Importance of Hydration in Combat Arts Workout Recovery
Dehydration can be a real problem for martial artists, MMA and UFC fighters. When UFC and MMA athletes are cutting weight before fights, often they do so by all possible means, which includes reducing fluid intake. This can lead to severe dehydration, setting them up for muscle cramps, decreased endurance, muscle and mental strength. Dehydration means there is not enough water in the body.
The body is approximately 60 to 70 percent water. Every cell, muscle and joint, the brain, the blood, the skin, every system in the body runs on water. It is considered the second most critical and essential physical need, and is second only to oxygen.
Source: Macrovector, Standard License, via Shutterstock
Body hydration, keeping the body fluids completely full or ‘topped off,’ is absolutely essential for proper training. Dehydration occurs when the body puts out or releases more water in the form of sweat, water vapor, etc. than it takes in.
Fourth Quarter Fatigue
Martial artists, fighters, and athletes experiencing “Fourth Quarter Fatigue” should know that dehydration can be a big contributor. Losing fluid through sweat can reduce focus and mental sharpness, muscle strength, and endurance, and can make muscle cramps more likely. That makes post workout hydration an even more critical part of the training regimen.
Dehydration, if left unchecked, can contribute to heat exhaustion, heat stroke, kidney damage, coma, and even death. In 2016, Australian Muay Thai fighter Jessica Lindsay collapsed while going for a run the day before her fight and later died. Her death was linked to severe dehydration while attempting to cut weight for the fight.
Water Usage Within the Body
The body runs on water. Compare the effects of a car engine that is low on water and oil. The car breaks down quickly, if it runs at all, because of overheating. If there is not enough lubrication within moving parts (similar to body joints without enough water), pistons and other parts simply break down and stop functioning. The body is extremely similar in its need for water. One thing water doesn’t do is “detox” you: your kidneys and liver do the cleanup work, and water simply helps the kidneys flush waste out in urine. There’s no compelling evidence that detox programs remove toxins from the body.
The Body Requires Water to:
Source: Kaliaha Volha, Standard License, via Shutterstock
Water for Athletic Performance
Water is vitally important for athletic performance. Martial artists particularly utilize every muscle in the body. Working muscles produce heat, and the body sweats to cool itself down, which uses up water that has to be replaced. Think of water as a performance enhancer that’s very reasonably priced! For the serious athlete it’s critically important to stay hydrated. Good hydration means getting the right amount of fluid before, during, and post workout.
Water regulates body temperature and keeps joints lubricated. It helps transport nutrients to give the body energy and keep it healthy. The body cannot perform at its highest level when dehydrated. Symptoms of fatigue, muscle cramps, confusion, dizziness, headache, and other serious dehydration signs may occur. It’s simple: studies have shown that athletes have a decrease in performance when dehydrated. Athletic energy and focus declines considerably and performance dive-bombs when dehydrated.
Staying Hydrated Can Help With Proper Recovery of Your Cells and Muscles
Learn More by Subscribing Today
Many MMA and UFC Fighters are Severely Dehydrated Before Competitions
Studies of fighters at weigh-ins have found that many MMA and UFC athletes arrive dehydrated because they restrict fluids to cut weight. This is totally reverse logic, since dehydration can make or break you in the ring. Even mild dehydration can dull concentration, reaction time, and decision making, so well-hydrated fighters are better placed to stay sharp and think on their feet.
Dead Within Days
A person can survive for weeks without food, but only a matter of days without water, and even less time in heat or during hard exertion.
How much water you need to stay fully hydrated depends on many factors, including individual physiology, body size, sweat rate, amount and types of exercise performed, duration and intensity of training, how often you train, along with local atmospheric conditions, i.e., how hot, humid, or dry it is where you live and train. There is no single daily number that fits every fighter, including popular targets like eight glasses or a gallon a day.
Drink regularly through the day, weigh yourself before and after training to learn your own sweat losses, and replace what you lose rather than forcing huge volumes. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends individualized fluid plans based on sweat rate, and warns against drinking so much that you gain weight during exercise, which raises the risk of dangerously low blood sodium (hyponatremia).
The body is unable to store water, yet needs it kept at a consistent level in order to function properly. Water contains zero calories, but is considered an essential nutrient, because it makes up to 70 percent of the body’s composition.
Signs of Dehydration
Early signs usually include thirst, dry mouth, dark yellow urine, headache, fatigue, and lightheadedness. As dehydration worsens, nausea, weakness, muscle cramps, and confusion can follow. Nobody wants to feel like this during training or competition! Dehydration is a serious issue that if left unchecked can quickly become an emergency. Dehydration makes heart rate increase, blood flow to the skin decrease, and body temperature rise because the body becomes less able to shed heat. Signs of dehydration vary, depending on circumstances, severity, and the individual.
Some Typical Signs of Dehydration Include:
Source: Irina Strelnikova, Standard License, via Shutterstock
Heat Illness
There are physical illnesses that may result from dehydration. These heat illnesses occur because the body cools itself and controls temperature through sweating. When dehydration occurs, the body will try to conserve water by not sweating normally. An athlete’s muscles are heating the body through training, which normally leads to sweating in order to cool the body back down. The three heat related illness are: heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke. All three of these heat illnesses are serious.
Heat cramps are painful muscle spasms in the legs, arms, back, or stomach. Heat illnesses don’t always follow a neat progression, so don’t wait for cramps before taking the heat seriously: heatstroke can strike without earlier warning signs. Heat exhaustion can bring heavy sweating, feeling faint or weak, dizziness, headache, nausea or vomiting, and a fast, weak pulse. Heatstroke is marked by a very high body temperature (104 degrees and up), hot, flushed skin, a fast heartbeat, and confusion or delirium, and it can lead to loss of consciousness or seizures. At the first signs of heat illness, stop training, get to a cool place, loosen clothing, and sip cool fluids if you are fully alert. Heatstroke is a life-threatening emergency that can lead to death: call emergency services, start cooling the person right away, and don’t give fluids to anyone who is vomiting or not fully conscious.
Weight Cuts, Dehydration and Kidney Stones
The UFC fight of Aug. 3rd, 2013, between UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo and Chan Sung Jung was brutal for both fighters. Aldo had injuries like the broken foot he got in the first round (!), and by the end of the fight Jung also had a broken foot and dislocated shoulder. Aldo also went to the hospital for kidney stones. Low fluid intake is a well-known risk factor for kidney stones, and the repeated dehydration that comes with cutting weight doesn’t help.
Area Conditions Do Count
It requires quite a bit more water to remain hydrated when training intensely in the semi-arid Southwestern region of the U.S. where temperatures can easily soar to 115 degrees with 8 percent humidity.
For instance, than it does to stay hydrated when training at a similarly intense level in the more temperate and humid Northeastern U.S. Or think about training in Death Valley, where average temperatures are in the triple digits, and in 2017 reached 127 degrees during the day in summer with low humidity.
Training outdoors there is regarded as a safety hazard because it is so desperately hot.
It also matters whether training takes place indoors with air controlled conditions, or if it involves running up hiking trails in the mountains, or doing sandy beach kung fu. Always take into account the local area conditions, unless training inside with controlled temperatures.
Hydration Considerations:
Monitor Your Body
How Much is Enough?
Source: Zaur Rahimov, Standard License, via Shutterstock
Water or Sports Drinks?
To learn more about how to prevent these issues, read our post on "Avoiding Dehydration Issues."
How Many Glasses of Water Are You Drinking a Day?
Not Enough? We Can Help!
Homemade Energy Electrolyte Drinks
You can make your own sports/electrolyte drinks at home. Just be warned, they may not taste as good as what you buy in the stores. A home kitchen doesn’t have access to the flavor additives the big companies use. For most classes under about an hour, plain water and normal meals are enough. For long, intense sessions, heavy sweating, hot conditions, or multiple bouts in a day, a drink with sodium and some carbohydrate, homemade or store-bought, can help maintain performance and replace what you lose in sweat. Just watch the sugar in drinks you use day to day.
Most of these recipes use coconut water, mineral/vitamin drops, and a pinch of salt. The coconut water and salt supply the electrolytes, and ordinary table salt works just as well as sea salt. Honey is added for both flavor and carbohydrates.
Coconut water has 600 mg of potassium, 60mg of magnesium, and 252 mg of sodium per cup in the form of chloride and sulfate salts. All of the electrolytes in this drink are easily assimilated in the body. Coconut water could be a sports drink on its own.
Source: Valentina_G, Standard License, via Shutterstock
The mineral/vitamin drops add a few more nutrients, making the sports drink more rounded concerning nutrition. They aren’t necessary, but an easy way to get more vitamins and minerals into your diet. Concentrace is one brand.
The salt adds the remaining sodium, as the body can lose a gram of sodium in an hour’s workout. Unrefined sea salt contains tiny traces of other minerals such as magnesium, but the amounts are too small to matter, so regular table salt works just as well for replacing sodium.
Honey and natural maple syrup are natural sweeteners and supply some trace minerals. They aren’t necessary for the sports drink, but certainly adds flavor and texture to the fluid. Plus, they can give you a boost of energy from the carbs to improve post workout hydration.
- Watermelon Cooler
- Ginger Warming Drink
Source: Africa Studio, Standard License, via Shutterstock
When to See a Doctor
You should see a doctor right away if you have symptoms of dehydration that don’t improve with rest and fluids, or symptoms of heat exhaustion. Heatstroke, fainting, confusion, or seizures are emergencies, so call emergency services. You should also get urgent care if you have symptoms of a rare but dangerous condition caused by drinking too much, called hyponatremia. These include confusion, headache, nausea, vomiting, and swelling of the hands and feet.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Water Should Martial Artists Drink?
There is no single number that fits everyone, because body size, sweat rate, session length, and heat all change your needs. Drink regularly through the day, top up before training, and sip during longer sessions. To gauge losses, weigh yourself before and after a workout and drink roughly one and a half times the weight you lost over the next few hours.
What Are the Signs of Dehydration During Training?
Early signs include thirst, dry mouth, dark yellow urine, headache, fatigue, and dizziness. As it worsens you may notice muscle cramps, nausea, confusion, a racing heart, or reduced sweating in the heat. Stop training, move somewhere cool, and drink fluids. If you feel faint, confused, or very hot to the touch, treat it as a medical emergency and get help right away.
Is Cutting Weight by Dehydration Dangerous?
Yes. Rapid weight cuts through sweating and fluid restriction can impair strength, endurance, reaction time, and decision making, and they raise the risk of heat illness and kidney problems. Fighters have died during extreme cuts. Rehydrating after weigh-ins may not fully restore performance. Manage weight gradually through diet and training, and work with a doctor or sports dietitian if you compete in weight classes.
Do Martial Artists Need Electrolyte or Sports Drinks?
For most classes under about an hour, plain water and normal meals are enough. For long, intense sessions, hot conditions, heavy sweating, or multiple bouts in a day, a drink with sodium and some carbohydrate can help maintain performance and replace what you lose in sweat. Watch the sugar content of drinks you use day to day, and remember food also supplies electrolytes.
Can You Drink Too Much Water During Training?
Yes. Drinking far more than you sweat out can dilute blood sodium, a dangerous condition called hyponatremia. Warning signs include nausea, headache, confusion, bloating, and swelling of the hands and feet. Drink to thirst and aim to replace losses rather than forcing large volumes, and do not gain weight during a session. Anyone with confusion or vomiting after heavy drinking needs urgent medical care.
