confusing.

 

[Essex boy]

That was a great explanation durabol, cheers.