Water

By Xavier Fox

Water - the key element that sustains life. Well, unless you drown, which would make that last statement a little inaccurate. Anyway, some things just keep surprising me. We are taught from an early age that we should drink at least eight cups of water a day, that almost all living things are made mostly of water, and that water has a role in every body function. Yet, most people still don’t drink enough of it. This is especially strange in the fitness community where people are supposed to know more about health than the average individual, and the fitness media is always hyping the importance of water. It’s puzzling that almost every time I tell someone at the gym that I drink about four litres of water every day, they look shocked. I guess this information isn’t quite the common knowledge I assumed it was. And sorry guys, I know beer is made with water, but it doesn’t count towards your required intake…

If you want to put on muscle, and maintain it, you have to ensure you get plenty of H₂O. Water not only plays an important role in muscle tissue development, it is involved in all your support systems – necessary to keep you healthy while pushing yourself in the gym. You can train as hard as you want and maintain a perfect diet, but if you aren’t getting enough hydration, your workouts and gains will suffer.
Maybe this will convince you to drink more water - muscle cells are almost 75% water. This percentage is higher than in any other cell in your body. If you want muscle, you need water. Fully hydrated muscles look bigger. They also stay elastic and strong.
This week I purposely kept an eye on how many people at the gym used the water fountain or took water with them. Hardly any of them were rehydrating themselves! Even the ones who did simply had a few sips of water once or twice during their workout.
Water's most important role during physical activity is body temperature regulation. Our muscles generate heat during exercise, which needs to be released. The evaporation of sweat from our skin is how our body achieves this. Obviously, during a workout, there will be (or should I say that there better be!) prolonged sweating. This can lead to dehydration. Dehydration is of course the main cause of fatigue and poor athletic performance. Being dehydrated also increases the chance of cramps, heat exhaustion and life-threatening heat stroke. It’s very likely that a lot of people would feel more energetic throughout their workout if they had a consistent intake of water. The fatigue they feel as the workout goes on may be caused by dehydration, not from the muscles being tired. Keeping hydrated allows you to stay stronger longer.
Are you one of those who get sore joints from your gruelling workouts? Water can also help those joints feel better. The cartilage at the end of the bone is mostly made of water. Dehydration makes those joints less “cushiony” and more brittle. Water helps keep them lubricated for easier and safer motion. If you are going to be lifting extreme amounts of weight, you better be sure those joints are ready for the abuse.
Water supports the oxidation, or burning, of fat. When we don’t have enough water our kidneys can’t function correctly and the liver must bear some of their load. This causes you to burn less fat, since the liver is where fat is metabolised to energy. The liver cannot burn fat when it is doing work the kidneys should be doing. If that is not bad enough, your body reacts to inadequate hydration as it does all major stresses, it purposely stores fat and water. Given that water enables you to digest food more efficiently, it’s important to get enough so that improperly digested food is not stored as fat. So, if you want a six-pack to show off at the beach, you better be drinking lots of water!
Water is an important solvent in biological systems, helping to transport resources into and out of cells. This is because blood is 92% water! Dracula must be happy about that - he gets to eat and hydrate himself at the same time! Blood removes waste products and toxins from your system. Most bodybuilders are on a high protein diet (unless they don’t know what they are doing). Blood (water) is important in removing excess toxins such as nitrogen, urea and ketones. Blood removes the waste products associated with the metabolization of fats, as well as transports and removes all nutrients. If you are dehydrated, you will not have enough water to get energy into the muscle, or to remove products such as lactic acid from it. Your muscles will fatigue prematurely and be too sore during your workout to be effective.
Be careful in counting certain liquids as having the ability to rehydrate your system. Coffee, tea, and sodas usually contain caffeine. Caffeine is a diuretic, a substance used to reduce salt and water in the body by increasing the amount lost in urine. Instead of helping you rehydrate, caffeine causes you to lose water and precious electrolytes (such as sodium) that keep your muscles from cramping. When the effects of the diuretic wear off, your system will respond by storing more water. Now, instead of just being properly hydrated, you will retain excess fluid and feel uncomfortable. This same effect can result from not drinking enough water. Remember, your body’s number one priority is survival. If forced to get rid of a vital nutrient, it counters by storing all it can the next chance it gets. This theory naturally works backwards, too. If you consistently consume excessive amounts of water, your system will shed all excess water and retention will be kept at a minimum.
Often, supplements cause water to be pulled into the muscle cell. Creatine is a good example. Without enough water in your system, supplements can’t get water into the muscle cell to create an anabolic environment. Most vitamins are water-soluble - they need water to help them disperse into your body. Extra amounts of water are needed to keep the kidneys and liver hydrated (and healthy) while they work hard to metabolise the supplements used for gaining mass.
Did you know that when you do not have proper amounts of water in your system it will be confiscated from organs? I’m no doctor but I think most of them would agree that having water stripped form vital organs is not ideal. It could cause constipation, cramping, or that thing called death. Dehydration could definitely ruin your day.
Like anything else good for you, it’s possible to be overzealous and turn it into something bad. You must be careful not to consume too much water. Geez, first I tell you to drink lots of water and now I am telling you to be careful not to drink too much! There is no magic amount to consume. Monitor the way you feel. Drink steadily throughout the day and try to have a total of about four litres. If you are constantly urinating and the urine is pure white, this means you are only getting rid of water. You may wish to back off slightly so that your urine is slightly yellow. If you consume too much water, your blood plasma levels will rise and your sodium levels fall too low, creating what is called hyponatremia. This can cause tissue damage and interfere with heart, brain, and muscle functions. It’s partly caused by your electrolyte balance being thrown out of whack. Some symptoms of hyponatremia are confusion, nausea, fatigue, muscle cramps and weakness.
What have we learned today? If you want to put on muscle as well as keep your system operating properly, you have to drink enough water, especially while training. Taking care of the details is just as important as training hard and eating right. A good nutrition program doesn’t help much if your body can’t synthesize and transport nutrients due to lack of water. Dieting is tough enough, but if you aren’t hydrated properly your system will not burn fat efficiently. You’ll just be making it tougher on yourself. Attitude goes a long way but if your muscles are sapped of energy and nutrients you just won’t be able to train hard enough to maximize your gains. If you can’t get the lactic acid out of the muscle, your workout will be done a lot sooner than it should be. So, make water as important as the rest of your regimen and you will see the gains increase.