Hydration In Sports Essay

“Hydration is imperative for optimal performance for all athletes. Athletes who develop a systematic method of ensuring they are consistently hydrated have better recovery and higher energy levels.

When an athlete is adequately hydrated, their body is able to transport nutrients and oxygen to working muscles and aid muscle repair, remove lactic acid build up, eliminate nitrogenous waste and regulate body temperature. Losing just two percent of body weight through sweat can affect the ability of an athlete to run due to low blood volume and less optimal utilization of nutrients and oxygen.

Water and carbohydrate mixtures of glucose, fructose and glucose polymers are the main ingredients found in sports drinks.

This blend is typically what

Research from the 1980-90s shows sports drinks help minimise fatigue during longer-term exercise. Since then, these drinks have been extensively used with great effect in “endurance” athletic events.

A 600-millilitre bottle of the sports drink Powerade, for instance, contains the energy equivalent of 30 minutes of walking or 10 to 15 minutes of jogging. That much energy content can be very useful for someone aiming to improve exercise performance, but it’s not useful for people who aren’t highly active and are already eating a normal diet.

These sport drinks help muscles continue to function during long-term exercise because they provide rapid energy, but if you don’t burn much energy, they’re just like drinking any other sugar-sweetened drink.

Sports drinks can be beneficial for replacing fluid and they’re better at doing this than water. This reduces the risk of dehydration, which can occur even without strenuous exercise but, again, dehydration mainly happens during prolonged competitive sports, especially in hot