Determine How Nutrition used to Prevent Dehydration?
Maintaining optimal hydration status along with sufficient muscle glycogen stores delays the onset of fatigue and enables the athletes to' exercise longer before exhausting. High intensity games lead to heavy sweat losses resulting in fluid and electrolyte imbalance. Hence, sufficient amount of fluids to maintain water and electrolyte balance and to control body temperature need to be consumed particularly in hot climatic conditions. Friar to the competition, adequate hydration must be ensured by consuming
fluids at the regular intervals.
Water is the best suitable fluid for this purpose. At all time drinking, 150-250 ml water every 15 minutes depending upon the exercise intensity and environmental conditions, would prevent dehydration. Up to 500 ml of fluid 10-15 minutes may be taken. Dehydrating oneself for the purpose of reducing weight in order to get placed into lower weight categories is a common practice in sports where weight category matters. This practice must be prohibited. Besides affecting performance, the state of dehydration increases the risk of gastrointestinal distress. Excessive salt intake should be avoided to avoid diuresis.