Alkaline water and athletic performance may not be related at first glance, but upon closer examination there could be a meaningful connection. How so? There are actually several different ways that drinking alkaline water could boost your ability to compete on game day or improve your training results in the gym. To help you discover the benefits of drinking alkaline water when trying to elevate your ability to perform at your best, let's take a look at this topic in more detail below.

Alkaline Water and Athletic Performance: Less Toxins.

First on the list of benefits of alkaline water, providing basic pH (alkaline) water to fuel your body, can help to reduce built-up acidic waste in your system. This is important when it comes to athletic pursuits, as acidic waste products include things like lactic acid - which can make your muscles sore and less responsive. Alkaline water may be able to help gently remove them from your body's tissues, so you can recover more quickly and train harder. While it isn't proven that alkaline water can have this effect on lactic acid specifically, experts on the topic of alkalizing your body, hold that high pH water can indeed remove acid waste produced from the foods that you eat (1).

Alkaline Water and Athletic Performance: More Antioxidant Effect.

You no doubt know that free radicals and oxidation within your body are harmful, which is why there is so much emphasis placed upon consuming a diet that is high in antioxidants. Surprisingly, the alkalinity of water isn't the only consideration, when looking at how high pH water can impact your athletic endeavors.

Alkaline ionized water takes the benefits a step further, by actually producing reduced water that has special properties. What are these? In addition to being alkaline in nature, reduced water also has a large number of electrons which it can freely donate. Why does this matter? It is able to give these unneeded electrons to active oxygen molecules, which are responsible for the oxidation occurring within your body (2). In other words, this water has an antioxidant effect – which can help keep you healthy and your body performing at its peak.

Alkaline Water and Athletic Performance: More Oxygen?

Some experts like Dr. David Williams – a chiropractor, biochemist and medical researcher who has explored the world for twenty-five years searching for natural treatments and remedies - have made a connection with an overly-acidic body and low oxygen levels (3). While more research is needed to suss out this possible connection, some think that it has to do with your body's hemoglobin. How does this work?

The hemoglobin in your blood is what carries the oxygen throughout your system (4), and it's ability to absorb oxygen may be diminished if too much acid waste is present (5). Drinking alkaline water could help to cleanse away this acidic waste, which may make your hemoglobin more efficient at its given task. As keeping your muscles oxygenated is critical for superior athletic performance, adding alkaline water to your training regimen may provide you with significant benefits.

Alkaline Water and Athletic Performance: Why Not Give It a Try?

For all of the reasons just covered, when searching for the best water to drink to elevate your body's ability to perform at its best, alkaline water may be well worth a try. Alkaline water could deliver a trio of benefits with every glass, as it could reduce the acidic waste in your body, provide antioxidant effect and may even boost the oxygenating capabilities of your hemoglobin.

These potential benefits make alkaline water an excellent choice, when considering what type of drink is best for your needs. All told, since proper hydration is a cornerstone of a healthy body, improving the type of water you're drinking could have a substantial impact, when it comes to your ability to compete and achieve even higher levels of performance.

SOURCES:

(1)
http://www.dreddyclinic.com/online_recources/pH/Acid_Out.pdf

(2)
http://jwkennedyfoundation.org/cancer-research/library/finish/1-general-articles/2-benefits-of-alkaline-ionized-water-by-by-dr-hidemitsu-hayashi/0

(3)
http://www.drdavidwilliams.com/proper-ph-balance/

(4)
http://www.rsc.org/Education/Teachers/Resources/cfb/transport.htm

(5)
http://www.lifeionizers.com/blog/alkaline-water-oxygenated-water/