After a little research it is apparent that nobody really knows where the saying that you need to drink 8 cups of water per day comes from. Some people trace it back to a study in the 1980′s, and other people claim that doctors starting telling people that amount because it was a good goal, but didn’t have any scientific research to back it up with.

Either way, the point is clear, water does wonders for your body, and your brain. Water is well known to cleanse your body of harmful chemicals through your intestines and also throughout your urine tract. Without proper water intake, our bodies break down very quickly, in a matter of days. Without food, however, some people can live for a week or two. That just shows how important water is to our bodies.

Here are 3 quick tips for taking in more water.

1. Always have water available.

I like to buy the 12 ounce bottles of water and keep them in the fridge. Whenever I go to the gym I grab a bottle. On my way out the door to work, I grab a bottle. Before a trip that will be 30 minutes or longer, I grab a bottle. When I watch a movie, I grab a bottle.

Whenever I am sitting watching TV or a movie, I will keep the bottle in my hand with the lid off. I take a lot of little sips until the bottle is gone. A great way of making sure you drink more water is to make sure it is easily accessible.

2. Keep it cold.

I don’t know many people who like to drink room temperature water, I sure don’t. If you keep your water cold, you will drink more. I make sure there is always ice in my freezer, this make it very easy to have a cold glass of water anytime.

3. Choose water in restaurants.

Whenever I go out to eat, I always drink water with some lemon. The lemon adds a little spunk to the taste and the water is always nice, cold and refreshing. After a short time you will stop craving your old drink of choice and will begin to appreciate the taste, or lack of taste, that water provides.

Give water a shot and your body will be thankful!

Maintaining A Hydrated State
More muscles, more water

The average human body is made up of about 66% water by weight, while muscles are about 80% water. The fact that muscles are a major site for total body protein synthesis and contain a significant amount of water is no coincidence. Water is necessary for protein synthesis. Bodybuilders have a higher percentage of bodyweight from water because of their greater muscularity. For this reason alone, they need more water than the average person to stay properly hydrated.

You probably think you drink plenty of water, but most of us suffer from voluntary dehydration. This is a condition that occurs when we don’t drink enough water simply because we don’t fell thirsty. Each day a person will lose a minimum of 400 ml of water through breathing, 400 ml through the skin, and 1,000 ml through the kidneys. Remember, this is the minimum. If you’re active, you’ll lose more! And in hot weather, you lose even more. Drinking coffee and other caffeinated beverages, which have a diuretic effect, also contribute to your water deficit.You must constantly replace the water being lost just to stay in balance. Most people drink primarily with meals, and if they do drink between eating, it’s usually caffeinated beverages. Think about it: Do you really drink a minimum of 2 liters of water per day?

When you lose as little as 1% of your bodyweight in water, your ability to regulate heat begins to be impaired. This reduces the amount of physical activity that you can perform.3 If you lose 7% of your bodyweight in water, you’re likely to collapse when exercising in heat. Studies have shown that during exercise in heat, voluntary consumption of water replaced only about half of the water lost to perspiration.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: Thirst is a poor indicator of your body’s need for water. But it couldn’t br truer. Typically, your thirst is satisfied after downing only 1 pint of fluid. Fully rehydrating the body does not occur as fast as you might think. Even after consuming large amounts of water, your dehydrated body can take from a few hours to a day or more to completely rehydrate. The exact period depends on the degree of dehydration and the tissues that have lost the most water. Tissues such as the muscles and skin, which are predominantly water, take the longest to recover from dehydration.

You can estimate your daily water needs by figuring out your daily loss. A typical person will loose 1.8 liters of water just sitting at a desk in an air – conditioned office. If you exert yourself in heat, you can easily loose 1 liter per hour. Some athletes can lose 2 or more liters per hour from sweating. So if you work in an office, then work out in the gym for two hours, you should take in 3.8-4 liters of water per day. If your work involves physical activity outside in the heat for four hours, and you work out one hour in the gym, then you need 6.8-7 liters of water. These should be considered minimum estimates, but at least they give you some idea of whether you’re maintaining your water balance.

As a bodybuilder, you know that timing is everything. Don’t think you can be a camel and drink all the water you need at one sitting. You’re constantly losing water, so you must constantly be drinking water. That includes drinking extra fluids before, during and immediately after exercise to prevent dehydration. Water will do, but many sports drinks are available that contain salt, which is lost through sweating, and carbohydrates, which help in glycogen replacement.

Avoid Becoming Catabolic
Keep your cells awash

Under normal circumstances, the body’s cells are hydrated and ready to go anabolic. Instead of worrying about how to increase your anabolic state, you should concentrate on avoiding becoming dehydrated and, therefore, catabolic.

Three circumstances can lead to cellular dehydration: 1) insufficient intake of fluids; 2) inactive amino acid transport systems; and 3) insufficient glutamine levels within the cell. The first is easy to avoid – just drink a lot of water every chance you get. The second isn’t likely, unless you’re suffering from a chronic illness. But the third circumstance is of greatest concern to body – builders – the amount of water that is transported into the cells to maintain the intracellular concentration of glutamine. Supplementation with branched – chained amino acids will help support glutamine synthesis.

After millions of years, the simple chemical process of joining two amino acids together hasn’t changed that much. The only difference is that now protein synthesis occurs in individual cells, which must be kept in a hydrated state. So if you want to avoid catabolic states and the risk of muscular extinction, keep your cells awash with water and keep you health.

Keep your body cells hydrated for proper protein synthesis

Water. It covers roughly two – thirds of the earth’s surface. It’s where life began millions of years ago. Just think: The first anabolic reaction that joined two amino acids occurred in a body of water. This was the original spark of life that – after trial and error and countless stages of evolution – created the marvel we know as the human body.

Just as these first chemical reactions took place in water, all biochemical reactions in the body happen in water. For this very reason, it’s important to ensure that the cells of the body have an adequate amount of the wet stuff. This is especially true for muscle cells. Listen up, bodybuilders: The amount of water in your body can make the difference between being in a catabolic or an anabolic state.Cell Hydration & Protein Synthesis
Cell swelling means anabolism

The amount of water inside a cell, known as the cellular hydration state, can change within minutes. Changes in a cell’s hydration state can alter its metabolism, especially protein turnover.1 Such factors as catabolic hormones, low glutamine concentrations, and changes in amino acid metabolism contribute to putting the body in a catabolic state. These same factors have also been found to affect the hydration state of cells.

Special transport systems carry amino acids, along with sodium, across the cell membrane into cells. This increase in the intracellular concentration of sodium causes water to move into the cell. Hormones can also affect the amount of water that moves in and out of cells. Insulin can cause the cell to swell by activating sodium – and potassium – dependent transport systems that cause these ions to accumulate within the cell. Water enters the cell to dilute the increased salt concentration. Glucagon causes cell shrinkage by opening up cell channels that allow potassium loss from the cells. A number of other hormones affect cell hydration in a similiar manner.

Cell swelling inhibits the breakdown of glycogen, glucose and protein. It also stimulates the synthesis of glycogen and protein. In other words, it creates an anabolic reaction. But when cell shrinkage occurs due to loss of water, the dehydrated cells rapidly go into a catabolic state.

These metabolic changes that occur with respect to the cell’s state of hydration suggest that the transport of amino acids across the cell membrane may do more than just shuttle amino acids for protein synthesis. The amino acid transport system may directly modify cellular metabolism by affecting the degree of hydration.

Experiments have shown that the anabolic changes induced by insulin and amino acids can be simulated simply by swelling the cells with pure water. If these same cells are then placed in a high – salt solution, they dehydrate and enter a catabolic state. Cell swelling appears to be an anabolic signal, while cell shrinkage is a catabolic signal.

The Role Of Amino Acids In Hydration
The glutamine connection

Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the body.2 It accounts for more than 50% of the free amino acids in muscle cells. Muscle cell membranes have an extensive transport system for absorbing glutamine, as well as the ability to make it.

Glutamine can both stimulate protein synthesis and prevent protein breakdown in muscles. When the muscles of rats were perfuseed with glutamine, muscle glutamine levels and protein synthesis increased. The addition of insulin to the glutamine solution increased protein synthesis even more.

It now appears that the glutamine transport system may be responsible for the increased synthesis. Therefore, the amino acid that has the greatest ability to affect the amount of water that enters a cell is glutamine. Physiological concentrations of glutamine can cause a cell to swell 12% within two minutes. As large amounts of glutamine are transported into the muscles by the sodium transport system, intra – cellular concentration of sodium in – creases, which causes an increase in the water content of the muscle cell.

During disease states, when muscle wasting occurs, the muscle cells of patients who lacked glutamine were also dehydrated. Again this suggests that the lack of glutamine transport results in cell dehydration and a catabolic state.

Unfortunately, glutamine is a very unstable amino acid. All glutamine, whether ingested as a protein or free amino acid, is metabolized by the stomach and never enters the blood – stream. This created what I call the glutamine paradox. More glutamine can put our muscles in anabolic overdrive, but we can’t effectively use supplements due to the instability of glutamine.

But we may not necessarily need to supplement with glutamine. Research has found that branched  chain amino acids are used by muscles for the synthesis of glutamine. When the synthesis of glutemine is increased, more branched – chain amino acids are transported across the cell membrane, which increase the degree of cell hydration. Under normal circumstances, our muscle are loaded with glutamine, properly hydrated and in an anabolic state. All we have to do is see that they dont’t lose their existing glutamine and become dehydrated.