The Importance of Hydration in Hot WeatherWhile most individuals are perfectly content to hang around in the garden or the pool during the summer, soaking up the sun’s rays, others prefer to step it up on their exercise regimen in order to make themselves look and feel great.

Unfortunately, many of these individuals lack the foresight to hydrate sufficiently and end up with more trouble than they can handle when they become dehydrated. Instead of getting more “buff” and healthy, the dehydration makes them incapable of performing at their optimal levels and if not quickly hydrated at this point they could even fall into a coma and die.

Men should drink around 2.5 litres of water per day and women slightly less a 2 litres even during cooler weather, and when it gets hot, these amounts need to be adjusted accordingly. While dehydration can creep up on us unexpectedly, and we generally do drink water when feeling thirsty or when we have being exercising or out in the hot sun, we are actually already around 5% dehydrated at that stage.

The best way to ensure that we are always fully hydrated is to drink water throughout the day. While we do generally drink something when lazing around the pool in the summer, it is usually far more likely to be carbonated drinks, sugary juices or alcohol, none of which will actually do the job of rehydrating us.

The best way to hydrate or rehydrate yourself is by drinking a nice glass of chilled water every few hours throughout the day. Chilled water is the best for getting to the source of your dehydration as quickly as possible.

It is difficult to always have chilled water around in the summer when you have a large family or have friends around for a pool party, unless you have a constant source of chilled, filtered, great-tasting water such as that dispensed virtually 24/7 by a mains water cooler.

Mains water coolers are so named because they are plumbed directly into your main water supply. Some of the top-of-the-range mains water coolers have cold, ambient and hot water options, so that you will have sufficient chilled water for those hot summer months and also sufficient hot water for those nice warming hot chocolate drinks in the middle of the winter.