Basketball Hydration
First of all, what are some of the signs of dehydration?
Dry mouth/thirst
Muscle cramps
Dark urine
ChillsRapid heart rate
Nausea/vomiting
Fatigue
Lightheadedness
Clammy skin
Headache
Decreased sweatingConfusion
How Much Should You Drink? What Does the Science Say? How much should a serious basketball player hydrate?
Proper hydration during athletic training is important to optimize comfort, performance, and safety. Human muscle tissue is made up of 75% water and the body loses water through perspiration, or sweating, during exercise. Thus, it is vital to drink plenty of hydrating fluids before, during, and after physical activity.
Drinking enough water has a significant impact on many bodily functions that are needed for optimal athletic performance. Water helps to lubricate and cushion joints, transport oxygen and nutrients in the blood to different cells in the body, and regulate body temperature.
If you are a serious athlete who works up a good sweat, you might have wondered how much you should drink before, during and after a hard workout. According to the American College of Sports Medicine's latest update on fluid needs for athletes, only you can determine that answer because fluid needs vary greatly from person to person.
Here's what ACSM has to say about basketball hydration...Sweat rates commonly range between one to four pounds (one half to two quarts) per hour, depending on your sport and environmental conditions. Sweat rates for a 110-pound slow runner might be one pound (16 oz) of sweat per hour, while a 200-pound fast runner might lose about four pounds (a half-gallon) per hour. Even fast swimmers sweat -- almost a pound per hour of training. Football players might lose more than two gallons of sweat in a day.
We know basketball players can sweat a lot more than they do! Few athletes actually make the effort to learn their sweat rates; they simply drink according to thirst throughout their workout. This can be OK if you exercise gently for less than an hour. But if you will be sweating bullets for extended exercise, you really should know your sweat rate. Otherwise, you are likely to repeatedly under-hydrate, become chronically dehydrated and hurt your performance.
To determine if your basketball hydration is adequate, every morning, simply weigh yourself nude each day in the morning after having emptied your bladder and bowels. Your weight should remain relatively stable and not creep downwards. This weight assumes you are not restricting calories to lose fat-weightyou have not eaten abnormally high amounts of sodium the night before, such as a water-retaining Chinese dinner you are not experiencing two to four pounds of pre-menstrual bloat.
There's no need to try to super-hydrate pre-exercise; your body can absorb just so much fluid. If you overdrink, you then may have to (inconveniently) urinate during exercise; the kidneys can only make about one quart of urine per hour. A wise tactic is to tank-up two or more hours pre-exercise; this allows time for your kidneys to process and eliminate the excess. Then drink again five to 15 minutes pre-exercise.
Some athletes can tolerate exercising while dehydrated better than others. But most athletes who lose more than two percent of their body weight in sweat losses lose both their mental edge and their physical ability to perform well, especially if the weather is hot.
Yet during cold weather, you are less likely to experience reduced performance even at three percent dehydration (4.5 lbs sweat loss for a 150 lb athlete). Dehydration (three to five percent) does not seem to impact either muscle strength or anaerobic performance. Yet, sweat loss of nine percent to 12 percent body weight can lead to death. Intravenous fluid replacement is warranted when an athlete has become more than seven percent dehydrated (either by sweat losses, diarrhea or vomiting). This doesn't need to happen to you. Just watch what you drink.
The science says to hydrate before, drink at least every 15 minutes during, and drink extra water after you work out. You know when you have been working out extra hard. The workout is hard, drinking water is easy. Good basketball hydration impacts performance.
You're an athlete.
Drink your water.
