Preseason is a unique animal where physical demands significantly increased. Right alongside that, nutrition and hydration demand increase significantly. Typically occurring in warmer places as well which can be a unique challenge. If a player is coming from a cold environment pre-camp, they will have a few days of acclimation. Many changes are occurring all at once and without proper planning could set you up for a tough camp.
Environment impact on preseason hydration
Entering preseason, the main goal is to optimally improve performance as efficiently as possible. Everything is monitored on another level to ensure things are all accounted for. Training loads, meal times, meeting times and everything is typically broken-down minute by minute. What can throw a wrench in this is weather. Storms and rain can keep teams off the field which then means one less session for improvement. In order to decrease the risk of that, typically preseason is held in a warm location that on average doesn’t get much rain or storms.
While nice for a vacation it poses a challenge to athletes from a hydration perspective. Especially if an athlete is coming from a cold environment (like Ohio in January) to a hot environment, the body needs time to adapt. In the first few days there isn’t as much sweat being produced as quickly or as much as may be usual. The sweat that is produced though has a higher sodium concentration. After a few days the body then adapts and begins to sweat earlier and more but it is more diluted with less sodium being lost. This needs to be accounted for in your hydration if in this situation. Prioritize some additional sodium via electrolyte packets or salt at meals in the early days. Then the priority shifts a bit more to overall fluid intake.
Worse hydration = worse training
Nobody feels good when dehydrated. Even slight dehydration though that may not be as noticeable can still have a noticeable impact on your ability to train. Less water in the system results in less overall blood volume. What that means is that the heart has to pump quicker to move the blood throughout the body. Like when your heart rate increases when you train harder forcing you to feel tired, if your heart rate is already starting slightly higher because of dehydration it will have you “hit the wall” that much quicker.
This was demonstrated in the recent study linked at the bottom which showed dehydrated resulted in decreased accelerations/sprints. These are key pieces of training that need to be done to help improve fitness for the upcoming season. If unable to achieve those high speeds, the training sessions won’t be as effective.
Stay cool by staying hydrated this preseason
The blood volume situation mentioned previously also impacts your internal temperature. When the blood is flowing through the body near the surface of the skin, it’s able to be closer to the air. This contact with the air is what can help to cool the blood down as it returns throughout the body. Slightly cooler blood is able to help keep the internal core temperature down. Being hot can be uncomfortable and add a psychological challenge on top of the physical challenge of training.
Maintaining proper blood volume allows for the blood to flow a bit easier to the surface of the skin to achieve that cooling effect. If you’ve ever noticed your veins “popping” a bit more in the heat, this is why. The body is trying to maximize that exposure to help cool itself down.
Ways to monitor your hydration level
One of the oldest strategies is to look at the color of your urine. It’s an oldie but goodie still as it is a very convenient way to tell and is fairly accurate. If your urine is a light pale lemonade color, you’re in good shape. On the opposite end if it’s dark and apple juice colored, you need to grab a bottle of water pronto.
Another helpful strategy can be used to see how you’re hydrating at training itself. This is done by weighing yourself before and after training. When done, that weight difference is how much sweat you lost during training that needs to be replaced. A general rule of thumb is that for every pound lost, drink one 16oz bottle of water/fluid. Overall try to avoid a weight loss of more than 2% of your body weight. For a 150 pound individual this would be 3 pounds or for someone 200 pounds it would be 4 pounds.
Maintaining that hydration will ensure you are staying ready to maximize your training sessions. By being able to more consistently train harder you’ll see more results and apply that to an overall better season. Last but not least as well, proper hydration decreases your risk of soft tissue injury. These are things like those annoying muscle pulls/tweaks. Keep yourself on the field and maximize your potential by keeping that water bottle on hand!
Study referenced: click here