Posted by Nick Brunelli
This was a post I had up earlier this year (January) and today I experienced the results of dehydration! Post workout cramps!! They are very painful and now I’m playing catch up which won’t help for tomorrows training session!
I am 29 years old and have been swimming for over 20 years and you would think I understood how important it was to hydrate, right? Especially since I swam under the Arizona desert sun for close to 10 years. well, I guess I didn’t. Just recently I got to actually see how important hydration really is and how off my beliefs were on whether I was hydrated or not!
We have been running hydration tests over the last year and all of us here at Swim MAC Team Elite have taken some serious thought into how we hydrate before, during, and after physical activity. We also looked at hydration at key times during the day which turned some heads after evaluating…. I am someone that drinks a lot of water throughout the day time. But I don’t do well at drinking water at dinner and when I wake in the mornings.
I have learned that I have been “severely dehydrated” going into almost all my morning workouts! As of right now 5 of my workouts a week are in the mornings….. I don’t think that’s setting me up to have a good practice week! What we have learned is drinking almost 4 glasses of water from the time you wake to the time you hit the pool is what’s need to be optimally hydrated for workout. Also drinking more water at dinner time helps make the next mornings hydration that much easier.
I have seen huge gains with the adjustments made in my water intake. After seeing “SEVERELY DEHYDRATED” on the test results throughout the year I knew I needed to make a change since I really thought I was hydrating properly. I am glad I made the adjustments. I am feeling so much better in my morning workouts and I really think it was just hydration that got me there.
I feel like many can learn from this. Take hydration to the next level and make sure you fuel your body at the right times for optimal training output!
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