Whether you’re a serious athlete or recreational exerciser, it’s important to make sure you get the right amount of water before, during and after exercising.
Water regulates your body temperature, lubricates joints and helps transport nutrients for energy and health.
Drinking fluid during exercise is necessary to replace fluids lost in sweat. This action will reduce the risk of heat stress, maintain normal muscle function, and prevent performance decreases due to dehydration.
Always start exercise well hydrated, there is minimal performance benefit to being over-hydrated as drinking excessive amounts of fluid before exercise.
If you’re not properly hydrated, your body will be unable to perform at its highest level, and you may experience fatigue, muscle cramps, dizziness or more serious symptoms. As dehydration increases, there is a gradual reduction in physical and mental performance. As the dehydrate gets worse you can experience increases in heart rate and body temperature, and an increased perception of how hard the exercise feels, especially when exercising in the heat.
If you exercise strenuously, you should drink 1 cup of water every 15 minutes of exercise. If you are performing moderate exercise, 1/2 cup every 15 minutes should be sufficient.
Also you must consider that different sports pose different challenges and opportunities for optimal hydration. For team and racquet sports there are formal breaks between play, with substitutions and time-outs, all offering an opportunity to drink. Some individual sports require you to drink on the move. Be smart and practice strategies to get maximum benefit from fluid intake with minimal fuss and discomfort.
However, you’re going to be exercising for more than 60 minutes, a swig of water probably won’t cut it. That’s because your body loses sodium and potassium as well as water. This can lead to issues like confusion, muscle cramps and even hyponatremia (too much water and not enough sodium in the body). While water alone is an effective drink for fluid replacement, especially in low intensity and short duration sports, in high intensity and endurance sports may require an electrolyte-based sports drink after an hour to enhance performance.
We can all relate to enjoying a long, satisfying drink of water after some hard work or exercise and at Aussie Natural we appreciate that you want the best tasting water available. That’s why we source our water from springs deep in Western Australia’s Darling Ranges to ensure that pureness and quality is assured.
We can guarantee that nothing will quench your thirst more than a cold bottle of Aussie Natural spring water.
Contact Aussie Natural today to see about sponsorship opportunities for your sports team or home water cooler so you can have ice cold water – instantly.
