An effective morning routine can set you up for the day. It’s difficult to make good decisions straight after getting up because your mind is still half asleep, but if you have a routine then you can take positive actions on autopilot.
For an athlete, starting your day on the right foot can make a huge difference in getting your mind and body in the right shape for training as well as other important parts of day-to-day life.
There are loads of resources available on the best activities you can do straight after waking up, and one of the most common tips is to drink water right at the start of the day.
Here’s why your morning routine should involve hydration.
Hydration Supports Performance & Recovery
We know through sports science that good hydration is critical for both your performance in workouts and for the recovery process for a number of reasons.
Adequate water levels are needed to transport oxygen and glucose to fuel the muscles when you are training. Staying hydrated will also help your body regulate its temperature during exercise, which is important for your body to work at maximum capacity.
It’s also harder for your body to remove metabolic byproducts from exercise, like carbon dioxide or lactic acid, if it’s dehydrated.
Not only does this make it harder to train, but it’s also been shown that dehydration is linked with worse muscle pain in the hours after exercising.
You Wake Up Dehydrated
Typically, we all wake up dehydrated. This is because we’ve drunk very little water during the nighttime hours and so water levels in our body are depleted.
That’s why you might notice you regularly feel very thirsty or that your urine might be darker first thing in the morning.
By getting water on board early in the day as part of your morning routine, you can help avoid dehydration.
This will help your body get into gear if you have a morning workout planned, and help with cognitive function for other tasks too, as water helps the brain do its job properly.
So while there are many other things you could include in your morning routine, getting a good drink of water should be one of the first.
This will help wake your body and mind up to focus fully on the next tasks at hand.
For an athlete, starting your day on the right foot can make a huge difference in getting your mind and body in the right shape for training as well as other important parts of day-to-day life.
There are loads of resources available on the best activities you can do straight after waking up, and one of the most common tips is to drink water right at the start of the day.
Here’s why your morning routine should involve hydration.
Hydration Supports Performance & Recovery
We know through sports science that good hydration is critical for both your performance in workouts and for the recovery process for a number of reasons.
Adequate water levels are needed to transport oxygen and glucose to fuel the muscles when you are training. Staying hydrated will also help your body regulate its temperature during exercise, which is important for your body to work at maximum capacity.
It’s also harder for your body to remove metabolic byproducts from exercise, like carbon dioxide or lactic acid, if it’s dehydrated.
Not only does this make it harder to train, but it’s also been shown that dehydration is linked with worse muscle pain in the hours after exercising.
You Wake Up Dehydrated
Typically, we all wake up dehydrated. This is because we’ve drunk very little water during the nighttime hours and so water levels in our body are depleted.
That’s why you might notice you regularly feel very thirsty or that your urine might be darker first thing in the morning.
By getting water on board early in the day as part of your morning routine, you can help avoid dehydration.
This will help your body get into gear if you have a morning workout planned, and help with cognitive function for other tasks too, as water helps the brain do its job properly.
So while there are many other things you could include in your morning routine, getting a good drink of water should be one of the first.
This will help wake your body and mind up to focus fully on the next tasks at hand.
