Hydration is maintaining a certain level of water and electrolytes that the organism needs to continuously support performance.
During intense exercise, water and electrolytes are lost through sweating.
After oxygen, water is the most important element for human life. A person can live for weeks without food, but only a few days without water.
Maintaining hydration is very important for athletes and sportsmen. Without replacing the water lost through sweat, a person’s life is in danger.
The most basic principle of maintaining hydration is equal amounts of water entering and leaving the body.
Dehydration (fluid loss – decrease in the amount of water in the body); Dehydration due to excessive dehydration, which is frequently seen in sports competitions and training, is the most important health problem. Fluid and electrolytes lost through dehydration are tried to be replaced by food and drink intake during the recovery period. Failure to adequately replace fluid loss in the body not only decreases performance, but also causes serious health problems and even death in athletes.
Athletes who maintain water balance, i.e. stay hydrated during training and competitions, achieve optimal exercise performance. On the other hand, dehydration, or excessive fluid loss, significantly reduces performance. In addition, for athletes, dehydration increases the risk of life-threatening heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
Fluid loss is very high during hard training. Approximately 500 ml of fluid is lost every 1 hour of high-intensity training. Water lost during exercise should be replaced immediately.
Considering that many sports branches train for at least 2 hours a day, 1000 ml, i.e. 1 liter, is lost in a training session and this loss must be replaced with drinking water and sports drinks. In summary, the lost fluid should be replaced without wasting time.
Especially in athletes, dehydration caused by exercise in hot and humid weather conditions causes loss of performance and increases health risks. Therefore, drink water regularly before, during and after training to maintain proper hydration levels.
You can drink water at any temperature before and after exercise. Drinking cold water during exercise is important for absorption. Cold water is more advantageous in regulating the increased body temperature and absorbing water as soon as it leaves the stomach and enters the intestines.
Drink 1.5 ml of water for every 1 calorie spent during exercise.
If a man aged 1-40 years, 170 cm tall and weighing 70 kg walks for 1 hour at a moderately strenuous level, his energy is 350 kcal. This person, who should drink 3 liters of water daily, should have 525 ml more on the day he walks, that is, 3525 ml in total.
2- The water ratio in the human body varies according to gender, age, physical characteristics and daily physical activities. While the water ratio in the body of children is around 70%, this ratio varies between 50% – 60% in adults. In newborn babies, this rate is around 90%. As we grow up, it replaces fats, so we need more water consumption, cell renewal and many organs in our body use water.
3- Water is the second most important need for human life after oxygen. 83% of blood, 22% of bones, 75% of brain and muscles are water. As we can understand from these proportions, nothing can live without water; water is the main source of energy and provides us with life force by producing electrical and magnetic energy in every cell of the body.
4- We lose about 2.5 liters to 3 liters of water a day to remove toxins accumulated in our body as a result of daily activities. 1.5 liters through urine, 0.5 liters through the skin, 0.3 liters through feces and respiration. Restoring the lost water to the body, eliminating our need for water, i.e. hydration; The proper functioning of our vital functions is very important.
5- Monitoring the hydration level of athletes and ensuring the appropriate hydration level is important in maximizing performance, especially in competition and training environments that require long-term endurance.