Fruits, vegetables, soups, and grains have a high water content, particularly lettuce, broccoli, grapefruit, carrot, apple, spaghetti cooked , watermelon, and skim milk.

Produce is also rich in potassium, which helps restore and maintain electrolyte balance, thereby preventing dehydration. The trick to staying adequately hydrated is avoiding becoming thirsty to begin with, as thirst can be a signal of dehydration.

Instead, slowly sip 16 ounces of water during the hour before class. Think again! Contact Us. Host a Retreat. Most of us associate dehydration with headaches, wrinkles, fatigue, and thirst.

Indeed, these are just some of the possible consequences, but did you know that dehydration affects your brain as well? Here are our top 10 tips for staying hydrated this spring:. Experts recommend drinking 8 glasses of water everyday. But when? The best rule of thumb is to listen to your body.

Try to tune-in and be aware of your own hydration levels. This is a surprisingly new concept for most people, but its actually quite easy. If you really look at your skin, at the whites of your eyes, at your tongue or even your hair you can get a sense of your moisture levels.

Try to increase personal awareness of your hydration and adjust your intake for your own personal best results. Skip throwaway plastic water bottles that harm the environment.

Invest in a metal carry bottle to help you track your water intake each day. Many restaurants now offer free drinking water refills to people with carry-bottles. This initiative helps communities bond together to minimize plastic consumption.

VIKASA will soon provide some nifty metal carry-bottles as a free gift for our yoga teacher training students. They can keep your water cold or your tea hot. Whether you prefer limes, lemons, oranges, berries, or cucumbers, infusing your water with fresh fruit can make for a refreshing and spa-like beverage, without any added artificial sweeteners or preservatives.

Before reaching for the nearest source of calories, drink some water! You might not even need that nap you were craving, it might be solved with a simple sip-and-go back to action! Yes, juices, milk, and herbal teas can all help hydrate your body—even caffeinated drinks in moderation can provide you with much-needed water.

However, water is what your body is really craving, so you might as well go straight to the source. Sticking with H2O will help you skip the unnecessary sugars, additives, and caffeine found in other drinks.

If it feels impossible to guzzle down 64 ounces in a single day, you may want to come up with a hydrating schedule.

As soon as you wake up, make it a point to drink 10 ounces of water—after a night of fasting, your body will appreciate a morning quencher. Drinking a predetermined number of ounces throughout the day such as at meals, and before, during, and after a workout can also keep you on track.

All whole fruits and vegetables contain some amount of water, but munch on these top picks for maximum benefit:. An ancient superfood that sustained the Aztec and Mayan peoples for generations, chia seeds are hydrating nutrient powerhouses.

These tiny seeds are hydrophilic, meaning they absorb water up to 12 times their weight! We take water along with us in the car, on our bike rides, and to the office. But do we really need that bottle at the ready for a short vinyasa class?

A four-hour marathon aside, few of us in industrialized nations are in danger of keeling over from dehydration in a yoga class thanks to diets abundant in fruits, salads, veggies, and well, yes, sports drinks, coconut water, herbal teas, and even vitamin-fortified water.

Your body and breath should flow, but your water bottle should not—at least not throughout your yoga practice. Not drinking water while practicing yoga may sound strange and counterintuitive, but there are many physiological and energetic effects of water consumption on your body.

Maximizing hydration while maintaining a regular yoga practice is a bit of a balancing act. Still, it can be achieved by following simple tips on when and how much water to drink before heading off to the yoga studio.

While helpful, this advice is often too simple since thirst is a signal that your body is already headed towards dehydration.

Previously, studies recommended drinking eight glasses of water per day, but now most health advisors recognize that individuals require different amounts of water due to various internal and external factors, including gender, body type, environment, and lifestyle.

For example, people who exercise frequently or who live in hot, dry, or high-altitude environments generally need more water. It is also recommended to drink in proportion to your body size, and men are likely to need more water than women.

If you want to calculate a specific amount of water that works for you , keep in mind that nearly all food and beverage intake contributes to your daily liquid consumption. Frequent light-headedness, headaches, or dryness whether in your skin, mouth, eyes, or lips all indicate that you should increase your water intake.

Dark urine, infrequent urination, or constipation could indicate that you should drink more. Signs of dehydration during asana practice or other forms of exercise include lack of sweat, cramping, and muscle stiffness.

On the other hand, it is indeed possible to over-hydrate. When you drink too much water or consume it too quickly, frequent urination depletes the electrolytes that your body needs to properly digest food and stay hydrated.

Heaviness in the abdomen and bloating are also signs that you may be drinking more water than necessary. Ayurveda advises certain practices for drinking water that can help to achieve optimal hydration.

Cold water is an enemy of the concept of agni, the digestive fire that we need to circulate prana life force energy throughout our bodies.

Ayurveda expert Dr. Vasant Lad goes so far as to call cold water a poison to the digestive system. Boiling water stimulates digestion and circulation, making it easier for your body to absorb nutrients and flush out toxins.

Ayurveda also recommends a practice called ushapan, which is simply drinking water about one whole liter first thing in the morning. For maximum absorption, practice sipping slowly and in a seated position to ensure that your body and organs are relaxed. With a fast-paced yoga class , slowly drinking eight ounces of water at least 30 minutes beforehand is beneficial to maintain hydration.

If possible, avoid drinking water immediately before or during class. In addition to making our physical bodies feel inflated, consuming large amounts of water before or during a practice also interferes with our energy bodies ; one theory says that sipping during yoga practice is akin to pouring water over our inner fire as we try to build it.

While participating in strenuous physical activity, we often mistake a need for water with a need for air. If this rings a bell, resisting the unnecessary desire to drink water can be a good practice in tapas , or self-discipline, since using compassionate self-restraint against our urges helps us build strength through transformation.

If you do indeed feel thirsty during yoga, take a moment to check in with your body. Hot yoga classes , which could mean room temperatures ranging from 90 to degrees, pose different considerations.

At that thermostat setting, you are talking considerable heat combustion: in addition to the external room temperature, the body is generating its own internal heat during asanas.

A few dozen rounds of downward and upward facing dogs, warriors, and handstands in a hot room can render a yogi the ego-satisfying sweat drench—as it tries to cool you down—but with the room temperature high, you suddenly have the potential for heat exhaustion and dehydration.

Drink enough water in the 24 hours leading up to hot yoga to avoid feeling faint as you start to sweat.

When you drink water in class, do so mindfully. Slowly sip water instead of chugging it. Sports performance research shows that losing just two percent of your body weight in fluid can decrease performance by up to 25 percent.

At that rate, you stand to lose your mental edge and ability to perform the asanas optimally. Higher percentages can be potentially life-threatening.

Your best strategy to prepare for a hot yoga class: drink plenty of fluids the day before class. Make it water, nutrient-rich clear drinks or juice blends even sports drinks.