The benefits of hydration in sport
No matter what activity you are doing, water plays a crucial role in helping us to keep moving freely without injury. There’s a few things to make sure you are on top of anytime you are being active in order to high energy levels, optimal mental clarity, and of course loose and flexible bones, joints and muscles - but one very important thing is to make sure you are hydrated!
Hydrating before Exercise
When our muscles are dehydrated and fatigued, we are more susceptible to injuries. 75% of muscle is actually made of water, so it makes a massive difference if you’re hydrated or not. Hydration in sport it’s all about the long game. What you do before, during and after any sport can have a huge impact on your recovery. Obviously, it’s important to start off well hydrated – but not too much – so that you are ready to exercise.
Which means from the moment you wake up, drinking an adequate amount of water so you don’t have to guzzle just moments before being active.
Hydrating During Exercise
From there, it’s important to keep your fluids up while you are working out – try to get in a drink of water every 15-20 minutes if you can. And you don’t need to drink it all at once, just small sips across your activity will do.
Hydrating after Exercise
Finally, don’t forget to hydrate afterwards – you should always plan to replace around 125-150% of the fluid that you’ve lost during the session over the 4-6 hours after you stop exercising. Potentially more if you’re exercising in a hot environment or you are susceptible to sweating a lot.
If you are having trouble drinking all that water, try drinking sparkling water – A recent study found that people drank more water when it’s sparkling! Sparkling water is a great way of making your water more interesting and it has the same health benefits as still water.
If you are looking to make your water even more special, add a nice hit of lemon juice, mint leaves and some cucumber slices to really keep hydrated! The benefits of these ingredients, is that they’re low-calorie, and help you recover by boosting your immune system, reducing inflammation.
But of course, you can always experiment with ingredients you like, the main thing is that you stay hydrated! Anything else is just an added bonus!
