Working out helps improve your body, but it also increases the risk of dehydration. Improve your hydration by drinking alkaline water.
In this article:
- Why Water Is Important
- Hydration and Exercise
- Risk Factors for Dehydration During Exercise
- How to Start Working Out Right
- How to Start Exercising with Regular Water Breaks
- How to Stay Hydrated After Working Out
Sustain Working Out with Proper Hydration
Why Water Is Important
Drinking fluids is one of the important things you can do while working out. Your body depends on fluids to function properly.
You also lose fluids when you exercise. This is why drinking enough before you work out and while you perform your routines can prevent problems. Staying hydrated can also improve your physical activity.
Up to 60% of the adult human body is water, according to the Water Science School. All living things need water to survive.
Water helps your body maintain its temperature. It also ensures your circulatory system delivers oxygen-rich blood to your muscles as you exercise.
Your body uses the carbohydrates, fats, and proteins in food to fuel your muscles. Breaking down the fuel and moving your muscles warms up your body.
Your body prevents overheating by sweating. It increases blood flow to the blood vessels lying underneath the surface of your skin, where cool air and sweat carry away the heat.
This process keeps you cool, but it can also cause your body to lose water.
Hydration and Exercise
Losing water may cause dehydration. Dehydration can lead to muscle fatigue and loss of coordination.
In turn, this can affect your athletic performance. Worse, complications of dehydration can include heat injury, urinary and kidney problems, and low blood volume shock.
Losing water can also result in losing electrolytes, which are important minerals that keep your heart and other muscles working well. Sodium, potassium, chloride, and bicarbonate are electrolytes.
When dissolved in the blood or other liquid, these create an electric charge. In the process, they help regulate nerve and muscle function.
Low electrolytes can cause twitching, weakness, and even seizures.
The symptoms of dehydration can affect your performance and gym motivation. These include thirst, less-frequent urination, and dark-colored urine.
Dehydration can also cause fatigue, dizziness, and confusion. These symptoms can interfere with your workout.
Working out better and longer means drinking water, which can restore fluid and energy levels.
Risk Factors for Dehydration During Exercise
Certain factors can affect how much you sweat, how much water you lose, and your body’s ability to cool itself. These can increase your risk of dehydration while you exercise.
Older adults may be more susceptible to dehydration during exercise.
As you age, you have less available fluid in your body. It also loses its ability to conserve water as you exercise.
A chronic illness, such as diabetes or kidney problems, can increase your risk of dehydration. Even a sore throat or a cold may lead to dehydration if your throat is too sore to drink water.
Exercising in a warm environment can affect how your body cools itself.
Your body’s cooling system works best in cool environments. It happens when there is a significant difference between the temperature of your skin and that of air.
It explains why it is harder to cool your body during a hot day.
The temperature difference between the skin and air in warm environments is small. Humidity can also prevent sweat from evaporating from your skin.
Other factors, such as body weight, clothing, and genetics can affect how well your body cools itself.
When you’re working out on humid days, the body struggles to stay cool.
It copes by sweating even more. This mechanism, though, can lead to more water loss and depleting levels of electrolytes.
Your body will enter a state of dehydration if you do not drink water quickly. When your body is dehydrated, it also loses its ability to cool itself properly.
Drinking water can restore fluid balance and electrolytes in your body. Doing it at the right time can reduce your odds of dehydration and can even improve physical fitness as you exercise.
RELATED: Remember To Hydrate With Alkaline Water During Summer Fun
How to Start Working Out Right
Water and exercise go hand in hand, but it is important to drink water at the right time.
The American Council on Exercise (ACE) suggests drinking 17 to 20 ounces of water before you begin exercising. Your body can lose more than a quart of water in an hour of exercise.
Drinking water before exercising can help you avoid dehydration as your body loses water through sweat.
How to Start Exercising with Regular Water Breaks
Make sure your workout plans include water breaks. Drink 7 to 10 ounces of fluid every 10 to 20 minutes as you exercise.
Drinking water at this pace helps you stay hydrated even while you work out.
Drink water before you get thirsty as thirst can be a sign of dehydration. You also need to increase your fluid intake before exercising if you tend to sweat a lot.
How to Stay Hydrated After Working Out
Weigh yourself before and after your exercises. Drink 16 to 24 ounces of fluid for every pound of body weight you lost as the result of your workout.
Monitor your urine while working out. You should urinate several times each day as well.
If you have good hydration, your urine should be a light yellow color. It should also not have a strong odor.
Some people tend to consume sports drinks for hydration. This may not be the best idea.
You can do better with tap water, but the best option is alkaline water. It’s produced by a special water filtration process using a water ionizer.
Alkaline water has a higher pH level, which allows it to hydrate the body better than normal water.
When you exercise, your body produces lactic acid, especially if you’re intense. Its buildup can result in various symptoms such as a burning sensation of the muscles.
Alkaline water can help restore the balance and offset the effects of lactic acid.
Lactic Acid Definition: It is the by-product of anaerobic respiration, the process where the body breaks down glucose without oxygen.
This type of water also promotes faster gastric emptying. It means water travels faster from the stomach to the small intestines.
The body, therefore, is able to use the much-needed sources for hydration quicker.
Learn why fitness experts prefer alkaline water during workouts in this video from Water Ionizers from Tyent USA:
To get the most out of your physical fitness plan, don’t forget to drink plenty of water every day. You can optimize your hydration and exercise with alkaline water and a well-balanced diet.
How do you maintain hydration while working out? Share your tips in the comments section below!
Up Next: My Water Ionizer Story: Alkaline Water And My Workouts
Almost got dehydrated after biking the other day because it was so hot and I forgot my jug! Thanks for the reminders.
Hi, Diego. We hope you’ll be more careful next time! We recommend always bringing your jug of ionized water whenever you exercise and wherever you go to ensure that you never go thirsty.
How true. Dehydration is one of the worst enemies of our bodies, whether or not we’re athletes.
Hi, Jerry. You’re correct. That’s why we always advise keeping yourself properly hydrated before, during, and after your workouts with our ultra-hydrating alkaline water.
This was a good article to read before hitting the gym haha. I always used to rely on drinks like Gatorade to get me through my reps. Maybe I should drink water more often.
Hi, Laureen. We’re happy that you liked our article!
Hydrogen-rich alkaline water when you exercise is definitely a much better option than Gatorade. Gatorade and other energy drinks tend to be filled with more sugars than nutrients, so your temporary boost is all thanks to the artificial and unhealthy ingredients in these bottles. Plus, you have to keep buying new bottles or cans of these drinks, adding to the waste in the environment.
When you drink alkaline water, you’ll be getting immediate and all-natural hydration and rejuvenation with the added bonus of essential minerals and antioxidants. You can also reduce your waste because you can just refill your water bottle. We actually have really awesome stainless steel drinkware that would be perfect for a day at the gym, so you can check those out!
If you want to know more about our water, please call our water experts at 855-893-6887.
Hello. Can alkaline water really help hydrate me? What other effects would it have on my body?
Hi, Wilton. Yes, alkaline water is far more hydrating than regular water. That’s because it’s filled with a really small and powerful antioxidant called molecular hydrogen, which is able to cross the blood-brain barrier to hydrate your body from deep within your cells.
To give you some great points about the other benefits of alkaline water, you can check out the user guide link below. It’s easy to read, and you can use it to see how our water ionizers can benefit people every day. Here’s a highlight of a few points out of the guide:
– helps recovery after a workout
– promotes weight loss
– anti-aging properties
– helps concentration
– acidic turbo water is a great skin toner
– acidic turbo water is also great for cleaning
– helps prevent bad breath
These are just the tip of the iceberg as far as the benefits. Here is the link to the book as well as some other great links to help you learn more:
USES Guide – Discover the many ways to use Tyent Water throughout the day.
Tyent UCE-13 Water Ionizer (scroll down to see videos)
Tyent ACE-13 Water Ionizer (scroll down to see videos)
Tyent Alkaline H2 Hybrid (scroll down to see videos)
Video Page – Check out the celebrities, doctors, and pro-athletes who use a Tyent, and learn how to use the water for cooking, too.
Our water experts are eager to talk to you about our water and ionizers, so call us today at 855-893-6887.
Something we should always remember when exercising is to take a few sips of water every now and then. It does wonders for our energy and, like you said, helps us stay hydrated.
Thank you for the article.
Hi, Ariana. We agree with you 100%! 🙂 We’ll only be harming our bodies and minds if we don’t stay hydrated.
If you want to read about the main kinds of dehydration, check out this article. Then read this blog for tips on how to prevent dehydration.
I mean we can also grab energy drinks, right?
Hi, Tabitha. We don’t recommend energy drinks because they’re full of sugars and artificial ingredients that are ultimately not good for your health. These drinks cause a temporary spike in your system that will lead to a draining crash later on. They also negatively affect your dental health and make you prone to addiction to sugary caffeinated drinks. Check out this informative article for more info on the side effects of energy drinks.
It’s much better to drink ionized alkaline water because it’s free of sugars and rich in minerals and antioxidants that help your body recover quicker after exercise.
Give us a call at 855-893-6887 if you’d like to know more!