It’s important to drink water during a workout and so, a healthy habit might be to take a water bottle with you on your morning run. Being dehydrated can affect your energy levels, you won’t be able to work as hard if you haven’t drunk enough fluid. Drinking little and often rather than a lot less often will give you the best chance of hitting your exercise targets.
The amount you need to drink will depend on how much you sweat and how long you exercise. How much you sweat and lose water is influenced by your:
- Size: larger people tend to sweat more than smaller people, and men sweat more than women
- Fitness: fitter people sweat more and earlier in exercise because their bodies are accustomed to needing to cool down
- Environment: you sweat more in hot, humid conditions
- Exercise intensity: you sweat more as you exercise harder
Pre-workout
It’s important for athletes, especially during preseason workouts, to measure how much fluid they lose in each session to get a good indication of how much water replacement they actually need. This is done easily by stepping on a scale before and after each workout, noting the amount of weight loss. It is recommended that athletes should drink 16 to 24 ounces of water for every pound lost during activity. It is very important to replace fluid lost during activity. Not replacing water may lead to dehydration. If an athlete is participating in a high-intensity activity for a prolonged period of time (more than an hour), replacing the fluid loss with a sports drink is helpful as it also replenishes electrolytes. Just remember to steer clear of sports drinks containing high levels of sugar.
How to stay hydrated
Staying hydrated isn’t difficult, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple. In addition to keeping the water levels in your body tip-top, it’s super important to consider electrolytes like sodium and potassium, especially in the long term. Don’t worry since we’ve got you covered on everything hydration and hydration-adjacent. Here’s your one-stop definitive list of the best ways to hydrate.
Sports drinks
Some athletes use sports drinks that contain electrolytes and carbohydrates, which have concentrations that allow the body to refuel during exercise. Sports drinks may be useful if your activity is moderate to vigorous in intensity for more than 60 minutes. However, sports drinks can be high in sugar, so consume them only if necessary. Remember that fruit and vegetables contain a high proportion of water, so a fruit snack, such as oranges, can help your fluid replacement.
Drink water
Water comes up a lot in the hydration conversation because hydration is all about making sure your body has enough of it. Drinking enough water on the reg has a bunch of health benefits. It helps you to have enough blood since your body uses water to make blood, has a healthy brain, because your brain is about 73 percent water, and regulates your body temperature because you can’t sweat properly without enough water.
Doctors recommend consuming 17-20 ounces of water 2-3 hours prior to exercise and 8 ounces of water 20-30 minutes before exercise or during your warm-up. You should try to drink 7 -10 ounces of water every 10-20 minutes during exercise and 8 ounces of water within 30 minutes after exercise.
