Staying Hydrated During Exercise
Why Is It Important To Drink During Exercise?
Your body is made up of a large amount of water – around 60%, and therefore, this means that our body needs water to perform our daily functions. When you exercise, your body will sweat, and you can lose a large amount of water this way, up to around two litres every hour. Therefore, drinking during exercise is vital in order to replenish hydration within the body.
By not consuming enough water, this will negatively impacting performance by reducing your body’s ability to regulate its body temperature, increase dizziness, and speed up fatigue.
In addition, staying hydrated can also help your muscles. Key muscles are working overtime during exercise and replenishing your water intake, will prevent you suffering from muscle cramps.
It is Important To Hydrate Before You Exercise
As well as hydrating during exercise, it is important to make sure that you drink water before you exercise to help prepare your body. This is especially vital in hot weather conditions as this can also help combat dehydration and ensure that your temperature doesn't rise quickly, impacting your performance. Preparing your body by hydrating is as important as stretching and should be in every warm-up routine.
Hydration During Exercise
During your workout, make sure you have a water bottle near so that you can stay hydrated and keep your energy levels up. To do this effectively while working out, trying to intake water little and often is easier than drinking a lot all at once.
Your size, fitness level, environment, and the type of exercise you are doing will depend on how much water you will need while exercising. If you are bigger and less fit, you will generally sweat more than smaller people who are used to exercising. You are also more likely to sweat if you are doing sprints or other cardio than more gentle exercise. However, your body will begin to tell you when you need water as you will begin to feel thirsty or fatigued.
To work out roughly how much water you should consume during a workout, use the sweat loss calculation by weighing yourself before you exercise and then comparing this to your weight directly afterwards. If your weight stays similar, then you are drinking the correct amount of water. If your weight drops, you will need to hydrate more during the workout.
Hydration After Exercise
If you have hydrated well during exercise, you may not think you need to hydrate after finishing. On the contrary, you need to hydrate now more than ever. This ensures that your fluid levels return to normal, which helps aid your recovery by repairing the muscles.
Conclusion
Hydration is one of the key things to remember during exercise to ensure that you get the most out of your training. Remember to hydrate before exercise to prepare your body, take small sips throughout to maintain this hydration and keep this up after your workout to aid muscle recovery.
