Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Sam Coleman, Co-Founder
FACT CHECKED
Water! Everyone needs water, and everyone probably needs to drink more. Dehydration is one of the biggest nutritional factors that people mess up and suffer from – this could range from a drop in strength to feeling sick to even possibly dying. None of that is good, and all of it is easily preventable. In this article, we're going to run through some great hydration tips for working to ensure you stay hydrated and kicking ass.
What Is Dehydration?
Dehydration gets a bad rap. This is primarily due to semantics, as we often use the word incorrectly in general conversation. This is semantical but we always like to share our knowledge.
So, we often talk about "dehydration" as if it's always bad. In reality, dehydration is simply the process of losing water in the same way that "hydration" is the process of consuming water. In fact, our body experiences dehydration and hydration throughout the day, and it's estimated that our body sees a turnover of about 10% total water weight1.
As long as you're replacing the loss of water, dehydration is just a bodily process that helps to maintain health. The key word is "replace". Dehydration becomes a problem when a person doesn't replace the lost water, which can result in various issues, which we'll discuss below.
The point at which dehydration becomes a problem is generally accepted to be around a 2% drop in body mass2. At this point, you're said to be in a state of hypohydration, which means you have a low hydration level that will affect physiological processes. With all that said, when we speak about being dehydrated, this is what we're talking about (Like we said, it’s just semantics but it’s nice to know).
What Causes Dehydration?
Loss of water can occur from numerous causes. Many of the most common include;
- Urine
- Bowel movement
- Sweating
- Some Medication
Of all the possible causes of dehydration, excessive sweating is most responsible for medical and performance issues. Our bodies perspire to cool down and prevent overheating, whether it’s from heat or exercise. In fact, this adaptation allows humans to have the best endurance capabilities in the animal kingdom!
However, when working too hard or in the heat, our bodies are at higher risk of overheating which means they need more sweat to cool down. Therefore, when you're training for an extended duration or in high heat levels, you must drink, or you will have problems.
How Does Dehydration Affect Working Out?
Water loss can sometimes be challenging to replenish due to several factors, including:
- Extreme heat and humidity
- High sweat rates
- Intense or prolonged exercise
- Poor nutrition and hydration planning
For athletes, dehydration can set in faster than previously thought, significantly impacting performance. Research indicates that even a 1% decrease in body weight from water loss can lead to noticeable declines in performance, particularly affecting cognitive functions like decision-making3.
Has someone ever asked you a question you found difficult to answer after a hard workout? Or maybe you simply found thinking challenging?
That could possibly be due to dehydration.
As dehydration progresses to a 2% loss in body weight, performance deteriorates further, leading to:
- 8.3% reduction in muscular endurance
- 5.5% reduction in muscular strength
- 5.8% reduction in anaerobic power
- Increased perceived exertion (RPE)
Moreover, there’s a dose-response in that the hotter you get, the greater the deficit in performance. For every additional degree Celsius increase in skin temperature at a 2% loss of body water, performance can decline by another 1.0-1.5%.
Dehydration Can Even Cause Muscle Loss!
Yep! Dehydration can actually cause a decrease in muscle mass and disrupt the anabolic process of building more muscle. Now this isn’t going to happen because one session but chronically working out in a dehydrated state can have negative results.
The exact mechanisms aren’t totally understood but their are several that show a connection between hydration and muscle loss;
- Decreased anabolic signaling due to lack of cell swelling4
- Decreased strength through disruption in firing5
- Increased stress on the body
- Decrease in muscle protein synthesis6
Other research has suggested that dehydration can increase DOMS and recovery time7.
Now, you’re not going to experience any major issues from one bout of mild dehydration but why even let it be an issue when staying hydrated is so easy? We believe staying hydrated is so easy and will optimize your training, it’s a bit of a no-brainer.
Be Sure To Manage Your Electrolytes!
Have you ever heard of someone “drowning” from drinking too much water? Well, they didn’t actually drown but rather disrupted their blood's solute levels. Collectively, this is known as “water intoxication”.
Your body's solute levels are intricately managed internally such as your potassium-sodium pump. This is important as they are responsible for a wide variety of body functions. When these get out of whack, a person can experience various issues such as;
- Headache
- Personality changes
- Irritability
- Changes in behavior
- Confusion
- Nausea
- Cramping
- ……you get the idea.
One of the more common conditions seen in athletes, especially endurance athletes (or any sport of extended duration or in hot climates) is called hyponatremia8. This is a condition caused when the sodium levels of a person’s blood drops too low.
It occurs in endurance athletes as they are performing for extended periods of time meaning they’re sweating a lot. As sweat contains various elements such as potassium and sodium, these will drop as well. Now, if they choose to hydrate with only water, they will dilute the solution in their blood causing very low levels of sodium. This can result in a range of issues such as cramps, confusion and even death.
This is actually quite common and moderate conditions tend to affect 10-15% of endurance runners after events. However, around 0.5-1% experience critical conditions!
We never really think about this but “too much water” can actually have very serious effects. Now this only becomes an issue when you’re training extensively and sweating profusely so don’t think you can never drink plain water. However, when you’re training, if you do tend to sweat a lot, having some electrolytes isn’t a bad idea. This is in addition to another benefit we’ll talk about below.
The Best Hydration Tip: Stay Hydrated!!!
This is the absolute best tip! Of course it sounds redundant but let us explain. Have you heard of the suggestion to drink when you first feel thirsty? Well, feeling thirsty is the first sign of mild dehydration. Think about it: Does your stomach growl after eating or when you haven't eaten in a while?
Thirst is your body's signaling that you need to drink; in other words, if you drink when thirsty, you're playing catch up. We don't want to dramatize this, as you'll likely be okay if you did use thirst as an indicator under normal circumstances. However, why play catch up when it's easy to just stay ahead?
Rather than waiting to drink until you're thirsty, you should drink periodically on a schedule to stay ahead of the game. This will ensure your hydration needs are met!
With that said, your hydration game has 3 main points of interest. When you realize that most athletes only consume about half of their water loss, you’ll see how important it is to have a plan9.
Luckily, for most people training in the gym for 60 or 90 minutes, it will be pretty easy to keep your water levels up but the same principles apply to everyone.
Hydration Before Your Workout
The worst thing you can do is start your workout already dehydrated. Therefore, don't do that! It's like starting a road trip on a quarter tank or going to a gun fight but waiting until the action to load your gun. (We’re not sure why you'd be in a gunfight but if you ever do, be sure to have it loaded!)
Therefore, be sure you're hydrated before you go to the gym. The amount you'll need to drink can vary widely depending on the person and their situation. One of the easiest indicators is the color of your urine which we’ll go over below.
- If your urine is dark, you'll be more dehydrated and will need to drink 2-3 glasses (or could hint at a more serious problem).
- If your urine is just your standard yellow, one big cup of water will probably be okay.
- If your urine is a pale yellow, you’re good to go.
- If your urine is clear, you’re probably overhydrated.
Another indicator is how you feel. This will take some intentful learning on your part over time.
However, seasoned athletes and lifters can gauge their hydration based on how they feel: sluggish or energetic? Dried out or fresh? Weak or strong? This isn't perfect, but it is an easy indicator for experienced lifters.
Keep in mind that none of these are perfect and will take time on your part to learn your body.
One time that definitely deserves attention is those early morning lifters. After a good night's sleep, you'll be dehydrated in the morning. Therefore, you'll need to drink at least 8 fl ounces upon waking. In fact, this is a good idea for everyone regardless if you’re going to the gym.
Hydration During Your Workout
No matter how much you drink pre-workout, you must drink during your workout to remain hydrated. At least if you want to maintain optimal performance.
You have two methods. The first is to simply guess and is most likely adequate for most people, assuming you're doing a normal gym workout for 60 minutes. The most important part is that you drink every 15 minutes.
If you want to dial it in, you'd need to find your sweat rate; this is how much you sweat during a workout and is generally prescribed as ml/hour. Knowing your sweat rate can help you calculate how much water you need to drink during your workout to stay properly hydrated.
Finding your sweat rate is easy, and you measure your body weight before and after a training session.
To make the process easier, follow these tips:
- Weigh yourself before and after the training session in your underwear or even naked. Clothes will hold onto sweat and skew the weight.
- Before you train, urinate first which will mitigate the need to urinate during your training. If you urinate during the training session, you would technically need to collect it for your calculations after training.
- Then, after you finish training, weigh yourself again before you urinate. Again, you’re trying to measure the difference in body weight through sweat and urinating will skew this.
- You must also calculate any liquid you drink during the session.
- Using a shorter training duration (30 minutes) after a proper warm-up can mitigate the chance of needing to urinate and hydrate during the session.
- Remember to wipe off all your sweat before your post-weigh-in.
- If you weigh in pounds, convert to grams. (1lb = 453 grams)
- Each gram lost = 1mL of water.
You then relate your water loss to the time of your training. Remember to convert the time to hour. For example, if you lost 400ml in 30 minutes, this would mean you'd lose 800ml in 60 minutes (1 hour). You could then divide this over the hour so you may drink 200ml every 15 minutes. This doesn’t need to be exact but you get the idea.
Hydration After Your Workout
Now that you've finished your workout, you must replenish all lost water. Like drinking during your workout, you can do it simply: just be sure to drink a lot afterward.
One aspect that makes this easy is your post-workout shake. Remember that any fluid will help hydrate you, not just water. In fact, believe it or not, milk is a better hydration fluid than water10! This is believed to be due to the consistency of milk and its makeup of protein, fats, and carbs.
Together, this requires more digestion than water, meaning it's in your gut longer, allowing more water to be absorbed.
Therefore, drinking a big protein shake can be all you need. On extra-hard workouts, we'll sometimes make a protein shake with milk and add water to save calories and increase hydration.
The technical method would require you to weigh yourself after and then replace lost water. However, assuming you stay hydrated during the workout, most people can use the simple method of having a big shake afterward.
Recap:
|
Pre-Workout |
Start hydrated |
Check urine color to gauge hydration (dark yellow to clear) |
|
|
Drink as needed based on urine color |
Dark urine: 2-3 glasses; Yellow: 1 big cup; Pale: Good; Clear: Overhydrated |
|
During Workout |
Drink every 15 minutes |
Adjust based on calculated sweat rate (e.g., 200ml every 15 minutes for 400ml loss in 30 minutes) |
|
|
Calculate and adjust hydration |
Measure weight loss to tune hydration rate |
|
Post-Workout |
Continue to hydrate |
Drink fluids like protein shakes which may hydrate better than water |
Staying Hydrated: The (Other) Best Hydration Tips For Working Out
Staying hydrated seems to be pretty simple – drink more water.
The general idea is simple, but if it were, many people wouldn't have issues! Remember that you have probably experienced a drop in performance from being dehydrated, whether you were aware of it or not!
Therefore, we will provide the best tips for staying hydrated while working out so that it is as simple as possible.
Use Amino Acids To Encourage Drinking
This one might take you by surprise, and it's for the exact reasons you think. Using amino acids during your workout may or may not help you, but that's not why we're suggesting it. While taking amino acids intra-workout may not help you, it definitely won't hurt you and might help! More importantly, they taste good!
Water can be bland and for many people, especially when not thirsty, and they may refrain from taking a few sips. However, if you've ever tried various amino acid powders, you know they usually taste awesome! This means they taste good and may improve your workout. Both of these could help encourage a lifter to drink.
Remember that you want to stay hydrated during your workout rather than wait until you're thirsty and having some tasty amino acids makes that easier.
Add Electrolytes To Your Drink
Above, we spoke about how drinking too much water without replacing lost electrolytes can have its own set of problems. The best way to prevent this is to add electrolytes to your drink!
However, electrolytes also offer another crucial benefit!
Adding electrolytes to your drink is another strategy that can help improve your hydration while lifting weights. In the same manner as amino acids, many electrolyte drinks or powders taste really good. This provides the same benefits of having a tasty drink during your workout.
Maintaining your proper hydration and electrolyte levels is always a big plus when you want to optimize your training.
Hydrate Between Exercises
If you have trouble remembering to drink, one of the easiest and most natural methods is to drink between each exercise.This can help start a routine and keep you in check. You could also set a beeper if you wanted. However, for us, that’s a bit annoying and we just find it easier to get into a normal routine.
Final Say On Staying Hydrated
Staying hydrated is simple and can have a profound effect on your performance. This is especially true if you have actually been training dehydrated and don’t know what it’s like to train hydrated! The best part is that it’s a relatively cheap solution…drink more water! Just remember that there is no one-size-fits-all plan. Assuming you're an average lifter training for an hour inside a gym, drinking every 15 minutes or so is all you need, but you do need it so don’t ignore your hydration!
References:
- Sawka, M. N., Cheuvront, S. N., & Kenefick, R. W. (2015). Hypohydration and Human Performance: Impact of Environment and Physiological Mechanisms. Sports Medicine, 45(S1), 51–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0395-7
- Sawka, M. N., Cheuvront, S. N., & Kenefick, R. W. (2015). Hypohydration and Human Performance: Impact of Environment and Physiological Mechanisms. Sports Medicine, 45(S1), 51–60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-015-0395-7
- Riebl, S. K., & Davy, B. M. (2013). The Hydration Equation: Update on Water Balance and Cognitive Performance. ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal, 17(6), 21–28. https://doi.org/10.1249/FIT.0b013e3182a9570f
- Lorenzo, I., Serra-Prat, M., & Yébenes, J. C. (2019). The Role of Water Homeostasis in Muscle Function and Frailty: A Review. Nutrients, 11(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11081857
- Jones, L. C., Cleary, M. A., Lopez, R. M., Zuri, R. E., & Lopez, R. (2008). Active Dehydration Impairs Upper and Lower Body Anaerobic Muscular Power. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 22(2), 455–463. https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0b013e3181635ba5
- Ritz, P., Salle, A., Simard, G., Dumas, J. F., Foussard, F., & Malthiery, Y. (2003). Effects of changes in water compartments on physiology and metabolism. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 57(2), S2–S5. https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1601894
- DEHYDRATION AND EXERCISE-INDUCED MUSCLE DAMAGE: IMPLICATIONS FOR RECOVERY. (2020). Gatorade Sports Science Institute. https://www.gssiweb.org/sports-science-exchange/article/dehydration-and-exercise-induced-muscle-damage-implications-for-recovery/1000%23articleTopic_5
- Knechtle, Chlíbková, Papadopoulou, Mantzorou, Rosemann, & Nikolaidis. (2019). Exercise-Associated Hyponatremia in Endurance and Ultra-Endurance Performance–Aspects of Sex, Race Location, Ambient Temperature, Sports Discipline, and Length of Performance: A Narrative Review. Medicina, 55(9), 537. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina55090537
- Akerman, A. P., Tipton, M., Minson, C. T., & Cotter, J. D. (2016). Heat stress and dehydration in adapting for performance: Good, bad, both, or neither? Temperature, 3(3), 412–436. https://doi.org/10.1080/23328940.2016.1216255
- Pegoretti, C., Antunes, A. E. C., Manchado-Gobatto, F. de B., & Capitani, C. D. (2015). Milk: An Alternative Beverage for Hydration? Food and Nutrition Sciences, 06(06), 547–554. https://doi.org/10.4236/fns.2015.66057
Garett Reid
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