Does drinking water help build muscle?
The answer may seem obvious, but does drinking water help build muscle? Water is a key to life, and you could only survive about 3 days without it. Luckily, we live in a world full of water.
There was a time when I didn’t really care about drinking water. I would drink whatever was available. Gatorade, sodas, and sometimes water was on the menu.
It wasn’t until I started to get serious about gaining muscle that I started to take that portion of my life more seriously. Not only did I cut out sodas and other sugary drinks, but I also cut out alcohol.
This article isn’t about the negative effects of alcohol, but if you are serious about your body, you can’t argue that alcohol is not good for you.
Have you ever seen those buff guys walking around the gym with gallons of water? It is because they know the importance of hydration. Drinking plenty of water is essential to muscle building.
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So, does drinking water help build muscle? Let’s explore the reasons that it does.
1. Water boosts your energy
Have you ever started an exercise, and crushed it on the first rep, only to fade quickly? This may be a sign that you have not been drinking enough water.
When you are dehydrated, your body works harder to pump blood to essential parts of the body.
It is no surprise that your blood is thicker when you are dehydrated, so it makes sense that your heart would be working harder. This in turn drains your energy. When you have enough water in your system, your blood is at the perfect viscosity for your heart to pump normally.
2. More water = More nutrients to your muscles
Since we know that being hydrated is key to your heart pumping blood, we also know that blood also carries nutrients. At this point, we can safely say as long as you are eating enough food to fuel your muscles, being hydrated will carry those nutrients where they belong.
There are so many key factors in muscle building. Eating the right amount of food is a key part of that, which we covered in 3 tips for going from thin to muscular.
Think about your body as a machine. As long as you are maintaining the machine constantly, with regular tuneups, you will hit your goals. Oiling the machine is essential, and that is just like water for your body.
3. No more cramping!
Cramping is so easily preventable, it just doesn’t make sense to be sidelined by another session of cramping.
How many times have you skipped an exercise, or maybe even a whole workout because you are cramping? Let’s just make this easy. If you are cramping at all, it is because you are not hydrated enough. It’s as simple as that.
It always makes me scratch my head when professional athletes start cramping at the beginning of the season. These people literally get paid millions of dollars to play a sport, yet they don’t seem to know the basics of how their body works.
Don’t let this happen to you. Drink enough water, and you may never get a cramp again.
4. Maintain that juicy post-gym pump
If you have ever done any sort of strength training, you know the feeling of the post gym pump. You walk out of that gym feeling like a beast! You can take on the world. Then the next morning you wake up, and you look normal again.
I am not saying that you will constantly look like you just left the gym, but I am saying that a post-gym pump will last longer if you are hydrated.
This is really no surprise if you think about what was said in point number 2. When you are hydrated, your heart pumps more nutrients to your muscles. It’s as simple as that. Since other portions of your body are already hydrated, your body can now focus on muscle building.
Tips to drink enough water to gain muscle
As mentioned previously, you sometimes see jacked guys walking around the gym with gallons of water. You can do that to ensure you have a good water intake, or you can get something a little more classy like a 1 gallon insulated RTIC.
Men should drink about 4 liters per day, which is why a gallon is perfect for men. Women should drink about 2.7 liters per day. This is all courtesy of the trustworthy Mayo Clinic.
Some people really struggle to drink water in general. This is a really unfortunate situation, because I love drinking water. Look for some sort of zero calorie water flavor additive. I always appreciate the ones that don’t have any artificial sweeteners.
Main Point: Does drinking water help build muscle?
If you have made your way down this far in this article, you already know that drinking plenty of water is essential to building muscle. You have no choice but to be hydrated if you want to become a beast.
There are plenty of other health benefits that come with drinking water, which weren’t covered here.
Does drinking water help build muscle for you? Leave us a comment and tell us what you have done to make sure that you drink enough water. Keep up with the muscle gains!
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