How staying hydrated will help your Pilates performance

When you are hydrated you feel stronger and can exercise more effectively. This is because your heart can pump blood more easily around your body, transporting oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and brain, fuelling your muscles, boosting your energy levels and help you to concentrate.

When you exercise you can lose water through your breathing and sweating. Dehydration leads to muscle fatigue and loss of co-ordination. You may also be more likely to suffer from muscle cramps and find it harder to control your core temperature.

Although generally a Pilates session may not be strenuous enough to cause you to sweat buckets, you will still lose some water and likely more water than if you weren’t moving.
So, when your muscles feel too tired to finish a Pilates session or you forget which is your right leg and left arm, take a break, grab a drink of water and then get back to it.

Before Pilates

• Drink steadily during the day and aim to drink around 450ml of fluid two to four hours before your exercise as it takes time for fluids to be absorbed into your body.
• Drink if you feel thirsty.
• You may need to drink more if you’re exercising in very hot weather.

During Pilates

• Make sure you always have a bottle of water handy when you do Pilates, so even you are not sweating you can still prevent dehydration.
• Drink little and often.
• The amount you need to drink will depend on how much you sweat, how long you are exercising for, your size, gender, fitness, weather and environment.

After Pilates

• Drinking water after a Pilates session is enough to replace any fluid you’ve lost. This will help your muscles to recover quicker.
• Avoid treating yourself to a glass of wine straight after as this removes water from your body by increasing the amount you excrete in urine.

Drinking enough will help you get the most out of your Pilates session and feel good whilst doing it.

You can find Pilates sessions to follow along and do on my YouTube channel.

Or you can join one of my classes if you are local to me.

And of course please join my free Facebook group for other Pilates tips, exercises and motivation.