Hydration has a significant effect on sports performance and can determine the success of training sessions or competition.

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Russell Smith                                                                                    14th March 2011

Sport Nutrition

Hydration

Hydration has a significant effect on sports performance and can determine the success of training sessions or competition.  It is a vital aspect of knowledge, which needs to be applied by sports performers and coaches/trainers to achieve top results, good health and recovery. I’m going to produce information for sports performers, making them aware of how to recognise different levels of hydration and how to effectively hydrate before, during, and after training/competition. First of all I am going to discuss the signs and symptoms dehydrations, hyper hydration, and hypo hydration. I will start with dehydration.

Dehydration occurs when the body loses more fluid than it takes in. The signs and symptoms of dehydration are varied as to the severity, at about a 2% loss in fluid the symptoms are; thirst, this will diminish your performance as your concentration levels go down. It is common for athletes’ performance levels to drop in the last 15 minutes due to a lack of fluid intake, loss of appetite this will lead to further fatigue and weakness other than that already associated with dehydration. This again will lead to a diminished performance, dry skin which will cause a problem with regards to heat loss. Heat loss is obtained commonly through sweating and from the sweat droplets evaporating off the skin, however if the skin is dry it will delay the sweating process, skin flushing is where a redness of the skin occurs and it is caused by a lack of water being supplied to the surface of the skin, dark coloured urine- this shows that fluid concentration is high and is an obvious sign that fluid levels in the body are low, and one more is chills which is commonly associated with dehydration and shows shivering with paleness and a coldness of the skin. Symptoms are more severe when fluid loss gets to a higher percentage, these symptoms include increased heart rate, increased respiration, decreased sweating and decreased urination etc.

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Next hyper hydration occurs when the normal balance of electrolytes in the body is pushed outside of safe limits by over-consumption of water. It can potentially cause a fatal disturbance in brain functions. There are also signs and symptoms however they are not as much as a problem. These symptoms are; water retention which is also known as oedema and this is the accumulation of excess water under the skin or in the body cells. This retention of fluid appears as swelling. It causes swelling of the fingers, legs, ankles, feet, abdomen & breasts (in women), abdominal bloating this is a follow ...

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