As with any lifeform, water is vital for human health. Proper hydration contributes to better body temperature control, keeps joints hydrated, helps nutrient absorption, and keeps the digestive system functioning. If you are an athlete, hydration becomes even more important to maintain performance and prevention of injury. Learn more about the importance of hydration for athletes, electrolytes, recovery impacts, signs of dehydration, strategies to maintain hydration during workouts, the best drinks, myths to avoid, overhydration, and more.

The Science of Hydration and Athletic Performance

Hydration affects almost every aspect of athletic performance. Water cushions the joints, so proper hydration assists in better flexibility and speed. Proper hydration contributes to proper muscle and heart function, resulting in better endurance and less risk of cramps, as well as regulating blood pressure so the heart doesn’t need to work as hard to maintain normal blood pressure while exercising. 

Even breathing is affected by hydration, with a well-hydrated body able to absorb oxygen better to the lungs. In addition, blood flow and circulation are also improved, assisting in delivering more oxygen and nutrients to the working muscles. 

Someone who is dehydrated may have difficulty concentrating, suffer from headaches, and become more irritable. They are also more likely to lose focus, tire more quickly, and experience cramps and dizziness. Proper hydration can help increase energy, improve recovery, and improve thermoregulation, for better overall physical performance and reduction of injury risk.

Hydration Levels

Your body is composed of around 50 to 75% of water. Your joints alone are composed of about 80% water, and your blood is around 55% water. When your body is not hydrated enough, it causes the blood to essentially thicken, affecting the body’s ability to carry oxygen throughout the body, including to your muscles. Less hydration also means your body is unable to regulate temperature as well, putting you at a higher risk for heat-related illness. A slight decrease in the body’s hydration, as much as just 2%, can cause a decrease in aerobic endurance, strength, power, speed, agility, and reaction time. The slight decrease can begin to trigger signs of dehydration, such as problems with memory and cognitive ability.

Electrolytes: More Than Just Water

Hydration and dehydration do not just begin and end with water intake. Being properly hydrated also involves electrolytes. Electrolytes are salt and minerals, such as potassium, calcium, and magnesium. These helpful nutrients come from food and beverages and help maximize the performance of muscles, organs, and joints. Salt also assists the nerves transmit electrical signals to the muscles, including the heart, and with the absorption of nutrients in cells. 

Electrolytes dissolve in water, and as a result, the body loses them when it loses water through sweating, waste, and breathing. When you exercise, obviously your sweating and breathing tend to increase, which then increases electrolyte loss. 

How Hydration Impacts Recovery

By reducing muscle fatigue, hydration assists in preventing injury. But proper hydration is also a key factor for recovery. This can be as basic as being properly hydrated helping an athlete bounce back after a long, hard game or workout session so they can be ready to go for the next, or can apply to physical injuries. The recovery is a result of hydration working to reduce inflammation and swelling, assisting in bringing increased blood flow and nutrients to the injured area, and aiding in waste reduction. With proper hydration, an athlete can return to normal movement faster, with a speedup in the overall recovery process in some cases.

Signs and Symptoms of Dehydration in Athletes

Dehydration occurs when you lose more fluids than you are consuming. The earliest signs of dehydration include dry mouth, reduced need to urinate, and darker-colored urine. A surprising sign is thirst. While it isn’t always the case, feeling thirsty often means that you are already dehydrated. Left unhydrated, a person can begin to experience more severe symptoms, such as muscle cramps, dizziness, confusion, lack of sweating, a hard and fast heartbeat, weakness, heatstroke, and even loss of consciousness or seizures. Chronic dehydration may even cause long-term health effects, such as decreased kidney function, urinary tract infections (UTIs), kidney stones, hypertension (low blood pressure), diabetes, coronary heart disease, and heart failure. 

Pre-, During, and Post-Exercise Hydration Strategies

So what is the best way for you to keep adequately hydrated while you exercise? Here is a handy guideline for staying hydrated before, during, and after your workout.

Pre-Hydration Guidelines

Start thinking about your hydration before your workout. According to the American Council on Exercise, you should try to aim for 17 to 20 ounces of water 2 to 3 hours before your workout, and then 8 more ounces 20 to 30 minutes before the workout or during your warm-up. Alternatively, if your planned workout or training will be particularly intense and involve a lot of sweating, you may wish to drink a sports drink or electrolyte-infused water over plain water.

Hydration During Exercise

In general, you should try to drink 7 to 10 ounces of water every 10 to 20 minutes. If your workout is particularly intense or longer than 45 minutes, it may be better to replace your plain water with a sports drink to maintain electrolyte levels. Keep in mind that these levels can vary by the amount of sweating during the session.

Post-Exercise Rehydration

The American Council on Exercise recommends 8 ounces no more than 30 minutes after your workout. However, the amount an individual athlete needs post-workout can depend upon the amount of sweating that takes place. One way to know for sure is to weigh the athlete before and after exercising if possible. Then 20 to 24 ounces of liquid should be consumed for every pound lost. You may wish to use an electrolyte-heavy sports drink post-workout, or some athletes like to grab chocolate milk. Whole milk has been shown to provide fats that can lessen the impact of post-exercise inflammation as well as proteins that can assist recovery.

Best Drinks for Hydration: What Works and What Doesn’t

Some athletes like to stick with water, but others prefer sports drinks, caffeinated drinks, and as mentioned before, chocolate milk. What drink should you consider for your hydration needs?

Water vs. Sports Drinks

Water is the most attainable and usually affordable option for an athlete of any level. However, some may find it boring, and it lacks the electrolytes needed for proper hydration. Sports drinks provide electrolytes and come in many different flavors. But sports drinks can also have a lot of extra sugar and calories. In general, the rule of thumb is that if the workout is physically intense or sustained for longer than 45 minutes to an hour, you should choose a sports drink. Otherwise, sticking with water should be sufficient.

Natural Hydration Alternatives

Sports drinks and water are not the only ways to keep naturally hydrated throughout the day. Choosing plenty of water-heavy fruits and vegetables, like strawberries, melons, grapefruits, celery, and others contributes to keeping hydrated on a daily basis. You can also choose snacks and beverages that contain higher sodium, potassium, and other minerals to maintain electrolyte balance.

What to Avoid

Alcohol has a high diuretic effect on the body, resulting in faster loss of fluids. Caffeine also has a mild diuretic effect, but the liquid amounts often offset dehydration. However, for some people caffeinated drinks can still be a bit of an issue as they may cause mild stomach upset. Energy drinks in particular also contain a lot of extra ingredients, such as sugars, and they can lead to other unpleasant side effects. Sugary drinks like juice and soda may slow water absorption due to the high amounts of carbohydrates. 

Hydration and Different Sports

Different sports can present increased challenges for hydration. For example, endurance sports like running, cycling, marathons or triathlons can really up the amount of water and electrolytes lost through heavier breathing and sweating. In addition, they may not present a lot of opportunities to replenish these lost nutrients. That is why hydrating in the hours prior to the event is vital, as is taking advantage of hydration stations set up throughout the course. Many marathon runners and other endurance athletes like to partake in hydrating gels packed with salt and sugar to assist with electrolyte and energy levels. 

Team sports like soccer, American football, and basketball can also present hydration challenges for athletes, particularly during games. A big part of proper hydration for these athletes is maintaining proper hydration without causing discomfort from consuming too much liquid at a time. Again, pre-game hydration can be crucial, then taking advantage of breaks like time-outs, halftimes, and substitutions to try and drink a few ounces of water every 20 minutes or so throughout play. 

Weight-class sports like wrestling or boxing can be the most tricky in terms of hydration without affecting weigh-ins. Staying optimally hydrated every day the week before a match is crucial. Make sure to also add plenty of hydrating foods during meals. Being dehydrated, while an easy way to possibly make a weigh-in, will negatively impact performance. Try to aim for plenty of water upon waking up on competition day, then sip water throughout the rest. A body can, on average, absorb about 33 to 50 ounces of fluid per hour. Then rehydrate between matches and rounds with small sips of water. Once the match is over, introduce rehydration gradually with electrolytes and fluids. 

Hydration and Weather Conditions: Hot vs. Cold Climates

When athletes are training in particularly hot or humid conditions, they can be more prone to heat illness. This occurs when dehydration causes the body to be unable to cool down effectively, resulting in heat cramps, exhaustion, or heatstroke. Heat cramps are painful muscle spasms in the legs, stomach, arms, or back, while heat exhaustion is marked by feeling faint or weak, nausea, headache, faster heart rate, and low blood pressure. 

If the condition worsens due to heat stroke, the athlete may experience a higher body temperature of 104℉ or more, a fast heartbeat, flushed skin, fast breathing, delirium, loss of consciousness, seizures, and even death. If training in particularly hot or humid weather, more fluid should be consumed, such as around 8 ounces every 15 minutes of activity. 

So if an athlete is training in cold weather are they safe? Not necessarily. The cooler, dryer air may trick an athlete into feeling safer from dehydration than they are, leading to a possibly higher risk for dehydration. This is due to lacking the sensation of sweat and the heat of the sun, making it easier to forget to hydrate. In addition, in the cold weather, our blood vessels constrict to preserve body heat, making it harder for the body to recognize thirst. 

Hydration Myths That Athletes Should Avoid

Everyone should drink 8 ounces of water per day. This myth is not helpful even for non-athletes, as water intake can depend upon age, size, how much you sweat, activity level, medications you take, your diet, your environment, and more. A good goal is to try and consume half of your body weight in ounces of fluid each day.

Water is the only way to hydrate. As mentioned throughout this article, many other fluids can be a great choice for hydration, particularly to maintain electrolyte levels. Even the consumption of coffee, smoothies, and other beverages contributes to daily hydration, and certain foods like fruit and vegetables are also hydrating. 

If you drink a lot of water, you shouldn’t feel thirsty. While thirst is a symptom of dehydration, it can also be caused by a number of other factors. You may drink lots of water but still feel thirsty because of anemia, diabetes, or other health conditions, menstrual cycles, or certain medications

Bottled water is better than tap water. Tap water is heavily regulated by the EPA, while bottled water is very loosely regulated by the FDA. Depending on the brand, bottled water can be the same quality or even worse than tap water. To ensure healthier drinking water and less plastic waste, the experts at All Filters confirm that the best choice may be a water filter, whether a pitcher filter, refrigerator or other inline filter, under sink system, or whole house system. 

Clear urine means you are properly hydrated. While the color of urine can be a great indicator of hydration, with darker usually meaning dehydration, the color may also be affected by medications or diet. On the other hand, clear urine can actually be an indication of overhydration. Instead, the optimal color is thought to be pale yellow. 

The Risks of Overhydration

Yes, you can overhydrate. As with anything, there is such a thing as too much water. Hyponatremia occurs when too much water dilutes the sodium in the body. The salt controls the amount of water in and around your body’s cells. If you have too much water and not enough sodium, you may experience swelling of the cells and fluid buildup and swelling in the brain and lungs. The good news is, however, that overhydration is rare, and usually occurs in people that have a kidney condition or take certain medications. A young adult with normal kidney function would need to drink over 6 gallons of water per day regularly to experience overhydration. Mild symptoms include clear, colorless urine, headache, and confusion, while extreme symptoms can be confusion, seizures, coma, or even death.

How much water should I drink daily as an athlete?

This is determined by several factors, such as how long and hard you exercise, weather conditions, body size, and how much you sweat. In general, the more highly trained and the more you sweat, the more water you need. For adult women, about 91 ounces of fluid per day is recommended, and adult men should try for about 125 ounces according to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. For a more curated amount, try for ½ to a full ounce of fluid per pound of body weight per day. You should try to minimize weight loss to no more than 2% of your body weight after a workout to maintain proper hydration levels. 

What’s the ideal pre-workout hydration routine?

According to one source, you should drink 17 to 20 ounces of fluid a few hours before working out. An additional 8 ounces of fluid should be consumed 20 to 30 minutes before the workout or during your warmup. 

Are energy drinks good for rehydration?

Not particularly. Unlike sports drinks that are designed to hydrate athletes, energy drinks often contain a lot of extra ingredients that do not contribute to hydration. They tend to contain higher levels of sugar and lower levels of water. They are also unregulated by the FDA as a stimulant, and the high caffeine content can easily lead to accidental exceeding of the recommended daily amounts. According to the CDC, these drinks also tend to come with a lot of unwanted side effects, such as heart complications, insomnia, and anxiety. If you do choose to consume energy drinks in place of water or sports drinks, just be sure to read the labels. 

How can I tell if I’m overhydrated?

Signs of overhydration include clear, colorless urine, distractibility, lethargy, headache, vomiting, swollen hands and feet, restlessness, extreme tiredness, confusion, seizures, and difficulty breathing. In extreme cases, it can even lead to coma or death. 

The Bottom Line 

Hydration is important for everyone but can be particularly important for athletes. Choosing the right liquids for proper hydration can be a balancing act, as can consuming the right amounts. In the end, maintaining optimal hydration can lead to some awesome performance results, including better endurance, focus, mobility, less risk of injury, and more.