Hydration packs are on everyone’s lips with athletes of all kinds. These devices allow the athlete to take water with them while exercising and drink it on the go. When we talk about a hydration backpack, we usually mean a backpack that carries a bladder or a water reservoir. The bladder is connected to a tube that leads from the pouch to the athlete’s mouth. At the other end a bite valve that allows the user to start and stop the flow of water using just their mouth, leaving their hands free to do other things and drink non-stop.
Hydration packs first became popular with mountain bikers and motocross riders because they allowed them to drink without stopping or taking their hands off the handlebars. This offered the racer with a hydration pack a noticeable advantage over those who had to stop to drink in more traditional water fights. The idea quickly took off and in the meantime hydration packs are becoming standard in almost all sports that require you to carry water, especially since most hydration packs are specially designed to take significantly more water with you than would otherwise be practical. From hikers to cross-country skiers, hydration packs are considered essential equipment for many endurance athletes today iv drip Scottsdale.
Obviously, being able to drink non-stop provides runners and competitive speed walkers with a competitive advantage. However, most hydration packs are designed as backpacks, which is not particularly beneficial for pedestrians. The weight is carried on the shoulders, which also puts pressure on the lower back with hip and chest straps. Additionally, most runners only need to bring a small amount of water and do not necessarily need to carry all of the equipment and resources that participants of other sports may need to carry with them. This means that most hydration packs are not particularly well suited for runners and walkers, but the obvious advantages of such systems remain attractive to runners and walkers.
Running Hydo Packs address these concerns and are specifically designed for athletes who work on their feet. Generally speaking, most running hydro packs are hip packs that allow the weight to be carried in the center of gravity, which works much better and doesn’t put additional strain on the lower back. These are available in two general versions, the Side Pack or the Fanny Pack / bum bag Cure Wellness . The side pocket holds the water on both sides of the runner so that he can carry the weight on his hips. The belly or waist pockets usually hold back the water, with the weight resting on the upper buttocks.
Both methods of carrying water were used by runners and competitive hikers well before the introduction of the hydration pack with water bottles. Since the use of your hands is not strictly necessary when running or walking, it was easy to remove the water bottle and drink from it while you were still moving. However, this required some coordination and often resulted in the athlete at least slowing down.
The running hydration packs used the same basic tube and bite valve technology as the backpack-style hydration packs, which meant the runner just had to put it in their mouth while the tube was available and the rest could be done without stopping or slowing down. While this ability doesn’t matter to many runners and walkers, it can make a significant difference to the front runners trying to get a few steps ahead of the next runner behind them.
Today, most of the major hydraulic backpack manufacturers make specially designed backpacks for runners. These are primarily hip bags, although there are some slim backpack models out there that include a solid reservoir, an option that keeps the back straight and allows for significantly more water to be carried while the hip and chest straps take on much of the pressure the lower side hold back. Since most running hydration packs tend to be smaller and use less material, they are also cheaper than the larger models that were developed for other sports.
Camelbak Incorporated, the world’s leading supplier of hydration packs, offers approximately eight different models of Running Hydro Packs. This includes both bottle carriers and fully hose-fed drinking systems. The Stamina I and II and Delaney series are all bottle carriers that distribute the weight evenly and allow the runner easy access to the water bottles without them getting in the way or falling away. Other Camelbak systems such as the Montara and the Flashflo are full-fledged hydration systems that are worn and practiced at the waist
