Are You Drinking Enough Water for Optimal Fitness?

Drinking enough water sounds easy but many of you are struggling with water intake.

Your body makeup contains over 60% water and needs continual hydration to function at optimal levels. That said, water is considered the most essential nutrient to consume for health and fitness.

Drink Water for Fitness Success 

Are you drinking enough water? Are you always thirsty? Are you sweating during workouts and not replenishing? What color is your pee? These are just a few things to consider about your water intake.

Without adequate hydration, your body isn't able to function properly. Drinking water helps maintain fluid levels, regulate body temperature, and prevents your heart rate from getting too high.

This is especially important during your workouts since you're losing fluids through sweat and increased breathing rate. You should drink water before, during, and after physical training. Drinking water every 15 to 20 minutes during exercise is often recommended.

Avoid Dehydration

Unfortunately, many of you come to your workout and even perform workouts dehydrated. Common adverse effects may include:

• A headache
• Dark urine and not peeing very much
• Dizziness
• Irritability
• Lack of energy, lethargic
• Rapid heartbeat 
• Rapid breathing

Drink Plenty of Water to Reach Your Fitness Goals

Drinking plenty of water is vital to reaching and maintaining your fitness goals. Other beverages like coffee, tea, and other fluids may provide some fluid benefit, but shouldn't be used as a water replacement.

Water is an essential nutrient working in and around the cells of your body to maintain fluid balance and help with the production of energy and protein. When you drink plenty of water, you're doing more than just quenching your thirst. You are helping your body function right so that you can reach your fitness goals. The following is a shortlist of the benefits provided when you stay hydrated:

• Calorie control - drinking plenty of water helps you feel full and consume fewer calories. Foods with high water content, like celery, slow the digestive process allowing you to feel full longer.
• Muscle function - muscle cells require water to function properly. You feel energized and pumped when the muscles contain the right amount of fluid.
• Detox - staying hydrated helps flush toxins from your body. This helps with weight loss, proper PH, and reduced inflammation.
• Brainpower - water provides energy to the cells including your brain. This helps promote greater thinking and improved reflexes. Effective workouts require you to be on top of your mental game.
• Reduced illness - water helps maintain a strong immune system and reduces congestion. Stay well-hydrated to avoid illness and stay on your fitness program. 

How Much Should I Drink?

Water intake will differ per person, mostly based on age, physical activity level, and other medical conditions. The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) recommends a general guideline of 91 ounces (11 cups) of water daily for women and 125 ounces (15 cups) for men. Keep in mind this includes water from all food and beverages consumed daily, not just water. The majority of healthy adults can meet their daily fluid requirements by letting thirst be their guide according to NAM. 

The best recommendation is listening to your body and drinking water when you feel thirsty. The problem remains many individuals ignore these body cues and go without the proper fluid intake.

Make it a goal for this program that you drink plenty of water. This means you will listen to thirst cues, drink when thirsty, and maintain light yellow to clear urine. Helpful hints to increase your water intake include:

• Always have a water bottle nearby.
• Add flavor to your water (muddled herbs, sliced citrus).
• Track your water intake (journal or phone app).
• Drink a glass of water before you eat. 
• Drink water at the temperature you like.

The important thing is to drink enough for optimal body function, health, and hitting those goals!

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6 Ways to Overcome a Plateau and Start Getting Stronger Again

In fitness, as in life, we are always looking to move forward. If you're putting in the hard work in the gym, you should only continue to progress, right? Well, ideally, yes. Many, unfortunately hit a plateau somewhere along the way that may leave them feeling unmotivated or discouraged. If you approach your workouts the right way, however, you will only continue to progress and grow.

Here's a really helpful (not) diagram of a plateau for science.

Here are 6 reasons you aren't progressing in the way you want:

1. Intensity- Are you giving your workout your all, or are you texting in between sets? Each week, you should try to add more weight or increase the number of reps you're performing. If you just continually squat 135 lbs week after week, how do you expect to get stronger? If you're not gasping for air at the end of your sprints, you're not pushing yourself hard enough. The only way we can create adaptation is to give our bodies something to which it can adapt! It's important to make sure you enter your sessions in the gym with 100% effort. (Well...most days, anyway. We all have our "off" days...)
2. Variation- It's nice to have a set split or program and follow that week after week, but if you're only doing the same handful of exercises ad nauseum, it can get pretty dull. Every once in a while, add a few new exercises into your routine and get rid of a few of the older ones. Not only will it keep your workouts interesting, your body will find a completely new way to challenge itself with a new task.
3. Muscle imbalances- A weak or underactive muscle might be preventing you from advancing as you'd like. Let's say you have really strong quads, and you can squat 300 pounds for reps. Just imagine how much more you could squat if you actually learned to use your butt! When our muscles work together in force couples as they're supposed to, beautiful things happen.
4. Program- Maybe it's time to either ask a friend for help programming your workouts (preferably one with lots of experience) or do some research online. Unfortunately, strength doesn't progress linearly, so it's important to make sure you account for that when you write out your program. Play with the number of sets, reps and the amount of weight you're using and find out what works best for you.
5. Planning- My father always tells me "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail!" You need to set real, tangible goals for yourself. For example, one of my goals is to deadlift 300 lbs before the end of the year. As you can see, I gave myself a set number and a date by which I want to achieve it. Your goal might be to lose 10 pounds by June. Whatever those goals may be, make sure you've clearly articulated them to yourself and written them down so you can hold yourself accountable.
6. Recovery- Perhaps you're not giving yourself enough time to recover between workouts. Make sure you're eating enough food to sustain your activity level and drink a lot of water. A lot of people I meet have a tendency to deprive themselves of the food their body so desperately needs to rebuild and repair itself. Remember: food and water are fuel!

When you start to see a flatline in your progress, it's time to step back and reassess your approach.

"Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."

-Albert Einstein 

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Hydration for Optimal Performance

As I sit here and write this, I have a nice, full glass of water in hand.

Water is the the fluid that fuels our bodies. We need it to maintain brain and organ function and for our muscles to recover after exercise. If we are not properly hydrated, our basic bodily functions may be compromised.

Just because you do not "feel thirsty" does not mean you don't need water. Consuming adequate amounts of water before, after and during your workout can determine how well you perform and subsequently how well you recover. Eat strong suggests we "drink early and often, every day. Staying well-hydrated throughout the day benefits you in ways beyond your training. It helps keep you alert and will prevent that dull, groggy feeling that slows you down in the middle of the day. Your heart has to work harder to pump as you become dehydrated since sweat is made from fluid in your blood and your blood becomes thicker as it is lost. For the record this is not an effective 'cardiovascular' workout." In order to perform to your personal best, you must make sure you consume enough water.

According to ACE Fitness, "[in] one hour of exercise the body can lose more than a quart of water, depending on exercise intensity and air temperature. If there is not enough water for the body to cool itself through perspiration, the body enters a state of dehydration." If you do not drink enough water post workout, you will run the risk of muscle cramps and you may hinder the recovery process.

After a rigorous workout, it is important to replace the energy and fluids that you have depleted.

So just how much water should we drink? ACE gives us the following guidelines:

• Drink 17-20 ounces of water two to three hours before the start of exercise.
• Drink 8 ounces of fluid 20 to 30 minutes prior to exercise or during warm-up.
• Drink 7-10 ounces of fluid every 10 to 20 minutes during exercise.
• Drink an additional 8 ounces of fluid within 30 minutes after exercising.
• Drink 16-24 ounces of fluid for every pound of body weight lost after exercise.

Sources:

1. "Hydration, Performance & Recovery | Eatstrong.com." Hydration, Performance & Recovery | Eatstrong.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
2. "Healthy Hydration." ACE Fitness. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.

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