The Importance of Water

There is no doubt you have heard a fitness pro, coach, or dedicated gym rat talk about drinking more water. If you have ever trained with McCohn Muscle or been in the US Army you've definitely heard it. There is a chance that a good amount of you don't know why it's important. Here is a brief summary:

The body is made up of 40 to 60 percent water. Muscle is composed of 72% water by weight, whereas fat weight is only 20 to 25 percent water. This means that diets or activities that result in excessive fluid loss will have a significant effect on muscle size.
Without sufficient intake of water, you become dehydrated. Your body begins to retain water to protect itself, and much of this water is stored subcutaneously, which smooths out muscular definition dramatically. Retained water becomes contaminated because your kidneys can't filter out contaminants properly when you're dehydrated. The liver is then called upon to help process these waste products, which interferes with one of its main functions, breaking down body fat. So without sufficient water in the body you're likely to end up water-logged, bloated, and obese-------which is exactly what you don't want if you are working toward a fitness or competitive goal.
This will also lead to problems with sodium. When you're dehydrated, sodium can't be adequately flushed from the body, causing further water retention, and any additional sodium in your diet simply aggravates the problem. Right about here you'll have that fat, sluggish, energy drained feeling.
If you are involved in intense exercise, you need at least eight 12-ounce glasses per day. If you are an athlete, bodybuilder, figure or bikini competitor, you will surely need more than this. And water in solution does not count. You need straight up water, not juice, pop, coffee, tea, or another substitute.
SO.....as Drill Sergeant always said.....DRINK WATER!!!!


"If you take a glass of water and add two cubes of ice, you should see the cup's water level slightly rise right? You need to watch what I'm a show you......you need to look closely at what I'm a show you...........If you remove every living animal out of the sea, then wouldn't the world's ocean water level decrease? This means the planet wasn't three-quarters water. This means the planet isn't 3/4ths water." 
---Canibus





Source: "Arnold Schwarzenegger's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding," training knowledge