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Calculate Your Water Loss Often Because Studies Prove Even Mild Dehydration Impairs Athletic Performance

Dehydration has been proven in recent medical studies to decrease performance levels, which is detrimental to athletes and grand masters performing martial arts. Water loss during your workout can cause you to stall, and not reach peak performance levels.

Endurance levels drop because of dehydration, often causing additional stress on the body. Symptoms of dehydration include, an increased heart rate, raised body temperature, and your body’s increased use of carbohydrates for fuel.

There are simple steps that you can take to keep dehydration from negatively affecting your workout. You should prepare your body for the workout or sporting event by drinking water before you begin to exercise and perform technical maneuvers. This is called pre-hydration, and is a very important step that will help your body remain hydrated.

Going into your workout hydrated is referred to as being in an euhydrated state, which means that your plasma electrolyte levels are normal or basically you’re hydrated. To achieve a total state of hydration, you must begin drinking water a few hours before your workout.

The next step to making sure you remain at peak performance levels during your workout is to hydrate, which consists of drinking water while you are exercising. Since you are losing valuable water when you perspire, it must be replaced immediately to prevent dehydration.

To know how much water you have to replace, weigh yourself before the workout, then weigh again right after your workout. Take the difference in weight from your beginning and ending weight, and every pound you lost equals 8 ounces of water that your body lost during your workout.

If the difference in pounds is more than 2% of your total body weight, then you are becoming dehydrated during your exercise sessions. Check your water loss when you exercise, to make sure you drink enough water to stay hydrated.

Unfortunately drinking enough water is not always the solution. Regular untreated water molecules are not small enough for your cells to readily absorb them, and the water just channels through your body without hydrating your cells properly.

Ionized micro-clustered water molecules are more efficiently absorbed by the bodies cells for better hydration, and help to flush out built up acids. Ionized water also has an alkaline pH that can help neutralize the lactic acid which builds up in your tissues during exercise and causes you to become sore.

“Depending upon your body weight,” Dr. Peter L. Kopko, D.C. advises that, “you should drink 13 to 20 ounces (2-3 cups) of water 2 hours before exercise, and 5 to 10 ounces (about 1-2 cups) every 15 to 20 minutes of exercise.” Studies have proven that blood oxygen levels increase with regular consumption of ionized water.

Higher blood oxygen levels will increase your endurance levels and stamina, while providing your organs and muscles with high levels of oxygen. The added mental and physical stress that athletes endure require proper hydration, so calculate your water loss during exercise often.