According to the latest data published on the official page of the American Heart Association, in order to avoid dehydration, it is much more important to drink water BEFORE, and not AFTER training, as has been considered for many years.. Why you need to drink more water if you exercise Sufficient fluid intake becomes critical during the hot season. And it doesn't matter if you play sports or just sit in the sun.

The process of thermoregulation, aimed at maintaining a constant temperature inside your body, works to its fullest on hot days. And in order to cope with this task, your body simply needs water..

But mainly enough water helps the heart work..

When the body loses too much water, the volume of circulating blood decreases, i.e.. blood becomes thicker and more viscous. It becomes twice as difficult for the heart to overcome vascular resistance, supplying blood to actively working muscles.

In addition, normal blood flow allows for active metabolic processes occurring in the muscles and the full elimination of metabolites..

Before, On Time, or After: When is the Right Time to Rehydrate

From the physiological mechanisms described above, it would be logical to assume that your body needs a sufficient amount of water not so much after, but during training..

But if you drink the required amount of water at once, at one moment, it will only overload the heart and make the subsequent workout even more exhausting and difficult for your heart..

You need to drink water in small portions throughout the workout, making significant pauses so as not to overload the heart and maintain an optimal level of hydration.

How much water does the body need to maintain water balance?

There can be no definite answer to this question.. Too many factors affect this indicator: individual metabolic characteristics, your weight, age, fitness. The intensity and nature of the load, how intensely you sweat, as well as the presence of chronic concomitant diseases and much more.

In this regard, American sports doctors give universal advice: fix your weight once before and after training.. This figure will be your guide to how much water you have to replenish.. Of course, you should not take this advice too literally and go to extremes..

Do not force yourself to pour a couple of liters of water into yourself if the thirst is insignificant, or, conversely, limit your water intake if the limit of weight loss you measured is exceeded. Again, there are a great many factors that can affect how dehydrated you are in any given workout, so when listening to the advice of experts, don't forget that your well-being has the last word..

If you are careful enough, your body itself will “tell” you how much water it needs for comfortable work..

lady. siteua. org.