Water should play an important role in any workout routine you practice, especially when strength training. Your body weight is made up of approximately 60 to 70 percent water. As such, dehydration can have a serious impact on the overall health of your body, including your muscles. For muscles to properly heal and benefit from strength training routines, it's important that you keep your body hydrated. However, there are several different methodologies behind how much water is enough.
Eight by Eight Rule
One of the most common ways to look at staying hydrated while strength training is the eight by eight rule, or 8 oz. of water eight times a day. However, if you sweat a lot during your training session, you will most likely need to increase this amount. If you are a larger person above the 200 to 250 lb. mark, you may want to consider another more exact method of calculating water intake.
Institute of Medicine Recommendations
The Institute of Medicine has distributed specific water recommendations for both men and women when it comes to staying hydrated. The IOM suggests that men aim to include 3 liters of total beverage each day. For women, the suggestion is 2.2 liters per day. Most of this recommendation should come from plain water. Once again, if you find yourself sweating a lot, you will need to increase your intake of water to offset the water lost through sweat.
Replacement Rule
The replacement rule suggests that you should drink enough water to replace the amount lost through sweat, urine and breathing. In general you lose 1.5 liters of water through your urine, and another liter through a mixture of breathing, sweating and bowel movements, according to MayoClinic.com. Keep in mind that if you sweat a lot while weight training -- which is normal -- you may need to increase the amount of water lost through sweating by a half to a whole additional liter depending on how long your weight training session goes and whether or not it's combined with aerobic exercise.
Body Weight Rule
Another way to look at how much water you should drink when weight training is by your body weight. Take your body weight and divide it by 2. This is how many ounces of water you should aim to consume through glasses of water and other beverages, as well as the foods you eat. To convert this number to liters, divide the ounces by 33.8.
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