Water

Water makes up 55-75% of our bodies and every system in our body depends on it. It is the most crucial health element in our everyday activities, not to mention key to promoting peak athletic performance.

We all know that we lose water through urination and sweat, but did you know that your lungs expel between two and four cups of water each day just through normal breathing? Your feet can even lose a cup of water through sweating in your shoes!

Lack of water in our bodies leads to dehydration, a condition that occurs when you don’t have enough water in your body to carry out normal bodily functions. Dehydration is technically defined as losing 10% of “water weight” from your body, although dropping as little as 1 or 2% of this water weight can hinder athletic performance drastically. Energy is lost, muscles are weak and may cramp, fatigue sets in and dizziness and headaches are experienced. Even your cognitive thinking abilities are compromised.

Now that the side effects of not taking in enough water has caught your attention, let’s go on to educating you on how you can prevent these negative effects from taking you off of your “game”.

How much water do you need?

A few options to consider are:

a) Replacement approach

• the average urine output for adults is 1.5 litres per day
• another litre is lost through breathing and sweating
• therefore, just to maintain balance we would need 2.5 L or approximately 9 cups of water a day.

b) 8 x 8 Rule

• Eight x 8oz glasses of water per day
• This doesn’t take into consideration any loss of fluids from physical exercise (which would require more)

c) Average Dietary Recommendations or Approximately 1 L/50lbs of lean body weight

• Males 3 Litres/Day
• Females 2 Litres/Day

Obviously we have other factors to consider over and above our day to day activities. Exercise would require at least another litre of water per workout. A good rule would be to consume 2 glasses of water an hour or so prior to exercise and follow with 2 more afterwards. Your Environment may affect how much water you require. Hot or humid weather will require more water to keep your body cooler and replenish the water lost through sweating.

Finally, depending on your thirst to gauge how much water you need isn’t reliable. During vigorous exercise, an important amount of fluid reserves may be lost prior to feeling thirsty.

Remember one last note: coffee and alcohol are diuretics and will dehydrate you even further, requiring more water intake to replenish.

Hope this helps... See you on the trails!!

Jay