Hydration Tip

Although the importance of hydration is common knowledge to most all athletes, here is an added suggestion for maintaining the proper way for hydrating before and during training. Whether it is water, Gatorade, Powerade, or any other sports drink to help keep up optimal performance try to drink your fluids at room temperature. "Gross," you say? Well, ever feel water-logged? That feeling of water swishing around in your stomach while you are running? This is due to the intake of cold water or fluids. When drinking a cold liquid your body has to heat up in order to properly absorb the liquid. This causes the liquid to remain in the digestive system much longer. Hence, becoming water-logged. The premise behind not drinking cold liquids while training is that it lessens your body's ability to digest the foods you are eating or have eaten recently and it will take longer to digest. The idea is to drink something so your body will digest more efficiently before and while you train. And yes cold water will boost your metabolism and help to burn a few more calories as your body works to heat it up, however if you have a game or are in the middle of training it's no fun to have the sensation of liquids swishing around in your stomach! Which ever way you decide to hydrate, cold or warm, please be sure to re-hydrate properly and continually to replace those fluids you are losing from sweating and urinating!

Cheers,

Jared