There are many benefits of drinking water, but did you know that you need water to exercise? Dehydration can ruin your workouts and your health. If you aren’t getting the results you want, you might need more water! I’ll show you exactly how much water you should be drinking before, during and after your workouts.
I love knowing exactly WHY recommendations are what they are, so I’ve broken down some info on how your body and your workouts thrive on water. Personally, I’m a lot more likely to follow a recommendation if I understand how it’s beneficial. But if that’s not your thing, here’s how much water you need to exercise:
- Before Exercise: 1-5 cups or as needed
- During Exercise: 1.5-3.5 cups per hour
- After Exercise: 1-6 cups or as needed
There are a lot of factors that go into figuring out how much water you need, so read on for an explanation!
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Why Your Body Needs Water to Exercise
Sweat
Your body uses water to regulate your temperature through sweating. Sweat on your skin hits the air and evaporates, causing your skin’s surface temperature to decrease. This is just like the swamp cooler or evaporative cooler you may use for your house in the summer. And just like swamp coolers don’t work in areas with high humidity, your sweat response doesn’t work well either. Your body will have to sweat MORE to try to cool you down, so you’ll need to drink more water.
If you sweat heavily, all the sweat you need for cooling down is dripping off you, so you will have to sweat more (and drink more) to make up for it. While this may be genetic – meaning you may always sweat more than average – you can still train your body to sweat less. The more fit you become – the better your body will get at regulating your sweat response.
Water Provides Energy so You Can Exercise
Your body combines nutrients from the food you eat with water to store energy in your body. This energy is used to fuel your workout. But in order to turn the stored energy into useable energy, you need water. If you have extra energy stores – i.e. you are overweight or obese – WATER will help your body start using these stores!
Dehydration Ruins Workouts
Dehydration is stressful for your body. Your body likes to maintain a certain balance between water and electrolytes. If that balance is thrown off, your body will take steps to protect itself by pulling the water that it needs from its cells. Your body prioritizes maintaining its electrolyte balance and its more basic functions – like powering your brain, heart and lungs – over powering your workouts. This means if you are dehydrated, your body will not provide energy to fuel your workout.
Not only will you not have the energy to exercise, your body will be showing other signs that it is stressed:
- Your body temperature increases – Without water to make sweat, your body can’t cool itself.
- Your heart works harder – Less water means less fluid in your blood which makes your blood thicker. So, your heart has to pump faster and harder to bring oxygen to the rest of your body.
- Physical activity feels harder – This is your body’s way of trying to discourage you from adding more stress to your already stressed system.
- Your exercise performance worsens
Why You Aren’t Seeing Results from Your Workouts
If you don’t have the energy to work out, you aren’t going to get very far in achieving your fitness goals. But even if you do manage to drag yourself through your workout, you probably aren’t going to see great results. Why? Your body is stressed.
When your body is stressed, it goes into protection mode – it needs to save every bit of water to make sure it can keep your body functioning. You may be trying to lose weight, but your body will hold on to its energy stores until it feels “safe.” You may be trying to put on muscle or improve your strength, but your body isn’t going to spare what’s needed to improve your muscles if it believes your vital organs are in danger.
Your brain doesn’t care if you are seeing the results you want from your workout. Your brain cares about your survival. It will prioritize its most basic needs, like water, first.
If you aren’t seeing the results you want from your workout, you should check your hydration status and consider if that might be part of the problem. Your results are dependent on your ability to work out and recover from that workout. In order to do that, your body needs to be able to take care of your basic needs and have water to spare.
Read More:
Why Rest is More Important Than Your Workout
Dehydration Can Lead to Other Health Problems
Exercise and dehydration are stressful enough on your body but it doesn’t end there. Dehydration, especially when combined with exercise, can lead to, or worsen, a number of health issues. Let’s face it: Your body can only compensate for so long when it’s not getting the water that it needs.
- Muscle cramps – Not necessarily life-threatening, but anyone who’s had muscle cramps knows how much they suck!
- Heat stroke – When your body can no longer produce sweat, you will overheat and be at risk for seizures and brain damage.
- Rhabdomyolysis – A condition in which your muscles break down and release compounds into your bloodstream which can ultimately damage your kidneys and other tissues.
- Stroke – Injury to the blood vessels in the brain which may result in permanent brain damage and other deficits.
- Kidney Failure – A condition in which the kidneys cannot properly filter your blood due to toxins or electrolyte imbalance.
- Cardiovascular Disease – This includes high blood pressure and heart attacks. Chronic dehydration makes your heart work harder ALL THE TIME. This can lead to heart failure.
Ok, now you know why you need to stay hydrated to not only stay healthy, but to set yourself up for success with your workouts. Now what?
Sports Drinks
Most people aren’t engaging in elite-athlete-level workouts that will require a fluid and electrolyte replacement protocol that includes sports drinks or special shakes and supplements. Drinking water and eating regular healthy meals will be more than enough to replace water and electrolytes and enable full recovery from the workout.
While shakes and supplements are a complex topic that we’ll have to address later, sports drinks (Gatorade, Powerade, etc.) do have their place. Note that sports drinks are very different from energy drinks like 5-Hour Energy, Monster and Red Bull.
When to use a sports drink containing sugar and electrolytes:
- During or after intense exercise lasting longer than 1 hour
- During or after less intense exercise lasting several hours (hiking, marathon, etc.)
- Anytime you have multiple workouts in the same 8-12 hour period
- Anytime you experience high sweat loss
- When you’re sick (as recommended by a Physician)
Outside of these uses, there’s no scientific evidence that a sports drink will improve your performance. At all. Water is what our bodies are designed to use.
Water Before Exercise
Your goal: To prepare your body for exercise by being fully hydrated.
If you are drinking enough water throughout the day and you have 8-12 hours of rest or more in between workouts, chances are you are properly hydrated and do not need to prehydrate.
When to consider prehydrating:
- If you had a very intense workout within the last 12 hours
- If you haven’t had time since that workout to rehydrate
To prehydrate:
- Start 4 hours before your workout and drink 1-3 cups
- After 1-2 hours: Check your urine – if you haven’t gone to the bathroom or urine is dark, drink another 1-2 cups
- Then sip water as needed until your workout
This gives your body time to regulate your urine output so you aren’t going to be rushing to the bathroom in the middle of your workout!
Note: This isn’t the time to start guzzling sports drinks that contain loads of sugar. Sugar is a natural diuretic so it will only make it more likely you’ll be running to the bathroom (several times).
Water During Exercise
Your goal: Prevent dehydration and major electrolyte imbalance from sweat loss.
This isn’t the time to be trying to fix a dehydration or electrolyte issue.
Sipping water when you’re able should be all you need during exercise. Depending on how much you sweat, the weather, and the clothes you’re wearing, most folks do fine on 1.5 – 3.5 cups of water per hour.
More water is needed for:
- Faster, heavier individuals
- Warm to hot/humid environments
- Higher elevations (>5000 ft)
Less water is needed for:
- Slower, lighter individuals
- Cooler environments
Water After Exercise
Your goal: Fully replace any fluids and electrolytes lost.
Eating normal meals and drinking water throughout the day should be more than enough for most people.
Drink another 1-6 cups as needed after exercise to help your recovery, then continue sipping water throughout the day.
There you have it! I hope this helps you get hydrated and get the most out of your workouts! There’s so much more that I could say but we’ll save it for another post. What are your thoughts? Let me know in the comments below!
Want more tips?
References
ACSM Position Stand: Exercise and Fluid Replacement
This article is intended to provide information to foster healthy eating habits in otherwise healthy populations and is not intended to diagnose any medical conditions, nor prescribe diets or supplements to treat medical or clinical conditions or their symptoms. This article is not meant to be a substitute for sound medical evaluation and advice. If you suspect you have a nutrient deficiency, food sensitivity or allergy, or are experiencing any issues with your health or diet, meet with your Physician, or a Licensed/Certified Nutritionist, or Registered Dietician for a personalized analysis. Any use of this information is at the reader’s own risk. View my full Disclaimer here.