Hydration, or watering the body, is the most essential thing that endurance athletes should address in the field of nutrition. You cannot train for a lack of fluids during sports, and even a small decrease in the amount of water in the body can affect sports performance.

Fluids need to be replenished even if you are not exercising. However, especially during endurance sports, dehydration, i.e. loss of fluids, occurs many times over. While at rest we are talking about tens of milliliters per hour, in the case of running or cycling it is over a liter and up to a liter and a half when cross-country skiing.

In addition, a trained athlete sweats more than an untrained one. This phenomenon is part of the adaptation related to the need to cool an overheated organism. This is because the body reacts to frequent physical exertion with a larger volume of fluids in the body, which is a consequence of the fact that the surface of the body that can be sweated increases, and at the same time, the amount of sweat secreted by the sweat glands also increases. All this so that the cooling of the organism works as well as possible.

Sweat loss means a problem that hydration solves

During sports, we sweat regardless of our drinking regime, because this is an important tool that helps to cool the body. When the body loses a lot of sweat, the blood thickens and this condition then leads to muscle spasms. If you continue to maintain a high intensity of exercise and do not replenish enough fluids, the body will begin to reduce the production of sweat (so as not to thicken the blood even more) and at the same time the amount of blood drained to the skin (to maintain the amount of circulating blood for the most important organs, especially the central nervous system and the heart ). The decrease in sweat production and blood flow to the skin reduces the body's ability to cool down, and the body temperature can rise above 41 °C with the threat of heatstroke.

Athletes who continuously drink enough during sports do not experience these negative effects or have significantly reduced symptoms. The liquids taken help to regulate the internal temperature not only indirectly by affecting long-term sweating, but also directly by its temperature, because the drink itself cools our body from the inside (if it is colder than the body's temperature).

Yes for the race, no for training?

A common myth is that you only need to drink during a race. However, the truth is that you need to drink more fluids during training than during a race. This is because the training sessions are often longer than the race, they are regular (so hydration deficit is common) and from the point of view of nutrition (and hydration) we certainly do not prepare as thoroughly for the training sessions as for the race. More frequent and more abundant production of sweat, which also escalates in hot weather, can lead to a significant loss of water and minerals within a few days of training and thus to a decrease in your performance.

Drink regularly and often during the day, remember to hydrate yourself 2-3 hours before the performance, when you should drink about 500 to 600 ml of water or a sports drink.

At least in the last hour before the performance, drink only pure unsweetened and non-sparkling water, you should drink it in sips, but often.

During exercise, prefer a hypotonic ionic drink - it reliably reflects the body's needs, from the point of view of the need for energy (carbohydrates), the replenishment of minerals lost through sweat (nerve transmissions in the muscles) and optimal absorption.

Continue to replenish fluids during the recovery phase. In practice, this means starting to drink immediately after training or a race (a recovery drink is ideal) and replenishing fluids continuously and often for several hours afterwards.