Are You Getting Enough?

No not that, we mean water. The recent hot weather has made all of us think about drinking enough water. For all sports people maintaining the correct level of hydration (water content) in the body is very important. One hour of moderate exercise can result in the loss of 1 litre of water and hard exercise double that. Do your exercise on a hot day and the problem is even worse. Water loss at this level can seriously affect you performance in terms of stamina, strength and co-ordination. It can also increase you susceptibility to injury. For a typical adult rugby players weighing around 95 kilos (around 15 stone) the loss of water during hard training or a game can easily be more than 2% of their body weight (roughly 2 litres). This amount of water loss can produce a 5 to 10 percent drop in physical performance.

The answer is to keep you body well topped up with water.

• Drink water regularly during the day. A little and often is best.

• Two hours before you start to exercise drink about 500ml (1 pint) of water or low calorie soft drink.

• Have a small drink of water immediately before you start you exercise session 125 to 250 ml (half a pt) max. Do not take enough to make you feel bloated

• Drink at every reasonable opportunity during exercise.

• How ever much you during exercise you will be dehydrated when you finish Therefore after exercise drink enough to completely replace what you have lost.

It is very simple to check how much water you have lost during training.

• Immediately before you go onto the park step onto a set of bathroom scales and make a note of your weight.

• When you come in check your weight again. Making sure you are wearing exactly the same clothes as for your first weighing

• Each kilogram you have lost in weight represents 1 litre of water. If you insist on working in “old money” the each pound being equivalent to a pint (of water!!!) is about right.

• Use the weight loss as a guide to the minimum amount you need to drink. Remember if you are very hot as soon as you start to drink you will sweat more so might need slightly more than the calculation tells you.

• You are only interested in the difference between two weighings so even old and not very accurate scales are ok.

What to drink

• The most important thing to get into your body is water. Fortunately it is also the cheapest and will do most of what you want.

• You can use sports drinks but be careful they are made for various different purposes and high calorie ones sold for energy replacement are not very good to quickly top us your water level.

• Drinks described as isotonic claim to have sugar and salts at the same level as required in your body and therefore to replace water energy and salt loss in the correct proportions. If you find these drinks attractive and are happy with the high price when you allow for the amount you need,  then fine. Some people find them too strong and that they cause stomach upsets if drunk during heavy training. If this is a problem for you then either try diluting them with an equal volume of water or just drink plain water.

• Drinks with a lower level of sugar and salt than the balanced (isotonic) ones are called hypotonic. Drinks of this type which contain just a small amount of sugar have been shown to allow the body to absorb water more rapidly than plain water. They are therefore very good for fluid replacement.  Because they are more dilute they are also usually easy to drink.

Make your own.

It is very easy to make up your own sports drink and very much cheaper than buying sports drinks especially if you remember you may need several cans per day. The recipe below is for a hypotonic drink which should be more effective than water for replacing fluid loss during and after exercise. The precise weights are given and also approximate amount is you don’t have scales. If in doubt add less salt and sugar rather than more.

Place the sugar and salt in a jug. Add a small amount of hot water from the kettle. Stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved. Add the rest of the water and place in the fridge to cool.

Take great care not to exceed the amount of salt, anyone who thinks they already have too much salt in their diet then leave it out. Junior players should use drinks made up by their parents. This should have very little taste and should be easy to drink. If you want to flavour it use 100ml of unsweetend (half a mugful) squash in place of 100ml of the water.

Watch your diet. 1 litre of this mixture is about 120 calories. (or half a prawn sandwich  J )

Dave Sharp

If you want to know more about this and about all aspects of nutrition then read Nutrition for Sport by Anita Bean published by A and C Black London ISBN 0-7163-5389-2

For more information on Editor's Articles and how to write on - Click here

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge