I recently
read a study, which concluded that athletes'
performance , to some
extent,
directly related to their level of hydration or dehydration.
The better
the body
is hydrated, the better they will be able to keep their performance at
a
high level
and fatigue will also settle in harder than with a person who is
suffering from
mild or acute dehydration.
Obviously, this is not the only
factor that affects performance, but it's one of those small
details that make
up a whole. And as a soccer player, you'll want to take care
of each detail in
order to ensure that the whole, your performance, is intact by the time
the ref
blows his starting whistle.
I noticed that a lot of soccer
player (especially younger ones) tend to put an equality sign between
dehydration and thirst. Although both concepts face the same bodily
requirement
to replace fluids, thirst is a momentary situation that you can solve
with a
single drink, whereas dehydration is a chronic state. For example,
you're lacking
certain vitamins from your body and you're hungry. Eating a
plateful of chicken
wings may settle your hunger, but that doesn't mean that your
vitamin problem
will be solved.
What should you drink?
There's
such a large gamma of
sports drinks out there that it's quite hard to choose the "right" one
for
yourself, or for your team if you're a coach. A good sports
drink is one that
offers a high amount of carbohydrates and water, but that
doesn't mean that
good old H2O can't be good for proper hydration just by
itself.
Sports drinks do have some
advantages though: they're better tasting so they can be
drank in larger
quantities, they have carbs that can't be found in simple
water and they have
glucose which helps with reducing fatigue and muscle tiredness.
Obviously, juices and sodas
aren't the best choice. Anything that has carbonation in it
can cause you an
aching stomach and that's the worst you could get in a soccer
match. Milk is
way too heavy on the stomach and can also cause an upset belly, so
it's best if
you think of milk as a source of macronutrients rather than a means of
proper hydration.
When
should I drink it?
In
order to keep your self well
hydrated, you need to drink well at least 16 hours before the match,
several
times during the match and a few hours after it's over. You
can start by
drinking plain water a few days prior to the match, at set intervals,
even when
you're not particularly thirsty.
You don't need to hydrate
yourself using sports drinks that early on, since the extra
carbohydrates you
get from them will go to waste. However, it's a good idea to
use a sports drink
in your light pre game meal as a source of carb fuel for the upcoming
effort.
If the game allows it, try
drinking sips of a sports drink during the match as well.
Don't drink too much,
or you'll get a full belly that can hinder you from running
or being as mobile.
However, short sips can replenish your carbohydrate storage and fluids,
keeping
you at 100% performance at all times.
After the game, you can hydrate
yourself using an inverse method to the one used before it. Right after
the
match has ended, drinking some carb rich fluid will help you relax and
replenish your energies faster, so you won't feel as tired as
you would
otherwise. It will also help relax your muscles so you'll be
ready to jump
right back into training the next day or the day after.
After you feel you've refreshed
yourself enough using the carb rich sports drink, you can switch to
plain water
again, drinking it at set intervals for a couple more days, again, even
when
you're not thirsty.
The Hydration Chart –
Find
out if
you're well hydrated or dehydrated
with a simple hydration test
The
symptoms of dehydration are
harder to spot and even when you do, you'll probably
attribute them to
tiredness, your diet and so forth. However, there is a simple method of
determining whether or not you are dehydrated, using a hydration test
and your
urine.
Look for the chart
on the page, having 8 rectangles of different colors and
numbers 1-8
next to
them. You'll notice that the deeper the chart goes down, the
darker the colors.
It's these colored rectangles that the chart will have you
comparing your urine
against.
What you need to do is get a
clean jar and early in the morning, collect a sample of your urine in
it. Pack
it up and fill another jar after training, or at the end of a day in
which you
had to perform physical effort. Now compare the two jars with the chart
colors.
If your urine is light (1 to 3), then you are well hydrated and
don't really
need to worry about this issue for now. The darker your urine color
gets, the
more dehydrated you are and if you're in the 6-8 range, you
should seriously
think about a hydration plan.
Since you took a sample before
and after physical effort, you can see the approximate amount of
dehydration
occurring during practice or a soccer match and you can work towards
hydrating
yourself back up accordingly.
The
information on this website
is intended as an educational and informational source only. It
doesn’t replace
the advice of a qualified nutritionist, so it’s advisable
that you visit a
specialist before taking up any of the nutritional suggestions on the
website.
The author himself is not a dietician, so make sure you consult your
family
physician or dietician before starting any type of diet, lifestyle or
nutritional change. Some diets may be harmful for persons suffering
from
certain medical conditions and the author of the website cannot be held
responsible for any harm or injury that might occur by following the
instructions and tips found here.
