Keeping yourself well hydrated might help you avoid muscular weariness and injury. The body temperature rises whenever athletes work out. Staying hydrated replenishes water loss via perspiration and aids thermoregulation, preventing cramps, heat exhaustion, and heatstroke.
Hydration is crucial in everyday living, but it is also essential for athletes of all ages to perform at their best. Kids commonly play in hot and humid surroundings during their sports season, from inside gyms to outdoor fields in the summer. Muscles create heat during activity regardless of the season or location, resulting in sweaty youngsters. Sweating is the body’s principal technique of regulating core temperature during activity, which also causes fluid loss. Dehydration and associated issues might occur if your young athletes do not restore the fluids they are losing.
How can you know if you’re dehydrated?
Your system needs to be adequately hydrated to function effectively. If your body doesn’t have enough fluids, vital activities like circulation won’t work as well, and your organs won’t obtain the nutrients they need, resulting in less efficient functioning. Mood. Dehydration can harm your mood.
Dehydration happens when you lose more fluid via perspiration than you consume while exercising. Sweating transfers heat from the muscles to the skin during school, recess, and sports. The body releases heat through the evaporation of sweat from the skin. You will become dehydrated if you do not replace the fluid you sweat away. The performance begins to suffer when an athlete loses more than 2% of their body weight in fluid, and the athlete’s risk of heat-related problems rises. Dehydration can cause tiredness, dizziness, dry mouth, increased thirst, confusion, and heat sickness in a highly dehydrated athlete.
What should athletes consume in terms of fluids?
When you’re relaxing daily, water is a terrific way to stay hydrated. Athletes require drinks containing electrolytes to replace what is lost in sweat on particularly hot summer days, during long-duration exercises, or when playing back-to-back games in a tournament. Carbohydrates in sports drinks assist and replace an essential fuel source needed by the athlete, but they also aid fluid absorption, promoting overall hydration.
Gatorade’s proven recipe contains a combination of electrolytes to assist your athletes in replenishing what they lose via sweat, as well as providing a rapid supply of energy for your athlete after a long game or practice.
The research found that athletes who exercise for 60 minutes or longer benefit from consuming a sports drink like Gatorade instead of water. Exercise duration, intensity, and environmental factors such as heat and humidity should all be considered. Hydration is still important for athletes conducting a shorter or lower-intensity activity, although they may not require or desire carbohydrate energy.
Read more: THE BEST TEAM BUILDING ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR PLAYERS
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Hydration Resources from Gatorade
Because hydration is critical to an athlete’s performance, Gatorade has developed tools to help athletes stay hydrated and safe in the heat.
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Gatorade Athlete Hydration Chart
Hang this visual in your locker rooms or near the bathroom at your facility to provide your athletes with an easy-to-follow chart to assist them in assessing if they are hydrated.
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Recognize Dehydration
A simple reminder card listing the signs and symptoms of dehydration may go a far way in assisting your athletes and their families in recognizing dehydration.
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Athlete Weight & Hydration Chart
Each athlete is unique and should hydrate according to their needs. This tool is meant to help people keep track of their body weight before and after exercise so they can figure out how much water they need to rehydrate. They should consume 20-24 oz of liquids for every pound they have dropped.