Hydrate Throughout the Day

So, you already know what dehydration can do to your body and your performance. You also know that you need to hydrate throughout the day in order to replenish what you lost the previous day and to prepare yourself for the coming day’s activities. However, you may not know what proper hydration is or how to hydrate before, during, and after rehearsals, workouts, and performances.

Making hard-set hydration rules for performing artists is difficult, given the busy schedule performers often have. The easiest way to identify hydration guidelines is to categorize the recommendations into before activity, during activity, and after activity. However, if a performer has class in the late morning, works out after lunch, has rehearsals in the afternoon, and performs that evening, it can be difficult to determine the appropriate hydration guideline to follow since the performer will be simultaneously rehydrating from one activity (like class) and “pre-hydrating” for another (working out).

One simple way to apply hydration guidelines to a performer’s schedule is to treat all of the time between the beginning of the first physical activity of the day to the end of the last activity of the day as the “during activity” phase. Each performer’s schedule is unique, and, therefore, each performer’s hydration protocol should be individually planned to match the needs of their schedule. Regardless of how you choose to implement these recommendations, focusing on hydration throughout the day will help maintain adequate hydration levels.

Here are some guidelines compiled by the leading experts in sports medicine and physical fitness:

Before Activity - "Pre-hydration"

• Drink 17-20 ounces of water or a sports drink 2-3 hours before the start of your activity
• Drink an additional 7-10 ounces of water or a sports drink 10-20 minutes before your activity begins.

During Activity

• For shorter, less intense activity sessions (up to 1 hour long), you do not need anything more than plain water for proper hydration.
• For longer activity sessions (more than 1 hour in duration – this is only the actual activity time, not the duration of the rehearsal or performance) and/or more intense activities, consuming a fluid with electrolytes and carbohydrates (like a sports drink) can provide more benefits to the body than plain water alone.
• When selecting a sports drink, choose one with a 3-6% solution (the amount of carbohydrates in the fluid). A 6% carbohydrate solution (the optimal mix for drinking during activity) translates to 14 grams carbohydrate per 8 ounce serving.
• Drink at least 7-10 ounces of fluid every 10-20 minutes of physical activity. This applies to physical activity that causes you to breathe hard and/or sweat (not standing around in rehearsal).
• Keep water or sports drinks with you anytime you’re doing physical activity (or just keep a water bottle with you everywhere you go). Easy access to fluids has been proven to lead to an increase in fluid intake and a decrease in dehydration.
• Drink cool beverages (refrigerator temperature). Cooler temperature promotes fluid intake.
• Flavored beverages also tend to promote more hydration than plain water (although there’s nothing wrong with drinking plain water during shorter or lower-intensity exercise sessions). However, make sure that the flavored beverage isn’t too sugary (they take too long to be digested in order to be effective).

Typically, hydrating during performing arts activities can be difficult, especially during a performance. Therefore, performers need to focus on hydrating every chance they get during a performance – at intermissions, during times off-stage (try to squeeze in a drink or two of water during every time you’re off-stage for longer than 10 seconds – enlist help if you need someone to have an open bottle of water standing by). To avoid upsetting stage managers, artistic directors, and facilities managers, performers should stick to water instead of drinking sports drinks or some other drink. That way, if you spill, you won’t stain a costume or make the floor sticky.

After Activity - Rehydration

Rehydrating after an activity should be completed within 2 hours to replace the fluids lost during exercise. The most scientific way to determine the exact amount of fluid lost is very complex and includes urine collection and analysis (in addition to several other sets of data). For obvious reasons, this is impractical, so a simplified guideline for rehydration is often used by most sports medicine and physical fitness professionals.

This recommendation calculates how much liquid a person needs to consume after exercise and relies on a pre-activity and post-activity body weight comparison. This means weighing yourself before and after activity. This may not be practical on a daily basis, but you can “cheat” a bit by establishing what’s normal for your body by doing this body weight comparison for one week. The results from this week can then be applied to all of the rest of your activities. The information you gather during this period can help you establish a baseline of what your individual fluid consumption needs are. You must also pay attention to your water consumption habits during the activities on these days, as this will play an important role in your level of dehydration at the end of the exercise bout. After determining your baseline for rehydration, you should focus on replicating your fluid consumption habits from your measurement days.

Determine how much of your pre-activity body weight was lost in terms of percent body weight.

For every 1% body weight lost during activity, consume 20 ounces of water or sports drink.

It is also important to consume other things (like sodium and carbohydrates) while recovering from activity. This can be ingested either through a sports drink or a meal. Remember, this meal should be consumed within 2 hours from the end of your physical activity; eating several hours after activity may compromise your body’s ability to replenish electrolytes and properly rehydrate.