Water from cellular fluid, the fluids between cells and blood, makes up 61.8 percent of your body weight. However, this number fluctuates depending on your fluid intake and diet. Foods such as carbohydrates and sodium cause the body to store more water, while other foods such as asparagus and caffeine are diuretics that cause you to shed excess water.
Effects
Strength training causes microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. When these tears heal, the body rebuilds the muscles stronger than before. After a tough workout, blood rushes to the affected muscles to provide the nutrients that they need for recovery and to clear lactic acid and other cellular waste. The extra fluid causes muscles to become inflamed. This swelling is temporary and does not cause your body to retain water beyond its functional use.
Creatine
Many athletes trying to build muscle take a creatine supplement, which muscles use as an energy source for anaerobic activities such as weightlifting and sprinting. While creatine helps athletes to train at a higher level to build more muscle mass, a 2003 study at Palm Beach Atlantic University found that creatine supplementation increased athletes’ total body water by about 1 percent over controls. Most of the water was stored in their muscles.
Benefits
Drinking enough fluids is important to your muscular recovery since water is necessary to provide nutrients and to clear waste. Water it is also essential for your cells to convert fat, carbohydrates and protein into energy during your workouts. However, if you don’t cool down properly from your workout, allowing your heart rate to drop too soon, then your heart can’t pump excess blood out of your muscles efficiently, causing stiffness and soreness.
Time Frame
Post-workout swelling usually begins almost immediately after a workout and can last three to seven days, according to Dr. John M Berardi, Ph.D. of Precision Nutrition Inc. Bodybuilders preparing for a competition take further measures to reduce their body’s fluid levels in the final days before a competition. Twenty-four hours before a competition, the bodybuilding how-to, “Serious Strength” recommends switching to distilled water and reducing your sodium intake in order to “smooth out” muscle definition by reducing intercellular fluid.
Prevention
To avoid excess soreness and swelling, make sure to cool down with light aerobic exercise and stretching after a tough workout. A proper cool-down aids blood flow to and from the damaged area and prevents blood pooling. Also, low-intensity aerobic exercise can use lactic acid produced from anaerobic metabolism as a source of energy, eating up the soreness-producing waste. To avoid excess fluid retention, reduce your dietary salt intake. Sodium is also excreted in sweat, so sweat out excess sodium with cardiovascular exercise such as running or cycling.
Misconception
Individuals who are concerned with weight loss may be worried about fluid retention and building additional muscle mass because both are deceptive on the scale. Muscle is denser and heavier than fat, and excess body water can also increase your weight on the scale. Therefore, it is possible to lose fat and inches without losing weight.
