Get Aquified!

                Forget about the Fat, Protein, and Carbohydrates for a minute. Water is the most important nutrient for your body BY FAR. According to USGS, up to 90% of our body weight comes from water. Our blood is 83% water, and our "lean muscle tissue contains about 75% water by weight."  [2]

                Water is not only an abundant resource, it is also critical to the way we operate our body. According to research most athletes suffer a physical performance drop of around 5% with as little as 1-2 percent dehydration. [1]  These staggering numbers can be applied to most North Americans, as 75% of us are chronically dehydrated. [3]

Tips For Hydration:

Drink 1 liter of water within the first hour of being awake -

                Think about it. You just went 8 hours without drinking anything. (if you get a full night's rest!) Your body is begging you for water. Caffeine is dehydrating as well. If you are a coffee drinker, as a rule of thumb, drink an additional cup of water for every cup of coffee that you consume.

Make sure that you drink enough during the day -

                Everyone has a different body. In my case, my constant goal is to drink enough to make me urinate every 1 to 2 hours. If my pee is darker than a clear light-colored yellow, I increase my water intake. (TMI? Nah, You can handle it.) I typically try to average around a cup of water every 30 minutes to an hour.

                Remember this. it takes 4-6 hours to hydrate your system. That means that if you don't drink anything before a workout and expect to drink everything while you're at the gym, you're wrong. Prepare ahead of time by drinking plenty of water throughout the day to truly maximize your workout.

SOURCES

1. http://www.nbata.com/Portals/41/Basketball%20and%20Hydration.pdf

2. http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/propertyyou.html

3. http://www.waterbusiness.net/amst/publish/printer_66.shtml