Drink Little and Often

Our Guide to Hydration for Exercise

How much water to drink varies upon what sort of activity you are doing, how warm your surroundings are and how efficiently your body processes water. Feeling thirsty is an obvious indicator of dehydration, however more accurately if your urine is a dark colour you are dehydrated. Ideally your urine should be clear or the colour of pale straw.

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Dehydration can reduce performance. As well as feeling sluggish, you will feel tired more quickly and be less able to train effectively. It's possible that dehydration can cause you to feel hungry, so being well hydrated can help you to lose weight. Some people get headaches when they are dehydrated or their skin can become itchy or less flexible. So being well hydrated can help with headaches and to keep you looking young!

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Humans can sweat up to 3 litres an hour! Drinking water alone is suitable to replenish this.  However, if you are training for over an hour and a half, it may be worth switching from water to an energy drink. Energy drinks contain water as well as electrolytes which replace the sodium lost in sweat. Sodium is important for nerve conduction, fluid balance and helps with muscle contraction.

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As a rough guide, you should aim to drink 500ml water 1-2 hours before working out, 500ml during the first 90 minutes of your workout and a sports drink if you are training for longer than an hour and a half. After your workout, again you should aim to drink 500ml water. So you should be drinking a total of 1.5L water before, during and after your workout. This should be in addition to what you normally drink throughout the day.

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It takes approximately 2 hours for the body to fully absorb 500ml water. Water is partly absorbed in the mouth and small intestine, however approximately 95% of water is absorbed in the large intestine. So for best performance, it's better to drink little and often than all in one go.