The Science Behind FloWater at STRIDE Fitness (And Why It Matters for Your Training)
Walk into any STRIDE Fitness studio and you'll find something that quietly changes the way you train: a FloWater dispenser, chilled to a perfect 42°F, ready to refill your bottle before you hit the treadmill, between intervals, and after your final cooldown. It's not a perk. It's part of the workout.
Here's why we believe what you drink matters as much as how you train, and why we chose FloWater's reverse osmosis system to fuel every studio.
The Problem with "Just Tap Water"
The water coming out of most American taps technically meets federal safety standards. But "meets standards" and "optimal for an athlete" are very different things.
Recent research has made the picture harder to ignore:
- Microplastics are nearly everywhere. A global study found microplastic fibers in up to 83% of tap water samples tested worldwide. Researchers have since detected microplastics small enough to cross biological barriers and accumulate in the human digestive system, circulatory system, and even bone marrow, though the long-term health implications are still being studied. (Source: ScienceDirect review, 2024; PMC review, 2025)
- PFAS, also known as "forever chemicals," contaminate the drinking water of an estimated 176 million Americans, according to data compiled by the Environmental Working Group from EPA testing. PFAS exposure has been associated with kidney and testicular cancer, liver damage, thyroid disease, immune effects, and reproductive issues. (Source: EWG PFAS Contamination Map, 2026; EPA, 2024)
- Lead, chlorine, pesticides, and pharmaceutical residues can all enter tap water through aging municipal infrastructure or runoff. The U.S. Geological Survey has identified PFAS in tap water across rural and urban regions of the country. (Source: USGS, 2023)
For a casual sip on an average day, this might be tolerable. But athletes drink more, a lot more. Train hard four times a week and you're consuming significantly more water than the average person, which means significantly more exposure to whatever is in it.
That's where reverse osmosis changes the equation.
What Reverse Osmosis Actually Does
Reverse osmosis (RO) forces water through a semipermeable membrane under pressure. The pores in that membrane are roughly 0.0001 microns wide, small enough to block contaminants while letting pure water molecules through.
The Environmental Protection Agency identifies reverse osmosis as one of the most "effective in eliminating all disease-causing organisms and most chemical contaminants." Independent research and NSF/ANSI certifications confirm RO systems can remove up to 99.99% of contaminants, including:
- Lead, arsenic, and heavy metals
- Chlorine and chloramines
- PFAS
- Nitrates and pesticides
- Microplastics
- Bacteria and parasites
A 2024 review on water purification published in a peer-reviewed journal noted that RO is uniquely effective at removing the broad spectrum of "contaminants of emerging concern" that other filtration methods (like simple carbon filters) miss. (Source: PMC, 2024)
In short: if you want to know what's not in your water, reverse osmosis gives you the most confident answer of any consumer-available filtration method.
Why FloWater's Approach Goes Further
Pure RO water has one well-documented limitation: the same membrane that strips out contaminants also strips out beneficial minerals like calcium and magnesium. The World Health Organization has noted that long-term consumption of fully demineralized water isn't ideal, because minerals in water exist as free ions, which the body absorbs efficiently. (Source: EWG analysis)
FloWater addresses this directly. Their 7-stage Advanced Purification system uses reverse osmosis as its core, then re-adds essential minerals and electrolytes, including calcium, magnesium, and potassium, back into the water. The result is water that's been stripped of what you don't want and supplemented with what you do.
The system also:
- Raises the pH to a slightly alkaline level, which many drinkers prefer for taste
- Oxygenates the water, contributing to a crisper mouthfeel
- Chills it to 42°F, the temperature research suggests is most palatable for cold-water consumption during exercise
Hydration and Performance: What the Research Says
Why does any of this matter for a STRIDE Fitness class? Because the data on hydration and exercise performance is unambiguous.
A landmark study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports found that improving hydration status in young athletes, through nothing more than better water access and education, led to statistically significant improvements in endurance run times (a 600-meter run improved from 189 seconds to 167 seconds in the intervention group, while the control group saw no change). (Source: Kavouras et al., 2012)
The research is equally clear on the downside. Losses as small as 2% of body weight from dehydration significantly increase physiologic strain and decrease exercise performance. For a 150-pound athlete, that's just three pounds of water loss, easy to hit in a hard treadmill block on a warm day.
The implication for STRIDE Fitness members is straightforward: making clean, great-tasting, electrolyte-balanced water immediately available before, during, and after class is one of the simplest, most evidence-backed ways to support better workouts.
Better for You. Better for the Planet.
There's one more reason FloWater fits STRIDE Fitness: it eliminates the need for single-use plastic bottles. A peer-reviewed review of 21 studies on microplastics in drinking water found that bottled water, particularly in reusable PET bottles, contained higher microplastic concentrations than tap water. (Source: PMC review of 21 studies)
Bringing a refillable bottle to STRIDE Fitness and topping it off with FloWater means cleaner water for you and less plastic waste in the world. That's a small, repeated choice that compounds, much like showing up to class.
The Bottom Line
You train at STRIDE Fitness because you take your performance seriously. The water in your bottle should reflect that same standard.
FloWater's reverse osmosis filtration removes what you don't want. Its mineral and electrolyte enhancement adds back what you do. And the science on hydration is clear: better water, consumed consistently, supports better workouts.
So next time you walk into the studio, fill up before you start. Refill between blocks. Top off when you finish. Your treadmill, and your body, will thank you.
Try STRIDE Fitness, Your First Class Is on Us
FloWater is just one of the amenities we've built into every STRIDE Fitness studio to support your training. From premium treadmills to recovery tools, we've designed every detail around helping you show up, train hard, and leave feeling better than you came in.
Ready to experience it for yourself? Your first class is free at any STRIDE Fitness location.
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Sources cited above include peer-reviewed research from PubMed Central, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Environmental Working Group, and the World Health Organization. STRIDE Fitness installs FloWater in every studio because we believe the science backs the choice.
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