Drink your water people! You will feel better I promise! Check out this post from my absolute inspiration Zuzana! bodyrock.tv
To recap high school science class, water makes up just about 60% of our total bodyweight. All of those great looking lean muscles that make us so strong actually contain 75% water. That blood surging through your body while you do burpees contains close to 83% water. Water is absolutely essential to life and proper hydration is vital for space travel (just kidding and seeing if you guys are paying attention). Seriously tho, getting enough water in your system is vital for your health and the overall performance of your body.Don’t wait until you are thirsty. If you are waiting for this signal from your body, chances are that you are already heading towards dehydration. Typically thirst is not detected until 1-2% of your bodyweight has been lost. By this point you will have reduced aerobic endurance, and you are heading into reduced muscular endurance. At 4% you are facing reduced muscle strength, reduced motor skills and heat cramps. Not pretty.
It’s important to get an idea how much water we need so that we can aim to drink enough to keep us healthy and hydrated. Here is a really simple method:
For every kilogram of bodweight drink 30-40 mL of water. A more general approach is to drink about 3 L of water a day. Absolutely don’t try and drink your daily water intake all at once – this can be very dangerous. You want to spread it out across your whole day. Obviously if you are larger or exercise more you may need more water. If you want to know specifically how much you should be drinking each day we suggest you take the time to figure out your water intake needs based on your bodyweight.
For every kilogram of bodweight drink 30-40 mL of water. A more general approach is to drink about 3 L of water a day. Absolutely don’t try and drink your daily water intake all at once – this can be very dangerous. You want to spread it out across your whole day. Obviously if you are larger or exercise more you may need more water. If you want to know specifically how much you should be drinking each day we suggest you take the time to figure out your water intake needs based on your bodyweight.
That brings us to our challenge :) This week we are going to strive to drink enough water and stay hydrated.It’s easy to drink water when you are exercising. It’s a no brainer. It’s keeping up our water balance for the rest of the day that is more challenging. Figure out a strategy that will work for you. I know a lot of people who constantly have a water bottle with them. That only works if you remember to drink from it tho :) When you reach for a Coke, Diet Coke, or any other processed liquid chemical sugar bomb, try and catch yourself and make the choice to go for water instead. This is the crux of this challenge. You are going to have to force yourself to choose water over whatever tasty beverage you are craving and the ego absolutely hates to have it’s desires denied. Just like anything else this is a discipline and it requires some backbone. Ask yourself – if you don’t have the minerals to take a stand on what you are going to drink, then how the hell are you going to stand for what counts in other areas of your life? It’s a simple choice – drop a set and make it – you won’t be sorry.
A few points on water and exercise: It’s actually recommended that athletes should drink about half a litre of water 30 minutes before they train as a “pre-hydration” strategy. During exercise it’s recommended that they drink 250 mL every 15 minutes. Our workouts are super intense and typically short, and replacing your fluids should be your goal. After you finish exercising fluid intake is important to help with recovery.
Best,
Frederick & Zuzana
