If You’re Thirsty….You’re WAY TOO LATE!!

When becoming an elite athlete is your primary goal, there are obviously a number variables that need to absolutely be addressed to fulfill the equation for success.  Among these variables, nutrition, and even more importantly hydration rank high in this performance equation.  Of course this can’t come as a surprise to you guys by now…considering the fact that I felt strongly about this to write a darn book on it!!

There are many misconceptions dealing with dehydration.  Since football season is coming up and the weather here out East is blistering hot, I wanted to cover some of the things you should be doing daily to get yourself primed for peak performance.  Notice I’m talking about “priming” the body and not “reacting” after that fact…when it’s often too late?  Just as you wouldn’t attempt to run a car without motor oil, you can’t expect your body to respond for you as you hit summer camp practices…if you’re not supplying it with the liquid that makes it run smoothly.  Proactive Hydration is where it’s at my friends!  Let me explain.

Some of  you out there reading this might be entering into your upcoming football season…possibly on the bubble of getting that starting spot, or that scholarship you’ve always dreamed of, or just impressing your peers (and that cute girl you wished would show you just a little attention in school!).  If that’s you…wouldn’t you want to give yourself the best chance possible to succeed?  I mean after all, you spent the hours in the weight room to improve your strength, you’ve worked on your footwork and agility, you’ve improved your speed (hopefully by listening to my buddy Latif’s unmatched advice on the topic!), you’ve even decided to eat better knowing it will pay off on the field.  Well, then why have you neglected to do perhaps the simplest of ALL of those things and just make sure you’re getting in adequate amounts of water?!?

Believe me…I’m not picking on you…because I sat where you do for many years.  I hated drinking water!  Go figure.  I don’t know what it was….I just felt inconvenienced every time I had to go get a drink of water, so I just wouldn’t do it.  That was until I actually started to see the serious effects not drinking enough could have on not only my body, but perhaps even more disturbingly for me (since I was busting my butt trying to get ready for football in the offseason) was the negative impact it could have on my performance!

How’s this one for you?  A 3% drop in body hydration levels can decrease reaction time by up to 20%, power output by almost %30 and total strength by somewhere in between those two!!  Draw that out a bit and it’s not too hard to see that speed, quickness, defensive ability, and nearly every aspect of your game dramatically suffers at again…just a 3% drop in total body hydration!!

When you consider that some athletes may lose up to 10-12 cups of fluid when practicing in hot/humid weather, it gets even more disturbing.  That said, though…I’m not trying to make this look like a bleak situation….because it isn’t.  As a matter of fact guys, it’s got a real easy solution.  You ready?  Drink more water!!  I know…scientific huh?  But truly that’s the essence of this.  But where I can help you is to point out a few helpful strategies to make the whole thing less of a chore and easier to tackle (no pun intended).

The first important point is, again, you’ve got to stay proactive with your hydration!  Don’t wait to feel thirsty….ever!  I always say…if you let yourself get thirsty it’s already WAY TOO LATE!  Avoid this by drinking constantly.  Either keep a bottle with you all day and refill it often (I’ll even keep some rubber bands wrapped around my bottle and take them off every time I refill it…as a way of tracking how many bottles I’ve had for the day!) or just try to keep a small little Dixie cup near the sink and every time you walk through the room, stop and chug down 5 ounces!  The little amounts consumed consistenly will quickly add up to a lot!

As you approach competition, there’s no such thing in my mind as pre-event and post-event hydration.  Instead, drink before, during and after!  You’ll be losing enormous amounts of water (and electrolytes) through your sweat as you compete…so keep that steady replacement going to never have to experience that 3% dip I referred to earlier.  As far as what type of replacement qualifies as GOOD replacement, well….you can probably imagine that coca-cola isn’t on my list!

Just remember…when we sweat we not only lose water, we lose sodium and potassium so it is very important for athletes to replace these electrolytes as well.  Sports drinks fit the bill perfectly here.  To be honest, the type of sports drink doesn’t really matter (although my boy David Wright is sponsored by Vitamin Water so feel free to support them!).  As long as you are replenish your electrolytes the name of the drink is not an issue.  The best strategy to ensure equal amounts of water and electrolyte replenishment is to either alternate cups of sports drink and water….or just to dilute a sports drink with water.  Either will work.  Just remember to get both!

Finally…what if you think you may have gone too far?  You feel as if you may already be dehydrated?  How can you check? There are a number of ways to check and see, but the two ways I’ve found most useful with both myself and my athletes are the weight test, and the urine test.  For the urine test…simply check the color of your pee!  I know, simple, a bit juvenile but pretty effective.  Light colored, diluted urine probably means you are hydrated; dark colored, concentrated urine is a good bet you’re dehydrated.  Sure certain vitamins can throw off the color and darken even a hydrated person’s urine…..but in general this is a pretty good guage.

Weighing yourself before and after exercise is the other simple method.  Any weight lost is likely from fluid, so it gives you a target amount to drink to replenish your losses and ensure you avoid dehydration.  For every pound you lose you want to drink 16 ounces of water.  Simple straight forward and effective.

Like mentioned above there is no one thing that will make you a star athlete, but there is a combination of things that can drastically make changes in your game. Adding more water and sports drinks to your daily regimen will surely increase your performance as I just heavily stressed…. but are you eating at the right times? Getting enough sleep? Understanding how your body/metabolism actually works?   These are all things that athlete’s should understand and monitor if you’re looking to gain that competitive edge.  If you’re looking for a simple, “plug and play” system that you can either use yourself or with your team…then I highly recommend you grab a copy of my Teen Sports Nutrition Blueprint today (http://sportsnutritionblueprint.com) and reap the benefits immediately.