Is Drinking Water during Physical Activities Good for You?
[adrotate group=”1″]Till these days, the question “Can you drink water before, during, or after the practice” remains open. And the reason is because there is no straightforward answer about it, but I’ll try to give you as much information about it as possible, so you can decide for yourself what is right for you. However, for these who wants to save some time I’ll share my thoughts and my point of view about it.
In my opinion, it’s better to drink water during and after the practice, you just need to do it smart. Drink water more often and in small amount so your body can restore or keep the right amount of water in your body. If your heart is healthy, and you don’t drink cold water, then drinking water in small amount during the practice is good for your body, and you have to do so to keep being healthy. And now, let’s consider all pluses and minuses of drinking water during physical activities.
Drinking Water during Physical Activities is Good for Your Body
The reasons:
- When you are having a long practice and refusing to drink water, imbalance and dehydration start to happen in your body that can lead to stress and failing of your practice results. Statistically, during the competition, these who stay hydrated during the matches win on 7-10% more, than these who do not. Especially, during the long competition or tournament, its very important to drink enough water, because when you are dehydrated the blood flow slows down and your body doesn’t get enough oxygen.
- When your body doesn’t get enough water, your pulse goes up and cramps can happen.
- A lot of people think that when its cold outside then you don’t have to drink water, however, its not true. During the winter time, when doing physical activities, our body is using the same amount of water, as during the summer time, and we have to restore the water that we lost. Again, statistically found that athletes, who stay hydrated year round, feel much better during the cold winter periods. It’s a simple math: when you lose certain amount of water, you have to restore it. When the body is dehydrated, it gets tired easier, as well as becomes more susceptible to injuries. Scientists have found that when loosing 2% of total weight of an athlete, the brain and physical activities decrease by almost 20%.
Drinking water during physical activities is NOT good for your body
- The big amount of water drank during physical activities increases the amount of blood which, in turn, can lead to complicate the heart work. [adrotate group=”2″]
- During physical activities our body puts all the energy into the muscles that are working, when our stomach is in sleep mode. Therefore, when drinking water we wake the stomach up and part of our energy goes to support the process of accepting water with the stomach.
- Definitely, no cold water during the first two hours past the practice, because our stomach is not far away from our heart. Therefore, the cold water drank right after the practice, can lead to narrowing the heart vessels and reduce its blood flow. In turn, this can lead to various hear problems in the future. So, no cold water during the first 2 hours past the practice.
The boxers and runners do not drink during their physical activities because it can reduce endurance, which is one of the most important factors for them. The bodybuilders, however, do drink water during practices and shows, because they need the good work of the muscles and not endurance. When dehydrated, our physical results dramatically reduce. So, even if you don’t drink water during physical activities, don’t forget to restore water and keep your body hydrated.
Water before Physical Activities
Before the practice try to drink as much water as you can, so your body can lose that without any harm during physical activities. Because during the practice your body loses a lot of water through the sweat, you have to care about yourself before you start practicing and keep drinking.
The doctors say that the ability to accept water by our stomach is equal to approximately one liter an hour. Therefore, 0.5-1 liter, a half an hour or an hour before the practice, should be a good amount to stay hydrated during the practice.
Water during Physical Activities
[adrotate group=”3″]During physical activities, it’s important to keep the balance of losing water and gaining it back, for example 2 sips every 15 minutes. If your physical activity is high intense, it’s acceptable to drink more water, however, no cold water should be drank and don’t drink too much of water in one time because it makes harder for your heart to work properly. As mentioned above, for bodybuilders and these who are doing the weight trainings are tend to drink more water during the practice and it’s a norm for these types of sports.
Generally, you can follow your fitness trainer’s advises, but don’t forget that a lot of bodybuilders, despite on their athletic looks, having heart issues. For example, Swartz and his 3 heart surgeries. It’s not 100% proven how water influences the body during physical activities. However, it’s better to keep that balance of water in your body during physical activities.
Water after Physical Activities
And even after physical activities drinking too much water is not good either. During intense and long practice our body loses up to 3 liters of water and more. On average, our stomach can accept about a liter of water at one time, so there is no point of drinking more at one time. It’s better to drink a half an hour, or an hour later. The balance should exist in everything we do. It’s not worth it to overload your body with extra, unneeded work.
For professional athletes (and not only for them), makes sense to drink high quality water with oxygen because it makes recovery faster, so you can feel fresh and energetic on the next day. About how to make your water high quality at home read out next article.
Also, if after reading this article, you are asking yourself if you can eat after practice, we have the appropriate article for you as well!
