In the mission to help with your clients’ fitness goals, be it fat loss or building quality muscle, the nutrition focus is most often centered on food, with education surrounding consuming enough protein, fats, carbs in the right amounts and of course at the perfect time to support their fitness goals.

Although providing your clients’ with an optimal food strategy & professional MEAL PLAN to support their goals is key, one of the most important factors of the plan that is often overlooked by the clients, is hydration. As their Fitness & Nutrition professional its important to provide them with the information they need to understand the importance of this key piece of their plan, but more importantly tips on how to simply & effectively keep their hydration at the level needed to support their goals.

Here are three key principles of hydration that are directly related to your clients’ fitness:

1. Muscle tissue is made up of more than 70% water

   • Proper functioning and recovery of any muscle used during an intense training session is dependent on first having proper fluid balance inside and outside of cells
   • Fluid balance ensures proper movement of oxygen, essential energy nutrients (carbohydrates, proteins & fats) and removing wastes that build up during high intensity stress

2. Fluid helps to regulate body temperature

   • Excessive body temperatures is a stress placed on the body and can interfere with actual performance and also recovery, by interfering with energy systems your body is trying to use

3. Fluid helps to regulate blood pressure

   • Maintain blood pressure to normalize heart rates in, and in effect stress on, the body during training & recovery is essential
   • Excessive stress can lead to inflammation and other processes that can interfere with fitness gains

Making sure your clients are taking in enough fluids throughout the day in line with their MEAL PLAN is the first step, but its also important to remember to focus on hydration in and around their training time with you. Not just when they are working out, but the time in the hour before, during and in the hour after their training. This will most likely be the most amount of fluid they lose in given period of the day and taking the right steps to ensure they are fully hydrated before, during and after will help to make sure they perform at their peak and then recover optimally after. Here are some quick tips that can help you educate them on the important points to remember:

Hydration & Fitness Goals

1. Begin activity well hydrated by drinking fluids during the day and within the hour before the activity.

2. Replace sweat losses by drinking fluids regularly during activity.

3. Rehydrate after performing to replace weight lost as fluid during activity.

   • Knowing a more accurate amount of fluid needed during a training session can be done by measuring bodyweight before and after training

Pre-workout

• Drink 17 to 20 fl oz of water two to three hours before exercise
• Drink 8 fl oz of fluid 20 to 30 minutes before exercise

During workout

• Drink 7 to 10 ounces of fluid every 10 to 20 minutes during exercise

Post-workout

• Drink an additional 8 ounces of fluid 30 minutes after exercise
• Drink 16 to 24 ounces of fluid for every pound of body weight lost during exercise