The reason why you can't drink water after exercise

However, many of us still don’t know the reason why we can’t drink water after exercise. Drinking water after exercise can cause great harm to our body. We must avoid this situation in our daily life. We must not drink water after exercise. There must be a buffer period of time to help us achieve a better effect. Let us understand the reasons why we can’t drink water after exercise.

If you sweat a lot during exercise and do not replenish the lost water in time, it will cause dehydration. Dehydration can reduce the body's physiological functions and exercise ability. When dehydration accounts for 2% of body weight, the body's heat tolerance decreases, and when dehydration accounts for 4%, muscle endurance decreases. Severe dehydration can cause overheating and circulatory failure, leading to death. Therefore, if you do not replenish water in time, it will be harmful to the human body. During long periods of exercise, especially in the summer or in a hot and humid environment, you should pay more attention to drinking water. The best way to replenish water is to drink small amounts multiple times. During exercise, drink 150 to 200 ml of water every 15 to 20 minutes, and the total water intake per hour should not exceed 600 ml. This can maintain the water balance in the body without increasing the burden on the heart and gastrointestinal tract due to drinking large amounts of water. You can also drink water before exercise and replenish 300 ml of water 1 hour before exercise.

Rehydrating after exercise should also be done in small amounts and multiple times. As water is lost, body fluids are also lost, and electrolytes such as potassium, calcium, sodium, and magnesium contained in the body fluids are also lost. Therefore, you can also choose to supplement with some sports drinks (cold boiled water with a little salt or low-sugar drinks are also fine). However, the sugar content of the beverage cannot be too high, because if the sugar concentration is too high, the beverage will stay in the stomach for too long, and water will not enter the body in time. Generally speaking, the sugar concentration in beverages in the summer should not exceed 5%, preferably around 2.5%, while in the winter it can be between 5% and 15%. The water temperature is not the colder the better, 8 to 14 degrees Celsius is appropriate. In addition, if you exercise in the morning, since the body loses water after a night of sleep, the tissues, organs and cells throughout the body are in a relatively dehydrated state. Therefore, you need to replenish water before exercise, but not too much, 150 to 200 ml is enough. It is not advisable to drink a large amount of water at one time during strenuous exercise or before and after exercise. The principle of drinking water during exercise should be small amounts and multiple times. It is best to drink light salt water or salty drinks to maintain the water-electrolyte balance in the body. Exercise not only consumes energy, but also consumes water. Especially in the summer, exercise often causes dry mouth and tongue. How to replenish the lost water in the body is also an aspect that needs attention. The first is the quality of drinking water. You should try not to drink various beverages, such as soda; drink boiled water, mung bean soup, or 1% light salt water to remove heat and summer heat, and replenish the sodium lost in the body due to excessive sweating. The second is to avoid drinking too cold water. Because the normal human body temperature is around 37 degrees, it can rise to around 39 degrees after exercise. If you drink too cold water, it will strongly stimulate the gastrointestinal tract, causing gastrointestinal smooth muscle spasm and sudden contraction of blood vessels, causing gastrointestinal dysfunction and leading to indigestion.

Only by understanding the reason why we cannot drink water after exercise can we more effectively avoid harm to our body due to these small problems. At the same time, we must pay attention when exercising and never threaten our body due to excessive training. We must all pay special attention to this aspect.