Water enhances our training 2
By Maria Polyzou
PART 2
The correct amount of water for our organism can enhance our total health and wellbeing. Because water is of such great significance, for so many of our body’s functions, the adequate amount of water consumed is of vital importance in order to enjoy good health.
One of the most important issues is that water can help us lose weight. We often confuse the need for water to that of food. We thus resort to nibbling on snacks, while in actual fact, it is water that our body craves!
By drinking water, we feel full, thus decreasing our need to eat food.
Research shows that water can:
- Supply our body with more energy during exercise.
- Increase the number of calories we burn during exercise.
- Help our body lose stored fat. Those who lead an active lifestyle should ensure that the water they consume is enough, since dehydration can cause them to suffer from overheating of their organism. Small amounts of fluid lost and are not replenished can limit our performance, while great loss of fluids can cause heatstroke and even death. For example, when our temperature rises during exercise, we lose great amounts of water through sweat. In just one hour of vigorous exercise, our body can lose up to a liter of water or more. If we do not replenish this water and our body is unable to drop its temperature, then we go through a stage called dehydration.
The feeling of thirst during intense exercise is not a trustworthy indicator of the amount of water lost, since the mechanism of thirst lacks the real time requirement of it. It is therefore necessary for us to drink water before we actually feel thirsty.
Just how much water does a person need before and during exercise? About an hour prior to engaging in exercise, we should drink half a liter of liquid. It needs about an hour before this amount of liquid leaves the stomach and heads for the muscles; in this way, the athlete will be hydrated properly when his training starts.
The way these liquids are consumed can greatly influence the hydration of the organism as a whole. Water can enhance our exercise program and health officials stress that the more hydrated we are when we exercise, the less tired we feel.
Recent research also claims that when we drink water during our training session, we are able to exercise for a much longer period of time.
Water increases our strength and performance during training. Research has shown that even if we are slightly dehydrated, our strength and general performance drops dramatically. Even a 3 – 4% decrease in the level of water in our body can bring about a decrease of 10 – 20% in our muscle contractions, and thus in our strength.
Moreover, water helps us avoid injury. It immediately increases our endurance. One of the liver’s basic functions is to metabolize fat and supply our organism with energy; something which is greatly needed during intense training. Another very important function our liver has, is to assist the kidneys in flushing out all useless to our organism substances; they offer us nothing and are best gotten rid of, before they accumulate in our body and make our liver and kidneys work so much more intensively in order to flush them out. This means that the liver is burdened and is forced to focus on the elimination of these toxic or useless substances, making the whole process of metabolism of the fat for energy take second place.
The result?
Endurance is limited.
Further research has shown that the increase in the consumption of water reduces fluid retention. When we do not drink enough water, our body retains the amount we drink. This is a normal survival reaction of the body; a measure our body takes in order to avoid a state of lack thereof. This water is always stored in the stomach, in the face, the legs, etc. As a result, we look bloated and are heavier.
We can literally enhance our performance and feel lighter and more agile during exercise, only by avoiding the retention of fluids which is the result of not drinking enough water.
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