We’ve all heard it over a dozen times: you need to drink more water. Okay. Great. I get it. We’ve all heard the next one a few times as well from some of our friends and personal trainers in CT and blogs online: make sure you stay hydrated during your workout! Whether you like to kick your feet up in the summer or get even more active to make ensure your beach body is ready for a social media flick, water is just that necessary. And just how much water are we supposed to be drinking throughout the day?
The body is comprised of roughly two-thirds of water and is involved in every function of the body. That means circulation, digestion, absorption, excretion, and even respiration. Yeah. You need water to breathe. Not to mention, it’s necessary to help maintain a healthy body temperature. Its great having a glass of iced tea or lemonade on a hot summer day, or a nice hot cup of green tea or coffee from your favorite establishment in the winter. But let’s not ignore the fact that it’s just dehydrating you, and it’s even MORE important to be hydrating during physical activity. Drink water before your workout. Drink water while you are working out. Drink water after your workout. Drink water when you wake up before that cup of Joe. Drink water before you go to bed. You lose a lot of water from perspiration when exercising. You even lose water when you sleep at night!
Ask our CT Certified Personal Trainer any of your questions you might have about water intake!
Think. You’ve just awakened from (what should be) a 7-8 hour fast in bed. Exactly what was it that was regulating and holding the body down while performing all necessary functions in your sleep? You guessed it! Proper hydration improves the quality of your workout by 12-15%, reduces fatigue and recovery time, and regulates the body temperature levels. 8-10 glasses (8 ounces) is great way to start measuring your daily aqua consumption. But each person’s goal should be to drink half of their body weight in ounces of water. So, if I weighed 200 lbs., my goal should be to drink 100 ounces of water daily. Another great way to examine your water consumption: how dark is your urine when you flush? If it looks something like lemonade, you may be doing alright. But if it looks anything like apple juice, we may want to slow down on drinking…apple juice.
So, let’s sum this up. Water is great for you. Coffee and juice? Necessary for our sugar craving and the long to do list on Monday morning at the office. Which means you are going to need even more water to balance out what your putting in just to stay awake. Water will improve your workouts and reduce the chance of heat stroke. Headaches, fatigue, lack of focus, and constipation? All of these can be linked to your daily water intake. If you want to make your jug a little less boring, try adding lemons, strawberries, blueberries, cucumbers, or even mint leaves to it. We all know how good that stuff is for us. Why not just kill two birds with one stone?
