How much water do professional athletes drink?
How Much Water do Professional Athletes Drink?
Who are professional athletes and what do they do?
A professional athlete is a person who makes a living by competing in sport competitions. These athletes spend most of their hours in training in order to keep their bodies in peak condition for every competition. Water is an essential part of this training because it ensures that the athlete’s bodies are functioning at their best. This is because water aids a number of processes in the human body during exercise. While it is widely accepted that hydration is essential for athletes, the question, how much water do professional athletes drink? Apart from this very important question it is also vital to understand when the athlete’s body needs a little extra water, the factors that determine how much water an athlete should drink and many more.
So, how much water do professional athletes drink? The amount of water a professional athlete should drink depends on a number of factors such as:
- Environmental factors: the environmental conditions under which the athletes live can affect how much water they take. Athletes that liver in hot and humid areas require a little more hydration for their bodies. Attitudes greater than 2500m may cause a professional athlete to urinate more, thus triggering a need for higher fluid intake. Furthermore, such altitudes trigger more rapid breathing which can also be a reason to consume more water. Heated indoor air during the winter can also trigger sweating, a means through which water is lost, and therefore triggering an athlete to drink more water.
- State of health: a professional athlete’s state of health can also cause an athlete to drink more or less water. How much water do professional athletes drink? It depends on their state of health because if they are experiencing illnesses such as fever, a body temperature increase of one degree Celsius causes the loss of up to 200 ml of water per day. This will definitely make the hydration requirements of the individual to go higher. Constipation, bladder infections and urinary tract stones also cause a higher need for increased water intake.
- The length of training: this may seem rather obvious to us when answering the question; how much water do professional athletes drink? But it is not. Some athletes under-hydrate without realizing it. The longer an athlete works out, the more water they should drink. This is because your body looses water through sweating when you are working out, and this water needs to be replaced.
- The use of supplements: some supplements such as Creatine work by drawing more water into an athlete’s muscle cells, in this case, it would do the athlete well to add extra water while supplementing, especially when going through a loading phase. Certain powdered sports drinks are also designed with mechanisms to drive fluid into the athlete’s cells so they are best consumed with more water to help attain maximum results.
Recommendation for water intake
How much water do professional athletes drink? This is a question that runs through the minds of many people hitting the gym and even the very professional athletes themselves. Now that you know the factors that affect water intake, it is time to understand the standard recommendations for both endurance and strength athletes. When in training, the blanket recommendation for both endurance athletes and weight training athletes, under the assumption that they are fully hydrated prior to training or the competitive event, is that they drink 7 to 10 oz. of fluid every 10 to 20 minutes. If you are an athlete that sweats more than average or if you are competing in extreme altitudes and climates, then the amount of water consumed by the athlete should increase.
Before work–out or training, it is important to keep hydrated throughout the day. Then two hours before the beginning of your training, drink 15 to 20 ounces of water. Around 15 minutes before the commencement of your work-out, drink 8 to 10 ounces of water. During the actual workout, drink 8 ounces of water every 15 minutes. Experts recommend that you weigh yourself before and after a work-out. For every pound of body weight that you lose, you should replace with 16 to 20 ounces of water. This is the way to ensure that as an athlete you are getting the maximum out of your hydration. This is the easiest way to answer the question, how much water do professional athletes drink?
If you are working out, even if it is for endurance training, then it is okay to use water as your main source of hydration minus the sports drinks, water only can cover all your work-out needs.
Dehydration
Dehydration is a condition that occurs when the body loses more body fluids than the amount of water being taken. When you are dehydrated, then your cells are losing water at a faster rate than it is being replaced. Even when answering the question, how much water do professional athletes drink? It is important to note that dehydration can be dangerous for the body of an athlete. Normally the body uses thirst as a natural indicator that the body is dehydrated and needs more water. This however is not very accurate because by the time you feel hungry, your body is way too deep in its dehydration. This shows that you should not wait to feel thirsty for you to drink water. Most of our body functions rely on water and that is why it is crucial to stay hydrated at all times. Dehydration can be easily reversed by taking in fluids and water but only extreme cases need will need a doctor’s attention.
Causes of dehydration
Diarrhea: this is the most common cause of dehydration, diarrhea prevents the walls of the large intestine from absorbing water from the food we ingest thus causing dehydration.
Sweating: sweating is the body’s cooling mechanism. One can however become dehydrated from sweating during vigorous physical exercise or during work out in the outdoors when it is hot and humid.
Vomiting: when you vomit, you lose a lot of water and this could lead to dehydration.
Uncontrolled urination: this happens when people have conditions such as diabetes and by the use of alcohol and other drugs such as antihistamines, anti-diuretics and blood pressure medications.
Symptoms of dehydration
When trying to answer ourselves the question, how much water do professional athletes drink? It is vital to understand the symptoms of dehydration so you can know the severity of the situation. The symptoms are listed in the order of increasing severity. They include:
- Dry mouth
- Lethargy
- No tears when crying
- Muscle weakness
- Headache
- Dizziness
Symptoms of severe dehydration
- Sunken eyes
- Lack of sweat
- Low blood pressure
- Shriveled dry skin
By understanding these symptoms, it will be easier to identify a dehydrated professional athlete and afford them the much needed care. It is however important to note that most cases of dehydration can simply be reversed by the administration of water.
How dehydration affects performance
While still striving to answer the main question of discussion,(how much water do professional athletes drink?), it is worth noting that when an athlete does not achieve the desire hydration levels fit for his body, performance is really affected. A slight deviation of even two percent is likely to cause an effect in your weight loss at the end of the training. So next time you weigh after training and you are lighter than when you started training, then it means that you didn’t take enough water for your body during work-out. This is mainly because a huge percentage of our muscle mass constitutes water. When your body is not well hydrated, you are likely to underperform even in the field.
If you are still asking how much water do professional athletes drink, then you still need to understand how hydration affects weight loss, muscle growth and recovery.
Bearing in mind that up to 75% of our muscle mass is made up of water, this is precisely why hydrating sufficiently is essential for muscle growth. Without water, your muscle mass decreases, this could cause a negative effect on your performance as a professional athlete.
When considering the effect of hydration on weight loss, let us take the case of a person who is on a weight loss plan or s professional athlete. Water is needed to flush out toxins from the human system and to keep the stomach clean. Water is a good way to refresh yourself when you are losing weight because it is pure in nature and is the most trusted in terms of liquid options in the market
Water is also essential in the process of recovery because it is involved in many metabolic processes of the body that encourage repair. When you push your body hard enough, your muscles and tissues break down and that is why you feel pain after working out. Various metabolic processes make use of water and through these our muscles are able to repair in a short matter of time.
The Coldest Water in regards to the growing awareness of the positivity of hydration
We at The Coldest Water do realize how important hydration is for professional athletes. This is why our bottles were originally designed for the athletics market. Today the market has expanded and is no longer providing quality water bottles to just athletes but the public in general. Our bottles are designed and produced under quality conditions to ensure our consumers get only the best. These water bottles understand that in order for a professional sports person to perform optimally, they do not only need water but they also need water bottles to provide them with only the best in quality. Through the Coldest Water bottles, there has been mass education on various issues that affect the quality of the water that an athlete consumes and how it affects the bodies in relation to performance.
The Coldest Water bottles are the ideal partner for a professional athlete because they are made of stainless steel, which ensures the highest quality amongst the competitors in the market. These bottles are made from BPA free materials and are very long lasting, strong and durable. The bottles we provide are also trendy, so if you are a trendy professional athlete that likes to get noticed when people are asking questions related to how much water do professional athletes drink, then this is the place for you to come to.
At The Coldest Water we ensure only quality items are used by our clients including the professionals will give them the best in regards to the amount of water they take. These bottles due to their thermo-regulating properties are able to keep the water inside them within the same temperature range for over 24 hours. These are just some of the factors that led to our customers choosing us as their first option when it comes to providing containers for hydration of the masses.
Our water bottles can prove to be valuable gym partners that are able to help the client get the required hydration. They stay long, they do not pollute the environment, they help to preserve fuels and do not break easily like glass water bottles would break. In order to keep your body in a state of constant health through hydration, you will need to use water to build your endurance, to keep your system free from toxins and be willing to invest in a water bottle that is worth your value. When you drink from the right water bottles, it also ensure that you are gaining your muscle mass in a healthy way. The Coldest Water should be the leading company to take you to the right path in terms of your drinking needs. Our team supports stainless steel water bottles and their use to enhance sustainability and the reduction of pollution in the environment at large. Choose us therefore, please, to ensure that you get the best from the producer oif quality hydration bottles