Is it really okay to drink water after exercise?

During exercise, the body will sweat due to the consumption of calories and physical energy, and the water in the body will be discharged and evaporated, so dry mouth and tongue will appear, and the body will be dehydrated. Many people start drinking water, beverages, or even ice cream after exercise. But is this approach correct? Many people don’t really understand it. Let’s answer the question of whether you can drink water after exercise.

After strenuous exercise, people often sweat a lot to remove heat, and sweat also removes some of the salt in the blood. If you drink a lot of water right away, it will increase sweat excretion, causing more salt loss, and increase blood circulation, thereby increasing the burden on the heart. Therefore, people should not drink water immediately after strenuous exercise.

Sports drinks should not be consumed casually. Taking them when they are not needed may cause harm to the body. In addition to water, functional drinks also contain glucose, sodium, and potassium. These substances only need to be replenished after a large amount of loss. If exercise does not cause the loss of solutes such as sodium and potassium, drinking a large amount of functional drinks will increase the sodium and potassium content, which may affect the balance of water and electrolytes.

Hydration during exercise is very important. Exercise intensity, duration, weather conditions, etc. all have an impact. The easiest way is to judge based on weight. Since dehydration is the main reason for weight loss after exercise, you can calculate the proportion of dehydration to body weight based on the method of "pre-exercise weight minus post-exercise weight divided by pre-exercise weight". When the amount of dehydration is less than 1% of your body weight, you will feel slightly thirsty and only need to drink ordinary water. When the amount of dehydration is 2%-3% of your body weight, taking a 50 kg body weight as an example, if your weight drops by 1-1.5 kg after exercise, you need to drink salt water with a concentration below 0.9%. Only when the amount of dehydration is greater than 4% of your body weight, you need to drink sports drinks. At this time, exercise consumes a lot of water, and substances such as electrolytes, sodium and potassium are also lost in large quantities. Supplementing with sports drinks can help restore body functions.

Through the description in the article, we understand that we need to replenish water after exercise, but we cannot drink a lot of water, nor can we drink water immediately. We should replenish water in small amounts and multiple times, and even add more salt water. However, it is not appropriate to drink cold drinks after exercise. It is best not to drink ice water. Water at room temperature or light salt water is more suitable.