This month's topic:
Hydration and Martial Arts Training

The most important nutrient in your body is plain water.

To reach optimal levels of peak performance in martial arts training the quality of your muscle tissues, their performance and their resistance to injury is absolutley dependent on the quality and quantity of the water you drink. That old school martial arts mentality of "NO WATER" during training is so archaic and plain stupid.

No matter if you are an Olympic fighter, training to be a pro MMA fighter or just a once a week martial art practitioner you should have some general knowledge of how important it is during training to be properly hydrated.

The more serious training you are doing the more serious you need to be about your water consumption.

Fact:

If you dehydrate a muscle by only 3% you can cause up to a 10% loss of contractile strength and 8% loss of speed.

To achieve the best personally or professionally do not overlook drinking the right amount of water.

How much? Everyone is completely different and every training situation is different. But a very simple guideline would be.

Prehydrate before training. Drink a glass of water an hour before training. Sip water throughout your training session and then follow up with a big glass after. Again this is a very generic guideline and every situation is different.

If you have any questions or would like more detail on this subject or any of the others we discuss, please e-mail me at;

Steve@smaws.com

Steve Van Williams has been training people in fitness and martial arts for over 20 years. He is an elite Master Trainer, nutritionist, exercise scientist and a 4th degree black belt.