Hydration and Sports Endurance
Hydration and Sports Endurance
Whether you are a Sunday sportsman or a regular sportsperson, it is important to remember: hydrate yourself. Before, during and after the sport, it is essential to drink water to compensate the water loss and improve physical performance. Always keep the water in stainless steel water bottle.
Swimming, running, hiking, biking or mountain biking sports acclaimed by the sports authorities are endurance sports. And in these sports, good hydration is necessary to optimize the effort and not to suffer due to the consequences of dehydration, like heat stroke, cramps, stomach pain or headaches, etc. In addition to water, refreshing drinks and tonic drinks are available to improve sports endurance and improved performance.
Why Do You Have to Drink?
Water sports activities are very popular in some of the courtiers. Around 60% of 12- to 50-year-olds engage in sport at least twice a month, mostly swimming, cycling, and mountain biking and hiking. For many of them, the physical activities bring good results in their bodies. However, sports to remain a pleasure, it is necessary to take up the good things and you must start with a good hydration. Keep the water in a stainless steel water bottle and don’t forget to carry with you.
The loss of body water, more or less important depending on the intensity and duration of physical exercise. With the accelerating breathing and increased sweating, the body can lose a lot of water, up to 4 L for a marathon or a football match for example!
“During the effort, you can lose up to 2 kg of water. It is reducing physical capacity by 20%,” says Nathalie Lesny, dietician and teacher of adapted physical activities and health “.
Avoid Salt Losses:
Sports endurance or so-called explosive sports, require a lot more energy for the body, says the dietician. Hence there is a need to bring all the elements a sportsman needs: sugars provide energy to the muscles, vitamins, allow the muscles to use these carbohydrates and of course water. Always carry a coldest water bottle full of water or juice with you.
Thus, it is advisable to drink water for at least 15 minutes before starting the sports activity. Then, count about 25 cl for 20 minutes of sports activity. Obviously, according to the climatic conditions and the people, this figure can be higher. Logically, it is necessary to drink more water when it is hot or humid.
“On the other hand, when you do sport more than two hours, there is sodium loss through sweating and when the sodium goes away, the water does not stay in the cells or in the blood anymore. It can lead to dehydration, even if you drink enough,” warns Nathalie Lesny.
The dietician advises, to prevent this situation, add salt to the water after one hour of activity. Sparkling waters are also recommended because some of them are rich in bicarbonate. You can always carry such healthy drink with you in a coldest stainless steel water bottle.
On the other hand, if it seems logical to hydrate before and during the sport, doing it after may seem less obvious. However, even after exercise, the body continues to heat up and so it dehydrates. We must continue to drink water to help the body.
What About Energy Drinks:
Not to be confused with energy drinks, they are intended for people practicing a continued physical activity. We see them blooming on the shelves of sports shops, but the question is whether they are really useful. Containing mostly water and fast carbohydrates, they promise a boost to optimize efforts.
In fact, their major problem is that they are very rich in sugar and acidic, they are therefore likely to cause a stomach ache, so they are not recommended for an effort of less than two hours as per the dieticians.
Nevertheless, it is possible to “customize” your water and make yourself an energy drink. To do this, dilute 30 g of sugars in one liter of water. Or, alternatively, make a drink composed of one-third of orange juice (without the pulp, rich in fiber so difficult to digest) and two-thirds of water for the hydration or sports endurance. Keep this infused water in the coldest stainless steel water bottle to stay fresh.
