LIQUID BALANCE

Our body consists of 60% water and to be able to perform optimally an athlete must be perfectly hydrated.
We continually lose liquid throughout the day, especially when undertaking physical activity. Without any exercise we must drink approx 2-3 litres per day, extra must be added on before and after any physical activity in order to replace the extra loss of liquids. The feeling of thirst is not a very good measure of your state of hydration; you will not feel thirsty until you have already lost quite an amount of liquid. You should drink regularly throughout a training-session, even though you do not feel thirsty.

The levels of dehydration

Dehydration levels vary individually during training and depend on several conditions:
Body size (surface and weight)
Body composition (muscle-mass and fat percentage)
Physical condition (fitness)
Weather conditions (temperature and humidity)
Intensity and endurance of the exercise
In training sessions with moderate/high intensity (50 – 80% of VO2max) in normal temperature dehydration is estimated to about 0,5 – 1,2 L an hour. Athletes realizing high intensity training in a hot climate might loose 2 L of liquid/hour.

How much liquid do you lose?

There is an easy way to calculate the liquid loss and how well the athlete is able to replace the loss during the training or competition. The athlete should be weighed before and after training/competition on an accurate scale. The best would be to do it with minimal clothing, and dry skin. The difference in weight before and after the session would be the body’s total liquid loss. You can express this as a percentage of dehydration compared to the original body weight. This number should be below 2% in normal temperature and below 1% in hot climate.
How to calculate the dehydration
% dehydration = (weight before training – weight after training) x 100/ weight before training
Knowing how much liquid you lose during training might help you make an individual plan for the rehydration during the training.

Dehydration weakens the performance

Performance decreases about 10% with each percentage of body weight the athlete loses in dehydration. This means that the performance decreases before you get thirsty. The feeling of thirst is absolutely not reliable to know your levels of dehydration; you do not get thirsty until you have already lost quite a lot of liquid, and also the intake of liquid will satisfy your feeling of thirst before you are properly rehydrated.
Dehydration leads to laxity, nausea, cramps, dizziness and reduced abilities of choreography. Serious dehydration (body weight loss above 4%) increases the risk of vomiting, diarrhea and other kinds of stomach and intestinal problems during training. However, there are more conditions leading to the decreased performance in a situation of dehydration.
Disturbance in the liquid and salt balance apart, dehydration also provides higher risk of overheating and heat stroke. Both and overheating and dehydration separately could lead to serious consequences for your health. It is not possible to train or customize the body to be able to withstand liquid loss and dehydration.

Water or sports drinks?

Normally you would not need to drink anything but water in training sessions and competitions that will not last more than one hour. If the activity would last more than one hour having a sports drink would provide a less reduction of performance compared to pure water. This is because compared to water the sports drink would rehydrate the athlete faster because the mix of carbohydrates and salts makes the absorption of the liquid in the intestines more effective. If you are training in hot climate or because of other reasons are losing a lot of liquid it is recommended to have sports drinks with electrolytes, or to have some extra salt in your food. If you do not replace the salt loss it is possible to get a deficit of sodium. This can lead to decreased performance and can also give serious health consequences.

Recommendations

Make sure you replace the liquid loss from the last training session so that you start each session in balance.
Check out how much liquid you lose in a training session. Use this information to plan how much you need to drink during and after the training. The difference in weight should be less than 1 kg after training or competition.
Drink some 10-15 min before you start the session. This will replace the first liquid loss.
Start drinking no more than 15 min after start and try to take more or less 1,5 – 3 dl each 15 – 20 min. Frequent and small intakes are more efficient than few and big intakes.
As a part of the restitution process it is important to drink as soon as possible after the training session. Replace 150% of the liquid loss within the 2 first hours after the session (more or less 1,5 l if you los 1 kg/1 l)
To rehydrate properly is an issue of training. Routine has to be practiced, this way you will make it automatic. Drink something you like.
Make plans and bring what liquids you need for the sessions (bike bottles, other bottles, camel backs etc.).

Contact BASE on info@basetraining.com Call + 34 629 086 395. site by www.virtuait.com