Water Works!

One of the most frustrating parts about my personal training sessions is that my weight fluctuates so much because of water retention after weight training. It gets particularly bad after we train my legs, and I can literally see a 1 pound increase after just 30 minutes of lunges and squats. The oddest part is that I can also see and feel in my legs where the water is stuck... it's kinda gross!

I have figured out a couple things that seem to help though. First, I make sure I stretch out really well after my training sessions. At least 60 seconds for each stretch on each leg when I stretch out my quads and my hamstrings. I also try to massage my quads a bit as I'm doing the stretch, and it helps them loosen up and feel better faster.

I've also been drinking a heck of a lot of water. It seemed really counter-intuitive to me early on... if I drink more water, that's just more water that my body can hold on to, so I would actually drink less after my training sessions. However, when I noticed that the water weight was sticking around for days after my sessions, I looked up remedies online and found that I should actually be increasing my water consumption a lot after my workouts so that my body understands that it doesn't NEED to hold onto the water. So... I've been drinking at least 16 8-oz. glasses (that's a whole gallon!!!) of water every day. And the water weight has gone down much more quickly.

I'm also being more careful about my sodium intake, as that can lead to water retention as well. As long as I'm drinking plenty of water, it should mostly flush out, but I just need to be aware of how much sodium is in my diet to make sure I'm not going overboard and eating more than my body (and all the water) can process.

I'm still seeing great results, and I feel like I'm starting to understand how all the pieces of a healthy lifestyle fit together. It's exciting!