I have a client who was joking with me about how I should up my muscle head game and start carrying around a gallon jug of water everywhere I go. As always when this client says things I laugh because he has an excellent sense of humor. For those who don’t get this, there is a running joke that bodybuilders always carry around a gallon jug of water.  

Last weekend I was dehydrated. I know this because I was bloated and seemed to be retaining fluids. That’s usually one of my signs. There are other reasons for feeling and being bloated. I knew my body well and knew I was feeling dehydrated.  

At the beginning of the week, I told myself I needed to up my water game. Bodybuilders tend to get a lot of things correct when it comes to exercise and diet. They’ve done this long before there was such a thing called “fitness influencers''. For example, bodybuilders have been walking around with one-gallon jugs of water for at least two decades. Now, the trend is for everyone to walk around with their special Stanley water bottle. What was it last year?  

You may be wondering why the jug of water. The water requirements given to us by the American Heart Association and American College of Sports Medicine range from drinking ½ of your weight in ounces to up to a gallon (128 ounces) daily. If you are active, you need to be at the upper end. Bodybuilder says, “Problem solved, I’ll get a gallon from the supermarket and drink.”  Sure, we can drink too much, but it is rare. The jugheads are pretty smart when it comes to this. Just buy a gallon, when it’s gone, I drank a gallon! We have fun, but who’s the dumb one? 

 I have two points to make on this. A less important one for now and a more important one.  Let me start with the less important one. Bodybuilders who have famously been picked on for being muscle heads and even can be thought of as idiots make so many great points, typically with their actions. Let me make it clear that this reputation is ignorant. There aren't any groups that are dumber or smarter than any groups. Right? You know this right? Arnold Schwarzenegger used to be made fun of for how he spoke. He took speech lessons before acting because experts said he was dumb. Well, last I checked, his social and financial status has trumped most people who have ever lived. So, if that’s dumb, sign me up. 

The stereotype is false just like all stereotypes. We have smart muscle heads and dumb ones! We have smart lawyers and dumb ones. We have smart athletes and dumb ones. We have smart politicians and dumb ones (ok maybe to get into this profession we’d have to question if they were ever smart!). And naturally, I’m using “dumb” tongue in cheek. I don’t believe any of us can judge who is smart and, who is dumb.  

As a group of athletes, they tend to get so much right about working out. Maybe because they are obsessed with progress? Maybe we can learn from their obsession. They tend to, almost always, drink the correct amount of water. They’ve been eating “clean” decades before Izzy influencer told you to. Bodybuilders told you not to diet and simply make lifestyle choices such as working out and eating clean long before Franny Facebook told you about her “clean eating” method. They get a lot right!  

Now to my second point: Drink more water, people! Pure water! I was making the mistake of drinking a lot of seltzer water and water substitutes. Why? Boredom, I guess. I have one client who always says he drinks pure water and iced tea. And that’s it. That’s rather good! As Americans, we drink that and everything else. Soda, diet soda, lattes, seltzer water, Gatorade, Powerade, G2, Perrier Water, smoothies, Frappuccino's, beer, wine, etc. When you start bringing your beer, to the gym, in your Stanley Thermos to work out, we get to talk. Don’t laugh, it’s happened (long before Stanley Bottles were a thing, but beer was brought into the gym). People are weird! Hazel and Pebble, my little furry kids at home, drink their water daily from both of their bowls. They drink them down and I fill them up. That’s it. They don’t ask me to add an additive to their water, so they drink it down. Now, occasionally if I leave that toilet seat up, Hazel might hydrate via the toilet fountain. Not ideal.  

We need to drink pure water. How much? More. We need water. Our body is 70% water and needs to stay hydrated. Most of us don’t drink enough. Water helps us lose weight and maintain our body weight. Staying hydrated helps with digestion. Helps with absorption. It obviously helps with maintaining our body temperature. It is the biggest variable there! Drink pure water.  

The Jugheads have tricks. Maybe it’s time you join the world of muscle heads and walk around with your gallon of water! If that isn’t for you, what is going to be your trick? It’s not about knowing the information, it’s about how we are going to apply the information.  

What will be your trick to making sure you are drinking more and enough pure water?