the benefit of drinking water

Welcome to building muscle 101's article "the benefit of drinking water".

Water is an essential yet frequently overlooked nutrient. I know, it doesn't have the body building properties such as protein or the fuel capabilities of carbohdyrates yet, this nutrient is the most important. Yes! The most important. How? Well, let me put it this way, without water, you'd die within a couple of days - That's how important it is.

Our muscles are made up of 70% water, and optimal hydration is essential for muscle function and growth. Did you know that protein synthesis is actually increased when the muscles are fully hydrated. This is exactly what you want, more protein synthesis for growth.

The benefit of drinking water are just too numerous to go without mention. Drinking water for health and especially for our purpose, building muscle is a very important topic and shouldn't be neglected. Water is the most critical nutrient for health, growth, and development.

As active weight trainers, the benefit of drinking water is a very important aspect of building muscle. You see, Water is everywhere in your body, sort of like a river flowing through your arteries, veins, and capillaries carrying vital, life sustaning nutrients to your cells and transporting waste out of the body. Water basically fills every space in your body and helps form the structures of protein and glycogen.

Ok, lets look at the benefit of drinking water:

Building Muscle

Of course, the benefit of drinking water for active weight trainers is to build muscle. However, water doesn't directly affect the actual building process like protein does. You see, in order to move muscle, you need water. Muscle is considered an active tissue and water is found in the highest concentrations in active tissue (70%).

If your body is dehydrated, chances are you're not going to have a very productive weight lifting session. Why? Your muscles are deprived of electrolytes.

Muscles are controlled by nerves. The electrical stimulation of nerves and contraction of muscles are the result of the exchange of electrolyte minerals dissolved in water. It's essential that you drink water if you want to build muscle.

Without enough water, your muscles are not getting enough electrolytes. Muscle strength and control are weakened. If you want to build muscle, than you must keep your body well hydrated. Have you ever noticed that you are probably the most weakest as soon as you get up? One of the reasons is because your dehydrated - Get some water into your system as soon as you can.

The benefit of drinking water is to improve muscle performance.

Improve Digestion

The body produces a lot of water when food is broken down in the digestion process. In fact, it has been estimated that roughly 25% of the total daily water requirement for a sedentary person can be used for this process alone. Imagine, 25% of all water in your body being used for digestion. You see, each gram of glucose needs about 2.5 grams of water to form glycogen in the muscle and liver.

The benefit of drinking water in this case is the fomation of energy. Water is actually released when glycogen is converted to energy.

Water is also the major ingredient in blood plasma, which transports nutrients and gases to and between cells. Water is also a necessary part of many chemical reactions in the body. An example of the benefit of drinking water is that it carries off the waste products of energy metabolism fromt he cell and provides the fluid needed to get rid of the body's wastes.

Heat Regulation

All of us have a built in air conditioners that constantly works to keep our heat levels at stable levels. All of us at one time or another have been in some pretty hot climates where we sweated - Alot. The process of perspiration actually cools us off and keeps us from boiling over which leads to some nasty side effects such as heat stroke.

When we sweat, water is released through the skin and evaporates. Heat is than released in the air lowering the skin temperature. The benefit of drinking water is to keep our "air conditioning" system filled and ready for action whenever we need it.

Exercise sessions increases the need for water. Our "air conditioning" system can use up a great deal of water depending on the intensity and duration of exercise and the environment in which you workout in. A loss of only 3 percent (of bodyweight) of water can drastically affect your performance and even greater losses can affect overall muscular strength.

When 6% of your bodyweight is lost in water, you run the risk of heat exhaustion and heat stroke. The benefit of drinking water is simply too great to be ignored.

Losing Weight

The benefit of drinking water with regards to losing weight is that water acts as a natural appetite suppressant and water is constantly working moving nutrients in and out of the body. That is, it transports the good stuff to your cells where it's needed and it helps to move the bad stuff out. You simply need to keep your body well hydrated in order for this transport system to work to it's fullest.

Water also keeps you full so you don't have that urge to go do the nearest McDonalds to munch on a big mac meal.

Joint Lubrication

The benefit of drinking water also helps out with the lubrication of your joints. Water is an ingredient in the makeup of the synovial fluid, which is the lubricating fluid between your joints.

If your weight lifting diet is lacking in water, even for a brief period, less fluid is available to protect these areas.

As you add more weight and stress to your body, the demands from weight lifting on the joints will increase. Adequate protective fluid is essential for optimum performance and to give longer life to your joints. Believe me, once your joints go, its never the same.

the benefit of drinking water here is to help protect your joints and improve the longevity of your joints.

To find out how much water you need for optimal performace, please see building muscle 101's page on drinking water for health

It is very important that drink water for health and that you keep your body well hydrated. Even a small, temporary shortage of water can impair your body's functions. If your muscles become dehydrated by only a small fraction, you lose a certain amount of contractile strength and speed.

Water balance is a very important aspect for building muscle and the maintenance of good health.

The benefit of drinking water for health and building muscle are just too numerous to point out.

Remember to drink a lot of water for optimal health and building muscle!!