Healthy Hydration

To maintain proper function and metabolic reactions throughout the body, you need to ingest adequate amounts of water.  The human body is composed of approximately 75% water, which is accounted for differently between the various tissues.  Water is crucial for the body to:

•           Regulate body temperature
•           Produce saliva (maintain moisture)
•          Protect organs and tissue
•           Excrete waste
•           Carry nutrients and oxygen to cells
•           Lubricate joints
•           Moisturize the air in lungs
•           Assist in liver and kidney functions
•           Maintain blood volume

Water is very important so that your body can continue to function properly.  Minimal reductions in water ingestion can have serious consequences in your training and competition.   When you become dehydrated, your blood volume decreases as well, which can cause adverse effects for an athlete.  These consequences include:

•           Decreased amount of red blood cells going to the muscles
•           Decreased transportation of oxygen and nutrients (glucose, fats, amino acids)
•           Decreased removal of carbon dioxide and byproducts of metabolism
•           Deceased removal and transportation of lactic acid to the liver
•           Decreased transportation of circulatory hormones
•           Reduced cardiovascular function
•           Elevated heart rate
•           Improper sweating response
•           Decreased force and/or speed of muscle contraction

Another consequence of decreased blood volume is a decrease in blood flow to necessary organs such as the brain, heart, lungs and muscles.  Due to decreased blood flow to these major areas, athletes can suffer from moodiness, impaired cognitive function, decreased hand-eye coordination, headache, dizziness, dry mouth, and muscle cramping.  If you feel any of these symptoms, you may be suffering from dehydration.

Evaluate Hydration Level

Initially, if you can relate to one or more of the symptoms listed above, you probably are dehydrated.  Your body will also alert you when you are becoming dehydrated through the sensation of thirst.  Unfortunately, the body will not relay this message until you are 2% dehydrated which is late.  Your kidneys also respond to dehydration by reducing your urine output so that it can retain as much water as possible, which is a much faster response than your brain saying you’re thirsty.  So if notice that you are urinating less or notice a reduced volume of urine excreted, then you may be dehydrated. 

A simple way to evaluate your hydration level is to monitor the colour of your urine.  The lighter the colour of your urine, the better.  If your urine is anywhere from dark yellow to a brown colour, this can indicate that you are dehydrated.  There are two exceptions to this rule however. Firstly, if you take a multivitamin with high levels of B2, it can cause your urine to be bright yellow for the proceeding couple hours after ingestion.  Secondly, do not evaluate your urine colour in the morning since you have gone all night without ingesting water.

Maintaining Hydration

Most people take large volumes of water only a couple times a day, but still get the recommended total volume for the day.  This method of water intake is bad because by taking large volumes of water, you impair the thirst centers of the brain and induce a diuretic response.  You can test this yourself anytime, simply ingest anywhere from 500 mL – 1000 mL of water quickly and you will immediately have to urinate a few minutes after.  In actuality, you lose more water with this method of ingestion.  Ideally, its best to maintain water ingestion throughout the day in smaller doses.  Here are a few pointers to maintain proper hydration throughout the day:

•  Carry a water bottle with you and take sips, not gulps
• Try to avoid carbonated beverages (may cause  bloating and intestinal cramps)
• Do not include coffee or tea into your daily water intake, these are diuretics which make you lose water
• Drink plenty of water before AND after workouts.

Exercise and Water

During exercise, how much water do I actually need?  You can perform a simple test to find this out.  Weigh yourself before and after your workout and find the difference.  Be sure to wipe off any excess sweat with a towel before taking your weight after your workout.  What you are doing is measuring the amount of sweat loss which will give you a good indication as to the amount of water you should ingest during your workout.  For best results, ingest more water than what your test shows.  Furthermore, I like to add a bit of sodium to my water after workouts because as you sweat, you also lose sodium.  Simply add a dash or two of table salt to your water post workout can enhance your hydration levels since salt also makes your thirsty (IE: beer nuts and nachos make you thirsty due to high sodium content).  For workouts lasting longer than 1-2 hours, you should add salt to your water intake during as well to avoid too much sodium loss.

IN Conclusion - water is the best nutrient your body needs, is essential for life and the majority of our body is composed of it.  best of all - its does not contain calories!  I hope this review of water helps you all understand why water is so crucial for our performance as athletes.