{"id":159630,"date":"2025-08-19T23:34:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T23:34:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159630\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T23:34:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T23:34:15","slug":"how-to-actually-hydrate-properly-during-your-hot-sweaty-outdoor-workout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/159630\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Actually Hydrate Properly During Your Hot, Sweaty Outdoor Workout"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s no doubt that working out in the heat can be rough. But if you find yourself on a major struggle bus\u2014maybe you\u2019re cramping, nauseated, or super fatigued\u2014you might just not be drinking enough<\/a>. \u201cPeople who are adamantly like, \u2018Oh, no, no, no, I can\u2019t train in the heat, I feel horrible,\u2019 that, to me, is a huge red flag of not doing hydration right,\u201d sports dietitian Meghann Featherstun, RD, CSSD,<\/a> owner of Featherstone Nutrition, tells SELF.<\/p>\n

In news to no one, we sweat a lot more when it\u2019s stinking hot out, meaning the risk of dehydration<\/a> is higher. And that can make a massive difference in how our workouts feel. \u201cYour organs and your cells need water to properly function,\u201d Monique Marcelino, MS,<\/a> director of athlete research at the University of Connecticut\u2019s Korey Stringer Institute, who studies thermoregulation, tells SELF. In particular, we need enough fluid for our blood to simultaneously deliver oxygen to our muscles and to go to our skin to cool us off. Losing blood volume through sweat makes both of these tasks harder. \u201cSo as we get dehydrated, our core body temperature rises faster and our heart rate rises faster,\u201d Featherstun says.<\/p>\n

This increases the risk of heat illnesses<\/a> like heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Plus, all it takes is losing 2% of your body weight for your athletic performance to do a nosedive. It\u2019ll feel harder to hit the same paces. Your muscles might cramp and your GI tract could rebel (think: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea). You may get lightheaded, dizzy, or even a bit confused.<\/p>\n

So what can you do to avoid this fate during the next heat wave? SELF touched base with hydration experts and sports dietitians to find out.<\/p>\n

Play the preventive game.<\/p>\n

Setting yourself up well before your workout is huge. That\u2019s why the American College of Sports Medicine recommends getting in about 5 to 7 milliliters of fluid per kilogram of body weight<\/a> (or about .1 ounces per pound) at least four hours before heading out in the heat, if possible. Yes, coffee can count toward that, Featherstun says, though Marcelino suggests also having some plain water too, since caffeine can have a bit of a diuretic effect<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Going into your workout properly hydrated will give you a head start on avoiding that increased heart rate and core body temp, Floris Wardenaar, PhD,<\/a> an associate professor of nutrition at the Arizona State University\u2019s College of Health Solutions who studies hydration, tells SELF. Plus, you\u2019ll just feel better. \u201cBeing good and well-hydrated during the day is good preparation before even starting your workout,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Drink up during\u2014and let an at-home science experiment guide you to how much.<\/p>\n

Just sipping water whenever you feel thirsty isn\u2019t the best way to stay hydrated when you\u2019re sweating through a toasty HIIT session or long run. \u201cIf you feel thirsty, that means that you are already on the way to getting dehydrated,\u201d Marcelino says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s no doubt that working out in the heat can be rough. But if you find yourself on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":159631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[9155,10668,1198,210,11827,92513,1236,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-159630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-cardio","9":"tag-dehydration","10":"tag-fitness","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-hydration","13":"tag-outdoor-workouts","14":"tag-running","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115058053136055289","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}