Train Hard Live Life Well

Exercise Idea: The Dead Lift

2009-12-16T13:03:00.000-04:30

The Dead Lift is an excellent exercise for overall body development - if you do it right. A well executed dead lift works not only the hamstrings, quadriceps, erector spinae, gluteus maximus, and adductor magnus, it also challenges a variety of other muscles to provide stability.

Keep in mind that you must maintain a neutral spine position, arching and curving your back places stress on the intervertebral disks, and lets your muscles slack off. Doing dead lifts propperly can help protect your back in your day-to-day life because deadlifts teach you to keep your lower back rigid against a load. Keeping your back in a neutral position helps avoid injuries when lifting heavy objects from the floor.

Don't roll your shoulders, your hip muscles should move the weight, not your shoulders. To make sure you push from the heels (to protect your knees) curl your toes up. Start the lift with your shoulder blades directly over the bar. This will ensure that your hips and knees are at the right angle.

Strong bones are good bones.

2009-12-11T12:52:00.001-04:30

NEW FLASH!!! calcium is key for healthy bones. Getting enough calcium throughout you life helps build bones up and helps slow the loss of bone. Increased calcium intake—particularly in the form of the currently recommended three glasses of milk per day—will help prevent osteoporosis. Each year, osteoporosis leads to more than 1.5 million fractures, including 300,000 broken hips.

Calcium is a mineral that the body needs for building and maintaining bones and teeth, blood clotting, the transmission of nerve impulses, and the regulation of the heart's rhythm. Some studies indicate that low levels of calcium are related to obesity.

1 percent of the calcium in the human body is stored in the blood and other tissues. Ninety-nine percent is found in the bones and teeth.

The body gets the calcium it needs in two ways.

One is by eating foods and supplements that contain calcium. Good food sources include dairy products, which have the highest concentration per serving of highly absorbable calcium, and dark leafy greens or dried beans, which have varying amounts of absorbable calcium.

The other way the body gets calcium is by removing it from storage in your bones. This happens when your blood calcium levels are too low. Ideally, the calcium that is "checked out" of storage in your bones will be "checked in" again later. But, that doesn't always happen. Most important, this payback can't be accomplished simply by eating more calcium.

There are a number of lifestyle factors that can influence calcium storage in your bones:

Getting regular exercise, especially weight-bearing and muscle strengthening exercise.
Getting adequate vitamin D, whether through diet, exposure to sunshine, or supplements.
Consuming enough calcium to reduce the amount the body has to borrow from bone.
Consuming adequate vitamin K, found in green, leafy vegetables.

Physical activity that puts some strain or stress on bones causes the bones to retain and possibly even gain density throughout life. If you look at the shin bones of champion kick boxers you will understand. Cells within the bone sense this stress and respond by making the bone stronger and denser. "Weight-bearing" exercises include weightlifting, walking, dancing, racquet sports, jogging, stair-climbing, and hiking.

Swimming is a good exercies, but because water supports the bones, rather than putting stress on them, it's not considered a good "weight-bearing" exercise for bone strength. Also be aware: physical activity doesn't strengthen all your bones equally, just those that are stressed, so you need a variety of exercises or activities to keep all your bones healthy.

Another way that physical activity helps, is that it increases coordination and strength. Active people can often avoid the falls and situations that cause fractures.

Oh, to have the legs of a sprinter

2009-12-09T23:02:00.000-04:30

Here's a plan for 2 weeks worth of great running workouts. It's based on 4 workouts a week, let's say Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, followed by Saturday afternoon. 50% of the workouts are "sprints-based" and should be done on the track, 50% are "endurance" and should be done on your favorite running trails. Because these workouts are high intensity workouts you should leave the alternate days to rest, or concentrate on your abs and upper body on the alternating days.

The sprints are an interesting variation of the typical cardio workout, and can also do wonders for your glutes and legs. The endurance runs burn lots of calories and can give you a great endorphin lift.

Day 1 - Week 1

5 minutes general stretch
5 minutes jogging, start increasing your speed little by little

8 series of 50m HARD sprint followed by 1 minute fast walking

5 minutes jogging

8 series of 50m HARD sprint followed by 1 minute fast walking

5 minutes jogging, decrease the intensity little by little
5 minutes general stretch

Day 2 - Week 1

5 minutes walking (try to lengthen your stride)
5 minutes general stretch

40 minutes running on hilly terrain

5 minutes general stretch
5 minutes walking (try to lengthen your stride)

Day 3 - Week 1

5 minutes general stretch
5 minutes jogging, start increasing your speed little by little

8 series of 100m HARD sprint followed by 1 minute fast walking

5 minutes jogging
8 series of 100m HARD sprint followed by 1 minute fast walking

5 minutes jogging, decrease the intensity little by little
5 minutes general stretch

Day 4 - Week 1

5 minutes walking (try to lengthen your stride)
5 minutes stretching

60 minutes or more running -keep your heart rate and breathing at a level where you can maintain a conversation

5 minutes walking (try to lengthen your stride)
5 minutes stretching

Day 1 - Week 2

5 minutes general stretch
5 minutes jogging, start increasing your speed little by little

5 series of 150m sprint followed by 1 minute fast walking
Sprint 200m jog 100m
Sprint 100m jog 100m
Sprint 50m

5 minutes gentle jogging

Sprint 50m
Sprint 100m jog 100m
Sprint 200m jog 100m
5 series of 150m sprint followed by 1 minute fast walking

5 minutes jogging, decreasing your speed little by little
5 minutes general stretching

Day 2 - Week 2

5 minutes walking
5 minutes general stretch

30 minutes running. pick a sustainable pace and see how far you get, then multiply by 2 to find out your mph

5 minutes walking
5 minutes general stretch

Day 3 - Week 2

5 minutes general stretch
5 minutes jogging, start increasing your speed little by little

sprint 20m jog 80m - repeat5 times
walk 1 minute

sprint 30m jog 70m - repeat 4 times
walk 1 minute

sprint 40m jog 60m - repeat 3 times
walk 1 minute

sprint 50m jog - repeat 2 times
walk 1 minute

sprint 40m jog 60m - repeat 3 times
walk 1 minute

sprint 30m jog 70m - repeat 4 times
walk 1 minute

sprint 20m jog 80m - repeat5 times
walk 1 minute

5 minutes jogging, decreasing your speed little by little
5 minutes general stretching

Day 4 - Week 2

walk 5 minutes, try to increase your stride length
5 minutes general stretch

run 10k (or 20 if you feel like it)... if you can run on the beach

walk 5 minutes,
5 minutes general stretch

Human vs Animal Animpics: Sprint 100m

2009-12-08T23:13:00.000-04:30

How do humans stack up against our animal relatives in different sports? There are a lot of sports that we will never be able to answer the question for because animals would not play by the rules or could not use the required equipment. For example, finding an animal team to play hockey is out of the question. But some sports are possible for animals, especially the classic individual track and field events.

So let us organize the world's first Human vs Animal Animpics and hand out the medals to see who does best overall. Now one thing is that the humans get to choose their best athlete in each category. Human athletes have the advantage of specific, hard training to excel in their event. Animals do not generally train for specific events, but to overcome that disadvantage, we choose the animal competitor for the species most suited to the event.

So first event up: sprinting, in particular the 100 meters. Who do we pick to represent humans? Everyone would immediately pick Usain Bolt of course. He is the current world record holder. And which animal species do we use to represent the non-human competition? Let's pick a cheetah. Cheetahs are often said to be the world's fastest land animal.

Now how to set up the event? Well, we can't run Usain Bolt and a cheetah in the same race. We already know Bolts' time: it is his world record of 9.58 seconds. And the video below shows a cheetah called Sarah that did the 100m in 6.130 seconds.

So recapping the event: humans represented by Usain Bolt: 9.58 seconds.
Animals represented by Sarah the Cheetah: 6.130 seconds.

And the gold medal goes to .... THE ANIMALS!

Animpics Standings: Animals 1 Humans 0

Pregnant Sit-Ups

2009-12-07T23:11:00.000-04:30

We all know that the old myths about doing exercise while pregnant are bunk. A healthy woman, who has checked in with her OB/Gyn, can and should exercise regularly. She just needs to drink plenty of water, be careful about overheating, and listen to her body. But what about abdominals?

Abdominal exercises can help prepare the body for labor. Studies show that women who continue to do abdominal exercises throughout their pregnancy suffer less from back pain and diastasis recti (separation of the abdominal muscles). Also, if you continue you take care of your body you are more likely to feel like the beautiful woman you are, strong and sexy.

After the first trimester pregnant women shouldn't do basic sit ups lying flat on their back, as the extra weight of the uterus can press down on the vena cava, a blood vessel that returns most of your blood back to the heart. That just means that you have to be a bit creative in designing your ab routine. Here are some exercises I like:

The side crunch: It's pretty obvious what you need to do, the lower arm can also be stretched out on the floor for balance. This is a great way to work on your obliques

The reverse crunch: tighten your abs and try to lift your pelvis and legs up. Its like a big pelvic tilt, a great way to strengthen your lower abs.

The Crunch: A classic crunch, adapted to a 45º angle. Great for the upper abs.

The Cat: a great way of working the deep abdominals. (Ok I couldn't find any pictures of a pregnant woman doing this exercise, but several expectant moms in the gym use this exercise and love it)

1-2-3 Abs

2009-12-06T22:47:00.000-04:30

Ok that thing about the eating contest with the bear gave me a nightmare...

So here are 3 videos of great abdominal workouts to get that belly back on track. We all know how important it is to build up your workouts progressively. Killing yourself on day one will only give you sore muscles, but over time you need to step up the intensity. It is totally satisfying to look back and realize how far you have come.

Video 1: The basics.

Start with this video and start with 2 series of 10 reps. Concentrate on breathing well, and learning how to stabilize your body. Over time increase the volume until you are doing 3 series of 24 reps. If you are used to using a stability ball and/or have well trained abs you could do this over 3 or 4 workouts. If you are new to all this take your time, build up over a 6 week period.

Video 2: Starting to have fun.

Once you are up to speed on the basics start including some intermediate exercises. I wouldn't swap one exercise routine for the other overnight, instead I would add in the new exercises one by one until you are doing both workouts. Make sure you can do all these exercises well, with proper posture and pelvic tilt before adding in exercises from video 3.

Video 3: Monster Abs

This is where the real fun begins. When you when you are ready, do these exercises and enjoy blasting those abs! Note: just like with video 2, I would incorporate these exercises into my routine one by one, swapping out the beginner exercises from video 1. Remeber, you can't cheat with abs, do the exercises with proper technique and you will get results. If you can't do these exercises withour cheating go back to video 2 and prepare for a few more weeks.

Eat Against a Bear

2009-12-05T22:33:00.002-04:30

World famous eating champion Kobayashi takes on a Kodiak bear ... not mano a mano, but to see who can scarf down an enormous platter of hot dogs first. Although Kobayashi does his best, the bear (unsurprisingly) beats him handily.

Cool Cat On The Treadmill

2009-12-04T21:42:00.000-04:30

Treadmills have a kind of fuddy duddy reputation in the fitness world. They are seen as a cop out low intensity training. After all, why not just go out and let loose tearing unimpeded down the street! Of course, there are circumstances like safety and climate which can make a treadmill the best choice. And cranking one up to top speed is not easy; depending on the speed it can seriously work you out. Moreover, all the cool cats run on treadmills, as you can see in the video below.

Speed Rock Climbing

2009-12-02T21:48:00.000-04:30

Anybody who thinks they know somebody who is hardcore in extreme sports, take a look at this. Dan Osman climbs that cliff without a safety harness and at top speed. Very extreme. However, he eventually paid an extreme price ... he died doing a bungee jumping stunt. So don't try this at home, kids. That aside, rock climbing WITH a safety harness is a great way to get in shape!

Blast Your Calfs

2009-12-01T21:48:00.000-04:30

Think about your image of the perfect body... Maybe you want size, broad shoulders and massive pecs, or maybe you want lean lines with toned abs and firm glutes. But what about your calves? On a woman well shaped calves can help define the whole ankle and knee area, making your legs look fantastic in high heels or capris. On a man well formed calf muscles are vital in avoiding the "chicken leg" problem, after all if your upper body is blasted you need a good pair of legs to hold it up.

Calf exercises are a part of body building that most people just throw in when they have a little extra time at the end of a workout. But don't be so cavalier: your calf muscles need a correct workout in order to develop.

There are two main calf muscles that you should be concerned with when performing any calf exercise.

The Gastrocnemius extends from your knee joint to your ankle joint. It is the primary muscle when your knee is extended.
The Soleus is a wide, flat muscle that lies deep withing the calf. It can only fully contract when your leg is bent.

Be careful with the intensity and duration of your calf exercises.

Your Gastrocnemius will benefit most from heavy weight and low reps. If you use a slow tempo and lift enough weight to tire the gastrocnemius within 20 seconds your standing calf raise will be maximally effective.

Your Soleus needs higher reps, lower wieght and a medium velocity. Try to pick a weight that taxes you after about 40 seconds when doing seated calf raises.

Make sure to use a full range of motion. If you have never stretched or strengthened your calves before start flat footed, but make to sure to go all the way up and down. Once you have prepared your calves with regular workouts and stretching sessions take the exercises to the next level, Start with the balls of your feet raised up 2-3 inches so that your heels are below you toes at the lowest point in the exercise. Many gyms have a special platform for this, but if your doesn't you can usually improvise.

Don't bounce: when you go down let your heels down under control. When you go up and get to the top "squeeze past" for a moment. Also beware, if you bend your legs during any straight leg calf exercises you are cheating. Bending your knees in a straight leg calf press is like doing a really crappy squat because your quadriceps are doing the work.

It's very important to remember that when you do any exercise for your calf muscles you need to do them correctly. If you don't you will just be wasting your time.

He Shoots He Scores! Wayne Gretzky Tribute

2009-11-30T20:28:00.001-04:30

Since we have been giving out well deserved tributes lately, here is Wayne Gretzky's turn. He was probably the best player ever in hockey.

Zinedine Zidane

2009-11-29T22:18:00.000-04:30

Any list of the football greats of the world has to include Zinedine Zidane. His ball control and ability to read the pitch were probably the best in the game. This tribute video showcases some of his fantastic situational awareness and mastery over the ball.

Bob Beamon's Long Jump Record

2009-11-28T21:57:00.001-04:30

In the Mexico City Olympics of 1968 Bob Beamon pulled off a world record long jump. That record stood 23 years.

Another Type of High Jump

2009-11-26T23:01:00.002-04:30

Here is another take on the meaning of "high jump". Watch the world record setting high dive!

Stefka Kostadinova's World Record

2009-11-25T02:28:00.003-04:30

Watch Stefka Kostadinova setting the still standing world female high jump record of 2.09m. Who thinks that Blanka Vlašić is going to break it within the next couple of years?

Blanka Vlašić Queen of High Jump

2009-11-24T23:25:00.000-04:30

In high jump the opponents are the tape measure and yourself. I love sports like that, where you have to challenge yourself directly. It makes it easier to grow, both physically training wise and mentally. Because you don't have the excuse that you lost because the opponents were simply too good. When you don't perform, you have to look yourself straight in the eyes in the mirror and realize that you are the only thing holding yourself back. Blanka Vlašić has looked in the mirror and knows exactly who is looking back. And her dedication to her training and mental maturity shows: she is not the Queen of High Jump for nothing!

High Jumper Revue

2009-11-23T22:20:00.000-04:30

Here is a video review showing the evolution in the women's world record high jump. It is a tribute to the best high jumpers the world has ever seen!

Sprint Warm Ups

2009-11-22T18:40:00.000-04:30

It is always a good idea to warm up before hitting your training for real. Especially for high intensity training like powerlifting or sprinting where you put high stress on you muscles quickly. Here is a warm up drill you can use before training your sprints.

Handstands

2009-11-21T22:34:00.000-04:30

Handstands are fundamental if you are interested in advanced body weight exercises. Working on them can increase your strength and coordination. Technically, a handstand is any act of balancing on the hands while supporting the body in an upside down, stable position. There are many variations on the common handstand, and all of them require upper body strength and balance.

To learn how to do handstands start by "kicking up" onto a wall. That is, put your hands on the floor about 30 cm away from the wall, then kick one leg up, quickly followed by the other. As you get accustomed to the maneuver try to control yourself so that you arrive at the wall, instead of slamming into it.

Little by little you can wean yourself off the wall. One of the best ways to get comfortable with handstands is to practice them a lot, if you keep at it for a few practice sessions you will be doing hand-stand push-ups and capoeira moves in no time.

Here are some tips:

Practice on a flat surface with lots of space.
Keep your fingers spread out slightly and facing forwards. This is to allow for the greatest amount of control and stability in the handstand.
Engage and extend your shoulders. Think of shrugging your shoulders upwards or trying to push into the floor. This muscular tension will give you greater control. Don't "sink" into your shoulders.
Keep your abs tense to keep your body in line and protect your back.
If you feel like you are going to fall, try to twist 90º, and then bend over, so that your feet touch the ground.

World's First Bicycle Lift

2009-11-20T21:00:00.000-04:30

Biking is a great way to get fit. Instead of taking your car places, take your bike! If you are dedicated to fitness, you will bicycle through rain and up hills. But a lot of people are scared away from biking by hills in their neighbourhoods. Well, Norway came up with a solution to that. This video shows the Trampe bicycle lift in operation. It is in Trondheim and was built in 1993, the first ever bicycle lift in the world. The goal was to encourage more people to get around by bike, which makes the population healthier and more fit.

It is basically a rail that runs along the side of the road up a steep hill. At the bottom of the hill at the start of the rail is a control booth. When you start the lift, a little pedal starts to go along the rail up the hill. You just put one foot on the pedal and let it push you up the hill.

Bicycle lifts like this are not recommended for your bike workout, but if you are just trying to get a little exercise and are not training, a lift up a hill could be just what you need.

The Spirit of Running

2009-11-19T19:56:00.000-04:30

When you really get into running, you get a kind of natural high that is hard to describe. You get into full flow and your world becomes the run. Nothing else matters but the feel of speed. This video showing a pair of brothers doing Parkour to me captures that feeling. The sense when you are running that you are a superhero. Watch this for some inspiration to train! Disclaimer: although inspiring, what these guys are doing is more in the world of stunts than training. A good training program gets you to the point where you can do parkour, but parkour is not a good training program!

Liven up your daily run - Part 2

2009-11-18T22:31:00.000-04:30

Hey everybody. I hope you enjoyed your workout today. Here are 7 more ideas for livening up your regular run

1. The Tempo Run. First warm up, then for a set amount of time run at a hard but controlled pace. Afterwards cool down. So, if you can run all day at 3.4 mph and 4.5 mph about as fast as you can sustain, you might warm up for 5 minutes, run 20 minutes at 3.8 mph then cool down for 5 minutes. This would be an intense half-hour run, perfect for a day when you are working against the clock. If you are a beginner runner you might need to go do "research" on a treadmill or at the track first. You need to know how fast you can run, and you need to be able to identify your running speed.

2. Cruise Intervals. A famous running workout popularized by Jack Daniels, a famous running coach. Run 3-8 minute intervals at your 10k (6 mile) pace with recovery intervals between half a minute and 3 minutes.

3. HIIT. HIIT is short for High-Intensity Interval Training, and it is great for a fast, hard, fat burning run. Blast out a series of maximum intensity sprints alternated with gentle jogging intervals (warm up first!). Your total workout should last about 25 minutes including warm-up and cool down. It sounds easy, but the intensity makes HIIT put burn in your buns.

4. Yasso 800s. Go to the track, and after warming up do 10 times 800m. However long it takes you to pound out the 800m, recover over an equal time gently jogging. This workout is called the Yasso 800 because Bart Yasso says that whatever your average time for the 800m is should be your marathon time. So if you average 3 minutes 45 seconds per 800m burst you should be able to do a marathon in 3 hours 45 minutes....If you put in the miles on your long runs and hill runs and tempo runs and interval runs....

5. Mile repeats. This workout is just how it sounds. Run a mile strong but steady, recover by jogging gently for 2 minutes. Repeat, and again. If a mile is daunting you could adapt to other distances — 1000m, 800m, 400m, etc.

6. Mystical Zen run. This is where you change things up. Do not measure distance. Do not bring a watch. Do not plan, not even the route. Just lace up your shoes and go. Pay attention to what your body is telling you. Pay attention to what your are feeling.

7. Soft Footing Run. If you have an even sandy beach, run on the beach. If you don't, find other soft footing like grass or a wood chip trail. A good rule of thumb is that you shouldn't be able to hear your foot falls. Like hills, soft footing will challenge your muscles making them work harder to give you your usual push-off.

Liven up your daily run - Part 1

2009-11-17T20:10:00.000-04:30

Running is great. It's an excellent way to train cardio, burn calories and spend some time outdoors. The equipment you need is minimal, and once your body is accustomed to frequent running workouts the runner's high is addictive.

But sometimes runners can get stuck in a rut. Too many runs at medium speed is just boring. A one-speed workout program is boring, and it doesn’t maximize your workout results either.

If you include some variety into your running program to make things interesting you'll enjoy your workout much more and maybe you'll even become a better runner.

Varied workouts make things interesting. Too much repetition is hard on the mind, and even if you have several routes plodding along at the same speed every day will make one trail seem like another.

Incorporating different types of running into your week will help you increase your speed and endurance. That's because your body adapts. After a month or so of doing one type of workout, you body will get used to the load and you’ll no longer be getting the same kind of benefits even though you're working just as hard. If you change things up every couple weeks, you will probably continue to see improvements.

Here are some ideas to liven up your daily run.

1) Go Long Once a week up your mileage. Add about 10% on to what you consider your maximum. For example if you all ways do 3 miles, try doing 3.3. Then next week try doing 3.6 little by little you can work your long run up to some impressive distances. Many people who usually run 10k (6.2 miles) during the week will do 16 miles or more on the weekend. Just remember that this run is a slow steady run.

2) Climb Some Hills. Long runs help your endurance. Hilly runs work on your strength. Think of it like weight lifting, but the weight you lift is you. You can loop around one hill, or just choose to run through hilly terrain. On the days that you do hill runs, reduce your total mileage by 10%, and make sure that your pce down the hill does not exceed your pace up the hill.

3) Fartlek. It's not what it sounds like. Fartlek means “play with speed”. Do your normal run, and stick to a normal distance. After a warm-up period start alternating fast running and gentle jogging to recover. Some people count their steps, or use a watch. Other people use landmarks. As you get faster and stronger your intervals will become harder and longer.

Tomorrow I'll continue with 7 more ideas to liven up your daily run.

Good Night! Sleeping for Fitness

2009-11-16T20:17:00.000-04:30

Sleeping is a big part of our daily lives. It makes no sense to develop a highly tuned training routine and leave out the one third of the day you spend sleeping! There are two main variables related to the health effects of sleep. One is how long you spend sleeping and the other is how you divide your sleep time among the different stages or types of sleep.

The deep links between sleep and the daily cycles of our biology and biochemistry (called Circadian cycles) mean that the best way to sleep is consistently. You should try to maintain both constant length of time asleep and a constant bedtime. There are two main stages of sleeping: deep sleep and rapid eye motion (REM) sleep. Deep sleep normally occurs in the early phase of your sleep time. Deep sleep is especially important to your training because it is during deep sleep that the body works on building and repairing muscle. That means deep sleep is when a lot of your muscle growth happens!

So while training it is important to always go to sleep at a constant bedtime, because if you go to bed late you could miss out on the deep sleep that happens at that early phase. Also make sure you can get good quality early sleep. For example, if you find that early in the night there is still a lot of highway or traffic noise going on in your neighbourhood you should look for earplugs or another way of damping out the sound. Or if your family or roommates are still up when you go to bed, their noise and activity could impair those all-important for muscle growth early sleep hours.

The last part of your sleep is mainly the REM type sleep. REM is the stage where you are preparing to wake up. It is best to wake from this stage. Too much REM sleep has been linked to depression and emotional demotivation so you don't want to let the morning sleep in stage go for too long. But be careful not to cut your REM sleep short: you need it too. Too little REM sleep can leave you with high levels of lactate in your blood the next day, which tires your muscles out sooner. If you find yourself emotionally down and hard to get yourself motivated, try cutting back on your REM sleep by getting up earlier.

Sleep is highly individual and it is difficult to measure or sometimes even suspect its role in our lives. But the most important thing is to maintain consistent bedtimes and sleep time and make sure your sleep is high quality. Make sure your bed is comfortable and that your bedroom is dark and quiet. Although it is hard to quantify ahead of time, paying attention to quality sleep will benefit your training and your life!

Drinking Water While Training

2009-11-15T12:48:00.000-04:30

Water is a fundamental necessity for human life. The non-fat components of the human body are 70% water by weight. A person can live for a couple of weeks without food, but only a couple of days without water. How much water should we be drinking for optimum health? You will hear that the ideal amount is 8 glasses a day. However, that is something of an urban myth. There has been no clear finding recommending to drink 8 glasses a day. A much better general guide is to drink whenever you are thirsty.

However, when you are training thirst is not a good enough indicator. You can be dehydrating without feeling thirsty. If you are training hard blasting your muscles, especially if it is hot out, you will be loosing a lot of water to sweat. In hard training it is a good idea to drink a glass of water every 15 minutes or so, without relying on feeling thirst. Just stop a few seconds and gulp a glass of water every quarter hour.