Importance of Water

This past weekend I headed out of town to the Bahamas for a quick relaxing weekend trip. I had a great time with my girl and even bumped into Mark Versetgen, a super humble guy and great Coach.

Athletes Performance working on some NFLPA Reps at the Atlantis Hotel

The weird thing is that I was exhausted and kept getting the chills the whole weekend! No matter how many coffees I drank I was still zapped. I at first thought I was getting sick but I didn’t have a fever or anything and would randomly get bursts of energy through out the day. I attempted to drink as much water as I could but running around the resort and random activities definitely stalled my efforts.

By the time I got home I was back into my routine and finally figured it out, it was due to dehydration from travelling, not drinking as much water as I typically do, being exposed to the sun all day, and the coffees probably didn’t help either.

It’s clear that hydrating is important in many respects such as:

Recovery
Performance
Fighting off cramping
Body temperature regulation
Digestion
Waste removal (could help with muscle soreness)

Dehydration is also sometimes the culprit for those nasty hangovers and sickness. This is why you hear your GP say hydrate and rest.

Here are some notes on hydrating:

Carrying around a water bottle is key, this will remind you to fill and drink.
Chugging your water down, in general, could make you go to the bathroom quicker.
If you’re urinating often, make sure your keep your potassium and sodium levels up as they are expelled during this process. This is key for you those hangovers!
Adding in sodium will help you maintain your water= not pee so much.

Sodium Options

Most people automatically think Gatorade for hydration recovery. While it is beneficial, it’s not the best for you if you’re cutting down. A really simple method is to take a zero kcal drink and add salt to it, while it sounds gross you can do two things to help your taste buds out: