You may think that being hydrated is just a common and easy thing to do but A. Most people are not hydrated properly and B. They don’t know how to do it properly. We can fast and live for a long time but we can’t last without water that long.
Our bodies should be made up of 60% water as a male and 55% as a female, the amount of people who come in a do a body scan with me and are less than 50% water is staggering. The brain and heart are made up of roughly 73% water and the lungs about 83% water.
Performance in your workouts severely declines when you are dehydrated by as little as 2% of body weight. Losses of 5% of body weight can decrease the capacity for work by about 30%!!
A 2% decrease in brain hydration can cause short term memory loss and have trouble with simple math computations. Long term dehydration causes brain cells to shrink in size and mass, a condition common in many elderly who have been dehydrated for years. Lack of mental clarity, sometimes referred to as “brain fog.” is what they live their lives in.
So what to do?!
First off you need to drink about an half an ounce of water per day per pound of bodyweight. So if you weigh 200 pounds you should consume 100 ounces of water per day. Taking in 70% of that water in the earlier part of your day and especially before workouts is key in performance and also making sure you don’t wake up all night long peeing.
Sipping your water goes a lot further than gulping it down. When you drink water fast and gulp it you expand your blood volume quickly and actually cause yourself to pee out electrolytes and end up more dehydrated.
Sip your water, its not going anywhere 🙂
For intense exercise and drinking water use use the Galpin Equation to stay hydrated. And here it is: The Galpin Equation: Every 15 minutes consume (in ounces) your body weight (in pounds) / 30 to stay hydrated during a demanding activity.
Now water is only one part of the hydration equation. Electrolytes are the second part of the equation. Without sodium, potassium and magnesium in the right quantities your body and brain will NOT function properly and if you drink too much water without electrolytes you can end up in a bad spot as well with same feelings and problems as when you’re dehydrated.
If you eat a healthy diet with minimal processed food you do NOT get enough sodium(salt) and if you train hard it becomes so important to keep the balance and intake up. Use a high quality sea salt to salt your food to taste and using a high quality electrolyte like LMNT around your workouts will put you in the right spot.
Sodium plays a number of important roles in your body. It helps in the absorption of nutrients in your gut, maintaining cognitive function, nerve impulse transmission and muscle contraction. But, from an athletes point of view ,the most critical function it plays is in helping you maintain a fluid balance in your body.
Sodium is the main electrolyte found in your blood. Your blood makes up 15-20% of the extracellular fluid in your body (about 170 ounces in the average adult), so much of your body’s total sodium reserves are found here.
That sodium helps you absorb and retain more of the fluid you take in, and this boosts your blood plasma volume. The more blood you have, the less strain on your cardiovascular system as it works to deliver oxygen to your muscles and dissipate heat to cool you down when you’re working hard. Basically, sodium’s pretty important if you want to maintain your performance when it counts!
I really hope this helps and I really hope your staying hydrated! Don’t be caught dehydrated! I warned you here first!!
Have an awesome day!
Coach Daniel