Drinking Water after Exercising
Your body is made up of 75% water by weight. The water is found in your cells, the spaces between these cells and in your blood. Exercising causes your body to warm up.
Your body then generates sweat in an effort to keep cool. Excessive sweating leads to a loss of water from the body and this water needs to be replaced by drinking more. Not drinking enough water to replace the water lost through sweating will lead to dehydration.
Drinking water before you start exercising is a good way to keep dehydration at bay. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends that you should start drinking water or fluids 2 hours prior to starting your exercise routine. This will hydrate you and allow time for the excess water to be excreted. They also recommend that you drink water throughout your workout to replace the fluids that you are losing.
Drinking water after your workout is also essential to replace the water that you have lost and to stave off dehydration. It is better to drink warm or room temperature water rather than cold water as the former is more easily absorbed by the body. This may not sound very appealing especially during the summer months, but is a factor to consider especially if you are suffering from the ill effects of dehydration.
So how will you know if you are getting enough water? You will have to keep an eye out for any signs of dehydration.
The first and most obvious sign of dehydration is feeling thirsty. This is your body’s way of signaling that it is in need of water. As your body gets dehydrated it will try to conserve water. This will affect your urine output. You can tell when your body needs more water by examining the color of your urine. If it is very yellow then you need to drink more water. Other signs of dehydration include a dry mouth, palpitations and muscle cramps. You may even stop sweating after a while.
If you have any of these signs then you should stop exercising and drink plenty of water or re-hydration drinks. You can resume exercising after your symptoms have passed.
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