Some tips on hydration when exercising

If you fail in keeping yourself hydrated you can suffer from fatigue, lower your performance, lessen your endurance, etc. We all have heard that we should drink at least 8 glasses of water every day but when we exercise or practice sports we should drink water even more not to get dehydration, to help our body to function properly and to compensate the water we lost through sweating.

To know how much extra water you should drink, you should weight yourself before and after your workout. For every pound lost during exercising you should drink 500 ml of fluid. You should also drink water before (250 to 500ml 1 hour before exercise), during and after working out.

You can also have sports drinks but you will only really benefit from those if you do intense workouts for longer hours such as running for more than 1 hour. Sports drinks can help in that case cause they also have carbohydrates that will give you energy and also sodium which will help to absorb fluids. For the regular people on a light to moderate exercise routine water is better cause it is quickly absorbed by the body and has zero calories.

Remember to keep yourself hydrated throughout the day. In case you have any alcohol or drinks with caffeine (hopefully you will avoid them), try to drink at least one glass of water for every drink you have. 

Lifting Weights v Cardio while bulking up

In the gym, one of the questions that I get most from guys that are trying to bulk up is if doing cardio will ruin their attempt to build up muscles. If bulking up is your goal, you can still do cardio but it is important that your cardio comes after your resistance training because you need to have as much energy as possible for lifting weights since building muscles is your priority. You can also alternate between one day of resistance training and one day of cardio. Cardio exercises are still important to keep or improve your cardio fitness levels. 

Don’t forget, doing cardio for 5 minutes as a warm up is essential to prepare your body for the workout, raise the body temperature, prevent injuries and it will not compromise your resistance training at all. 

Don’t be ashamed of being a beginner!

It is important to tell your Fitness Instructor, that you are a beginner when you go to a class for the first time. No-one should be ashamed of being a beginner and before you know it you will be surprised on how much you have progressed and how much easier it is to follow the classes, if you do them regularly. Rememeber, everybody was a beginner once… even the fitness instructors. I would like to add that it is also important that Fitness instructors ask, before class, if there are any beginners, or people with injuries, pregnancies, diabetis, asthma, etc because those people require special cues and instructions to follow during the class.

Next time you go to a fitness class, don’t be shy! Tell the fitness instructor everything he or she needs to know so you can benefit from the classes with adequate instructions, avoiding injuries or making a medical condition worse. Just be proud of being there trying to get fit and healthier. Just enjoy and have fun!

Aerobic Classes

Date: Tuesdays


Time:  7pm


Location: Rush Fitness Health Club (in the St. Maurs GAA Complex)


Price: €5 for members or €8 for non-members

Call (01)8071359 to book a class

Aerobic moves, combined in fun choreographies, exercised to music for 45 minutes. No need to know how to dance.

 The classes suit all fitness levels. Some benefits of an aerobic session:

·        Improves well-being and fitness levels

·        Burns fat

·        Improves efficiency of heart and lungs

·        Helps to reduce blood pressure & cholesterol levels

·        Great fun while working out.