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Rehydrate & Energize your Body!
Hydration
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Hydration is regarded by many to be the area that a sports supplement has the greatest potential to enhance performance, and this applies to a wide variety of sporting situations. Almost all athletes benefit from a structured hydration plan and it remains the one supplementation topic that almost all sporting and scientific bodies have reached agreement on.
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Whether you are a gym junkie, a budding athlete, a weekend warrior or a serious sports competitor, hydration or lack of it can have you performing at you best or your worst.
Effective hydration of an athlete starts well before an event. The term 'athlete' should encompass everyone that is undertaking physical activity. The athlete should undertake a plan that allows them to turn up to their event with optimal carbohydrate stores, a hydrated body and with no stomach discomfort. The figure of eight glasses of water per day has been a common number associated with the amount we should be drinking a day. Assuming that a typical glass has a volume of 250ml this would mean that everyone should be drinking about two litres (2L) of water each day. Well it is not surprising to most of us that 90% or more fail to drink that amount.
What may be surprising though is that within this percentage we have many budding athletes, gym junkies and - shock horror - professional athletes. So we all really need to take some time and make sure we are meeting our fluid requirements. It is important to note that a healthy diet can actually significantly increase your water intake. Eating large amounts of fruits and vegetables adds a significant amount of water not to mention vitamins and minerals, once digested.
There are some pretty incredible studies into the volume of fluid that one can lose every hour during exercise. Most show a loss between 1 -2 litres per hour, some even go as high as 3 litres per hour in extreme heat conditions. Ideally we would try to replace all fluid loss during exercise; however this is physiologically and biologically impossible due to the physical restraints of the exercise and the amount of fluids we can update during physical exertion. The goal is to replace as much as we possibly can.
Re-Hydration
Electrolytes
The sweat that evaporates from the skin contains a variety of electrolytes. The electrolyte composition of sweat is variable but comprises of the following components:
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Sodium |
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Calcium |
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Phosphate |
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Bicarbonate |
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Potassium |
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Magnesium |
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Chloride |
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Sulphate |
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These electrolytes are responsible for many normal bodily functions such as cellular metabolism and maintaining intra and extra-cellular chemical balance. When depleted during exercise they can decrease performance, cause dizziness, diarrhoea, loss of muscle control, cramping, unconsciousness and in some severe cases of prolonged exercise and heat, cause death. Hence, replacing electrolytes during exercise is essential to maintain a certain level of performance, but more importantly, to maintain the correct balance of electrolytes in the fluids in our body.
It is important to drink at regular intervals during your event, ideally at a rate that matches your sweat loss rate or at a rate of 600 -1200ml per hour in small regular serves. It is also extremely important that you continue your hydration plan after the event. Many people finish the race, game or training session and forget about how much fluid they have expended over the last few hours. During this period it essential to correct any fluid loss accumulated during the game or event. Athletes should aim to replace fluid, carbohydrates and continue to replace electrolytes via a sports rehydration drink, such as Energize quickly, while looking at introducing food to aid long term recovery from the event or training session.
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