If you want to build up your muscles, you may make some routines or disciplines to follow regularly. You may count the consumption of calories and the intake of vitamins & protein prudently, but there is one thing that has always been ignored in the list, namely, water consumption. While nutrients help to bolster our body, water is conducive to building and making our muscles strong and sturdy.
Still doubt about the magic functions of water? Here Simple Flask presents you 4 ways by which water can bring about benefits.
I. Benefits of Drinking Water
Energizing Your Muscles
Just like other parts of your body, muscles require a water-salt balance so as to function well. Whether you get hydrated before indulging yourself in the gym workouts or prior to an exhausting competition, you muscles will be lack in strength and stamina without adequate water consumption. Why? Water contains electrolytes that our body needs to maintain balance without which dehydration may come out. And if you consume sufficient water before doing hardcore workouts, your muscles will be fueled and energized enabling you to obtain better exercising performance.
Lubricating Your Joints
Water is a vital part of the synovial fluid, a kind of body fluid that lubricates your joints for smooth movements. So if you haven’t got hydrated and pick up weight plates starting to do the lifting, your knees may fail to function well. Adequate hydration provides you with the protective fluid so that your joints will sustain less stress and your exercising performance be enhanced.
Making You More Bearable
Also, water helps to increase your tolerance to pains according to an authoritative research. When you are in a dehydrated state, you are more susceptible to touching and pain. Therefore, if you intend to enjoy a longer workout time with a higher training level to better shape your muscles, just drink more water.
Speeding up Your Recovery Time
After an exhausting exercise, you will have muscle soreness resulted from the long time strength building. This uncomfortable feeling continues to haunt you when you are falling into the state of dehydration. Consuming water contributes to the quick recovery and elimination of the annoying feeling by removing wastes including toxins from the body. In addition, as water can energize muscles, the muscle soreness is further eased when you stay hydrated.
II. Symptoms and Signs of Dehydration
Every part of your body needs water to function in order, being a cell, tissue or organ. Water is beneficial to the regulation of body temperature, lubricating of joints, transportation of nutrients, removal of wastes and circulation of blood. If you fail to stay hydrated or have fallen into the state of dehydration, the above mentioned body functions may go wrong, which is terrible and unacceptable. Sometimes you do drink adequate water yet lose it due to some other conditions such as heavy sweating, diarrhea and vomiting. And when one of this situations occurs, you must drink sufficient water to pay for the fluid loss.
People’s physical conditions vary from each other. Some certain groups are much more susceptible to dehydration while others may have a stronger defence mechanism. Usually, kids, the old, and people who are diagnosed kidney disease and diabetes are the victims of dehydration. So what are the symptoms and signs of dehydration?
The symptoms and signs of dehydration cover:
- dry mouth
- dry skin
- headache
- dizziness
- weariness
- infrequent urination
- dark yellow urine
- increased thirst
Check the color of your urine may be the most efficient way to see whether you are dehydrated. In general, the darker the color, the worse dehydrated you are. Researches have proved that urine color offers people a valid indicator of hydration (except for the old). Also, the change of urine color may be resulted from other conditions such as overeating and kidney problems.
III. Ways to Stay Hydrated
There are 5 convenient approaches to stay hydrated that deserve your attention.
Water and Energy Drink
As you may have expected, consuming water is the most ideal way to overcome thirsty and avoid dehydration. Water is also the most healthy drinking as it contains no sugar or calorie. So when you feel thirsty after a day’s work or a strenuous workout, drink water! It should be noted that some people lose body fluid and sodium faster than others due to various factors (genetics is included), and must get hydrated in time in case of dehydration.
Tiring muscle training workouts speed up the consumption of water and sodium in your body and need to be treated especially. According to sports scientists’ suggestions, it would be better for you to drink sports drink that make you recover from dehydration faster. Energy drinks are rich in electrolytes that are lost during workouts, and the helpful additions of them can be absorbed into the human body quickly.
Coffee and Tea
Apart from presenting a good taste, coffee and tea are also excellent diuretics. These two drinks naturally contain a large amount of caffeine and are thus perfect for either hydration or energizing the body. Some people may be worried about the side effects of drinking too much coffee and tea. Actually, our daily coffee/tea consumption is greatly acceptable. Researches have shown that caffeine bolsters dehydration only when the dose is about 250 to 350 mg, and 100 people tested in a study drinking 800 ml coffee or tea a day only carries 1.8 mg of caffeine (per pound) of their body weight. Besides, researcher have found that when it comes to the hydrating capability, coffee/tea and water are much of a muchness.
Therefore, if you feel bored drinking tasteless water, it is advisable for you to sip on coffee and tea.
Skim and Low-fat Milk
In addition to providing people with nutrients like protein and calcium, milk is characterized by outstanding hydrating properties. Milk boasts high contains of electrolytes that are conducive to balancing the salt-water amount in human body. Simple Flask suggests you drink skim and low fat milk after workouts, which boosts the building of your muscles (full fat milk worsens diarrhea and vomiting conditions). Protein and other nutrients in milk not only speed up the repair of intense and sore muscles but also accelerate the rebuilding process.
However, unlike water that features universality, milk is not suitable for all. People with a vulnerable digestive system and those who are lactose intolerant & milk proteins intolerant are supposed to stay away from milks.
Fruits and Vegetables
Also, fruits and vegetables are alternatives to water. These hydrating snack comprise 80% water, adequate for our thirst. Despite the fact that fruits and vegetables do offer us water as a replenishment, the major hydration channel is still drinking water. Here the fruits and vegetables refer to the fresh ones rather than dried and processed products.
Fruits and vegetables with high water contents include:
- berries
- watermelons
- oranges
- grapes
- carrots
- lettuce
- cabbage
- tomatoes
- spinach
You can always stock up on fresh fruits and vegetables of varied kinds in your home for regular hydration. Icy watermelons in the fridge is also recommended as they are considerably luscious. Don’t be afraid that frozen ones may lose nutrients and water, instead, they are even more nourishing in some cases.
Why? In fact, before fresh fruits and vegetables are brought to you, they have to stand the oxidation without any protective mechanism. Oxidation is the leading factor to nutrient loss, and is minimized by freezing temperature. In consequence, frozen hydrating ones are put in an icy cold environment shortly after harvesting, thereby managing to retain many nutrients. Some frozen fruits such as blueberries have more vitamin C compared to their fresh counterparts.
Simple Flask suggests you make a hydrating smoothie by blending diced fruits/vegetables with nutrient-packed low-fat milk or yogurt to stay hydrated and healthy.
Oral Hydration Solutions
The last way to stay hydrated is to drink oral hydration solutions. Oral hydration solutions are specialized formulas adopted to eliminate the occurrence of dehydration resulted from vomiting or diarrhea. They are also used to boost workout recovery and improve state of mind.
Oral hydration solutions commonly consist of water and electrolytes such as chloride, potassium, sodium and sugar (typically dextrose), while some are added ingredients among which zinc and prebiotics are popular.
The only shortcoming of these solutions lies in their high price. Fortunately, here we provide you with our own formula:
- 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 6 teaspoons of sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 34 oz of water
Put all the ingredients into a pot (or a large bowl) and keep stirring before they are mixed into a solution. Make sure that salt and sugar are completely dissolved. Pour 5 to 10 oz of the home-made solution into your water bottle each time, and you can enjoy hydrating to relieve your muscles after workouts.
IV. The Bottom Line
In order to better build up your muscles, you should cultivate a smart hydration habit. It is advisable for you to read this article several times so that you can master corresponding knowledge more easier. Also, you definitely need a hydration gear to meet your daily water consumption goal. Simple Flask stainless steel drink bottles feature premium quality and practical uses, suitable for you to stay hydrated and healthy. Why not have a try?
