How To Properly Hydrate

Not drinking enough fluids before or during exercise can definitely send you down the road of being dehydrated. Staying hydrated while exercising or just throughout your normal day is important because it allows your body to function properly. During exercise its especially important because your body is having added sweat loss. Drinking enough water will help you fight fatigue and help increase your endurance.

Keeping properly hydrated is actually fairly simple. The hardest part is just remembering to drink liquids consistently. The most important thing you can do is drink water and plenty of it. Without exercising, they recommend drinking 64 ounces of water per day. If you are exercising, you want to drink that amount plus an additional 10 ounces for every twenty minutes you work out. So if you spend an hour working out each day, then you should be consuming over 120 ounces of water in your day. With this, you want to being consuming the additional water during your workout as this is when your body needs it most.

When we sweat, we lose electrolytes. We can replace those electrolytes by drinking sports drinks or coconut water. Drinks such as Gatorade & Powerade not only help to replace minerals our body is losing, they also taste great and provide us with that added boost we sometimes may need. These drinks provide those extra electrolytes and minerals that water doesn’t so they are good too add in also.

Another way to help your body properly hydrate is by eating fruit. Many fruits are a great source of both fluids & electrolytes. Bananas are a great source for electrolytes. They are also easy to throw in your gym bag and eat while on the go or at the gym.

Overall, to stay hydrated you want to make sure you are constantly consuming some type of good liquid (not pop or energy drinks). You also want to make sure to spread your drinks throughout the day and not try to drink gallons of water at one time. Most of us are awake an average of 17 hours a day. Every hour we are awake we should be sipping on something. Even if you don’t feel thirsty, take a couple drinks from your water bottle periodically. This will help you not only reach your recommended water in take per day but it will also help keep your body properly hydrated.

Please comment below what you think of this article.

Make sure we’re connected on Twitter and Instagram: @RyanHintze

This article was first published on my website: ryanhintze.com