Get Your Hydration Right for Sports Performance & Recovery
Hydration is vital for keeping our bodies running efficiently. Moreover, if you are active, it is essential to remember that drinking water helps your body perform better. It also helps your body recover faster.
To get stronger, faster, and better at whatever it is we love, remember the power of hydration.
Improve Sports Performance with Optimised Hydration
Water supports all activities and functions in the body. Thus, as expected, when you work harder, it makes sense that you will require more support, including more water. Not only that, but it will strengthen any muscle recovery strategy you elicit.
PRE-WORKOUT HYDRATION
Before a game or an intense workout, it is essential to remember that hydration is the key to optimising your performance.
If you are planning intense physical exertion for an hour, it is highly suggested that you fully hydrate your body 2-3 hours prior.
How Much?
Drink 15 ounces of water 2-3 hrs before exercise and 8 ounces of water 30 minutes before training or during your warm-up.
Why?
By thoroughly hydrating before working out, you give your organs, cells, and tissue the fluid needed to perform at optimal levels.
Benefits of water for Sports Performance and Recovery
• Water helps fuel your muscles,
• Water boosts your energy levels,
• Water may help prevent cramping
• Water regulates your body temperature
• Water lubricates your joints
• Water transports nutrients & oxygen
• Water is the best drink to satisfy thirst
• Water replaces fluid lost during exercise.
• Water supports protein synthesis
• Water maintains blood volume
• Water is involved in muscle contractions
DURING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY
Don’t forget to keep up hydration during physical activity. You should drink 10 ounces every 10-20 minutes during exercise.
Did you know?
Lean muscle tissue contains over 75% water! Your muscles tire faster if you don’t hydrate enough during a workout.
POST-WORKOUT HYDRATION
To adequately rehydrate after your exercise session, aim to drink one and a half times the fluid you lost while exercising. Of course, don’t overwhelm the body by drinking it all at once! Hydrate over the next 5 hours.
Do you need electrolytes?
Most people require only water to stay hydrated. When high-intensity exercise or physical exertion is sustained over an hour, you may need to reach for a sports drink with electrolytes. Sports drinks have been designed to support high-intensity exercise. They have additional calories, potassium and electrolytes.
Why Electrolytes?
Electrolytes help your body maintain an ideal balance of fluids, directing water to where it is needed most. They also help keep the perfect fluid balance within cells. When properly balanced, sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium and magnesium are the main electrolytes that make up all of your body fluids. The positive and negative ions that result when these minerals dissolve in water make them essential to your overall fluid balance. Electrolytes maintain a Healthy Water Balance directing the flow of water in and out of cells, helping to support rehydration and muscle recovery.
Alongside:
Muscular Health: Your muscles rely on electrolytes to work properly. Low levels of electrolytes can lead to muscle spasms, loss of reflexes, and cramping.
Cardiovascular Health: Potassium and phosphorus are vital for healthy heart function. Low levels of either can cause abnormal heart rhythms, while extremely high potassium levels can stop the heart from beating. Low phosphorus levels are associated with heart failure, seizures, and coma risk.
Electrolyte replacement generally becomes important if exercise takes more than 2 hours.
Muscle Building and Hydration
Hydration is key to muscle growth. If the body isn’t getting enough water, it will be unable to build new muscle tissue or repair damaged tissue effectively. It triggers protein synthesis and cell volume. This is why it’s important to stay adequately hydrated before, during, and after exercise.
To Keep In Mind:
- Restoring fluids maintains normal muscle function, prevents a decrease in physical performance and helps reduce the risk of heat stress.
- Losses of 5% or more of body weight during physical activities may decrease the capacity for work by roughly 30%
- Athletes in a dehydrated state experience increased levels of cortisol. This reduces testosterone, the primary hormone required for muscle growth.
Drink up and fully hydrate to help your muscles in recovery. If you want further help to ease muscle cramps and tension, – such as in the case of DOMs and muscle soreness, any one of our recovery therapies will benefit. Our NormaTec compression therapy is especially beneficial when you need leg recovery.
And our Body Roll Massage Machine gives a total body deep tissue massage, kneading out all the aches you may have from head to toe.
Finally, there is nothing quite like a Cocoon Wellness Pod session to ease tension, as you receive a full vibratory massage and infrared sauna-in-one.
Ensure you are fully hydrated before all recovery sessions to support your body and obtain the best benefit.
