Are you drinking enough?
We're well into the season of winter, I thought it was a great time to talk about hydration. It seems like a summer topic, however I've noticed is that there are less water bottles left over at the gym of an evening.
Dehydration can be less noticeable in winter, it's cold, you sweat less
Did you know the average Australian is chronically dehydrated and probably don't even know about it...even worse is that 2-5% dehydration can result in up to 30% performance reduction!!
There are some many health reasons for you to keep up your fluids, I'm going to share what I think will interest you most: Dehydration can have many physical and mental affects on your body
Physical - Maximise your performance - obviously this is a big one for many with you. You're in the gym every day, you want to maximise your training sessions. You definitely don't want to be leaving 30% on the table. While water intake needs may vary generally men will need approx 16 cups and women 11 cups from fluid and non fluid sources.
How to spread out your water intake around training
500 ml of fluid on the night before exercise
500 ml in the morning
500 to 1000 ml, 1 hour before exercise
250 to 500ml, 20 minutes before exercise
Mental - Dehydration can affect your mood and brain function Dehydration can affect memory, concentration, learning, reaction time. It's definatley reason enough to have a big bottle of water on your desk at work. Everyone laughs about my "serious" water bottle, but it really helps having a big bottle you don't need to refill every hour.
If you don't have one, get one ASAP, if you do start using it.
Want to read more:
https://www.precisionnutrition.com/all-about-dehydration
https://psychcentral.com/news/2012/02/20/dehydration-influences-mood-cognition/35037.html
I'd love to hear how you go with this. Feel free to email me on katdalecki@creaturefitness.com.au