Why you need to keep hydrated.

Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in whatever you’re doing and forget to drink enough water throughout the day. But also for your home-workouts, drinking enough water around your training sessions is important!
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One research review suggests that athletes should prevent fluid loss of more than 2% of total body weight if they want to maximize performance [1]. Another study looked directly at strength training and found that mild dehydration negatively affects strength performance on the back squat [2].
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Luckily, there’s a simple way to see whether you are well-hydrated. From the scientific literature, we know that the “Urine Color Chat” you see in the second slide of this post gives a good indication of hydration status [3]. If you are within points 1-3, you are hydrated just fine. Once you approach point 6 or higher, it’s time to start prioritizing hydration. As you may know, there is also such a thing as drinking too much water. But this shouldn’t be a concern if you keep your water intake within reason.
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For most people, simply drinking according to your thirst will put you in the right ballpark [4]. But if you do this and your urine color is not where it should be, make it easier for yourself to drink more water. Try keeping a water bottle at hand to prevent forgetting to drink enough water. Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that if you take certain medication or supplements, it is possible that urine color is affected and the chart presented in this post is not representative of hydration status.
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References:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17277604
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17909410
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7987361
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/214544401d