Sports Hydration: Before, during and after, plus tips to maximise your nutrition around training.

Sports Hydration

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Sports Hydration 〰️

Why is hydration so important?

When exercising, we know that proper hydration is essential. When we sweat we lose mostly water, but also key electrolytes, which include Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium and Chloride.

Just a 2% drop in body weight (roughly equal to two litres) will likely impair performance, by putting more stress on the cardiovascular system, upping the demand for muscle glycogen and decreasing the ability of the brain to function optimally. So in this instance, if our athlete weighed in prior to training at 80kg, we would want them to finish their session no lighter than 78.4kg. In an ideal scenario they would be no lighter than 79kg, so weighing before and after can give us quick, usable data to measure hydration levels.

An interesting note as well is that dehydration may likely worsen gastrointestinal distress, which can also be influenced by performance anxiety. We can see that hydration in competition is incredibly important for keeping athletes feeling their best.

Which factors influence sweat loss?

We have both internal and external factors to consider, so it’s important to look at the combination, and then factor that into your hydration needs. For example, if training in a hotter environment than normal, this will effect your sweat loss, with more water and electrolytes needing to be prepared and replaced than normal.

External Factors to Electrolyte / Sweat Loss

  • Duration / Intensity of session

  • Clothing worn

  • Environmental conditions

Internal Factors

  • Genetic predisposition

  • Body weight

  • Physical condition (more sweat if better conditioned)

  • Sweat acclimatisation (more sweat if better acclimatised).

So how should I hydrate before training?

Step 1.

Drink 5 – 7 ml/kg water 4 hours before the event. This to ensure hydration is correct prior to exercise, and that the athlete begins at an optimal level.

For example for a 60kg athlete 300 - 420ml, and an 85kg athlete 425 - 595ml.

If less than four hours before the event, then consume this as early as you can, for example after waking.

Step 2.

2. Drink 3 – 5 ml/kg 2 hours before if individual does not produce urine, or the urine is dark.

For example for a 60kg athlete 180 - 300ml, and an 85kg athlete 255 - 425ml.

Step 3.

Consume beverages with salt and/or salty snacks to ensure fluid retention, and stimulate thirst. This could mean adding a pinch of salt to your beverage (1/3 of a teaspoon), a sports drink or a salty snack such as pretzels (ensure low fat, low protein, so think along the carbohydrate dense options).

Ok great, but what about during?

Lets talk carbohydrate first.

To keep things simple here, I’m only going to discuss events / sessions lasting 2 hours and under.
It gets a little more complex past that so for simplicity, we have two options.

If the exercise is below 30 minutes then consuming intra exercise carbohydrate is uneccessary.

If the session is above 30 minutes but below 75 minutes (of medium to high intensity), the athlete may benefit from small doses of carbohydrates. This could be from sips of sports drinks (whether that is homemade, or a Lucozade / Gatorade as this will mirror the profile of our sweat and provide electrolytes), or from a piece of fruit, with bananas and dates being popular choices.

If the exercise is extended to a length of 1 -2 hours, around 30g Carbohydrate consumed during this session would see a likely see a performance benefit. This could be from either sports drinks, gels, energy bars or fruits.

Intra exercise Carbohydrates are proven to delay fatigue and improve performance, and are vitally important to support hydration and energy during competition.

With water, it’s important that the athlete has plenty available, and then reguarly sips as desired. Remember we should be starting hydrated, so the athlete can essentially top up throughout. If the athlete sweats heavily, a sports drink alongside will be the best option.

Homemade Sports drink recipe (this will match the electrolyte balance of sweat):

1 Litre Sports Drink Recipe (288 Calories)

• 1 Litre tap water

• 1g Salt (potentially slightly more if bottled water) providing 150mg Sodium in total, including the water.

• 3 tablespoons sugar (glucose source) providing 60g CHO. (This could be replaced by fruit juice)

• 2 juiced lemons (fructose source) providing 8g CHO.

My normal go to is the classic water, orange juice and salt, along with dates.

All done, now how do I recover faster?

So what we often see go wrong with athletes hydration, is that they become dehydrated during and then try to rectify that straight after the session. However due to the sodium and electrolyte loss from sweat, consuming lots of water without sodium will likely see it urinated out quickly, leaving the athlete even more dehydrated.

Hydrating effectively post training will be essential for rapid recovery, so we want to prioritise this when the athletes finish their session, that they are given the right beverages and their nutrition plan is in place. Water alone will not be enough, but if they are eating they can receive their sodium from the food, if not however we will want to give them further sports drinks, otherwise we risk the athletes using the bathroom rather than retaining the fluid, sodium is essential for this.

We want to aim for 150% of any body weight lost, so if the athlete loses 1kg, we will have the players drink 1.5 litres after training, consumed with sips, ideally within a two hour window. If not weighing in I suggest consuming 1 - 2L across the two hour period as a rough target.

On the nutrition side, Athletes who ingested 1.5g of CHO per kg body weight within 30 min after exercise, experienced a higher rate of glycogen resynthesis when supplementation was delayed by two hours. This is due largely to the increased sensitivity of muscle to insulin. Solid food has been shown to inhibit urine production aiding rehydration. This means if we can consume a solid meal within 30 minutes this will likely be of most benefit, and preferable to recovery shakes, however sometimes a shake may have to be the convenient option.

Ok, can I get a simple nutrition plan for around training?

No problem!

Before

  • Eat 3 - 4 hours before if possible, this can be a normal, balanced meal, ideally high in protein and carbohydrate, and medium in fat. If the window is less, then consume high carbohydrate, low fibre, and low fat if possible. Foods containing Fat and Fibre take the longest to digest, so despite being fantastic for the rest of the time, pre eercise they increase the risk of GI distress substantially, as you’ll have to divert blood to the digestive system and away from the working muscles, which the body is not a huge fan of!

  • If 3 - 4 hours before, a breakfast of eggs, porridge, fruits, toasts and coffee could work. If around 2 hours before something like bagels with jam plus fruit would be a better option. If less than an hour perhaps fruit only.

  • Drink 5 - 7ml Water per Kilo of bodyweight

During

  • Sip water when desired

  • If less than 30 mins its not neccessary, if 30 - 75 mins consider small does of carbohydrate, and if 1 - 2 hours aim for 30g carbs. Energy bars, fruits, sports drinks and gels are good options here.

Post exercise

  • Ideally eat within 30 mins of finishing, if not consume a protein shake and source of carbohydrates, with a small amount of salt (1/3 teaspoon)

  • Rehydrate within the two hour window, ideally weigh yourself and then aim for 150% of the difference, for example 1kg = 1 Litre, so if 2kg lighter, youll need 3 Litres to rehydrate.

  • Protein will aid muscle repair, and fruits and vegetables will help reduce the inflammation, so these should both be priority in meals post exercise.

A couple of extra notes.

  • For those that sweat more, add salts to the meals around training, this will aid water retention.

  • Caffeine (ideally black coffee) will likely bring a performance benefit and will not effect hydration if following the above, ideally consume within an hour of starting exercise.

  • Avoid carbonated beverages and energy drinks (red bull etc), these will cause dehydration and risk GI distress.

  • There are very few proven (legal and safe) performance enhancers which we’ll discuss another day, but these are the current ones listed (note many thermogenics are banned, and bring side effects).

  • Caffeine

  • Bicarbonate

  • Nitrates / Beet Juice 

  • Thermogenics

  • Creatine

  • Beta Alanine

Remember this is to maximise your performance and recovery, so desigining a plan that you can repeat whenever needed will bring better training and competition results, and help you feel more relaxed when under the pressure of performance.

Any questions let me know!

Thanks,

Will

Will Purdue