1.2. Water and Electrolyte Replacement

WATER AND ELECTROLYTE REPLACEMENT

What is it?

💧 During a match you make great efforts that lead to high energy expenditure, sweating, muscular effort and great loss of fluids.

💧That is why you have to ingest a good amount of water, mineral salts and fast-absorbing carbohydrates (gels, powder, liquid already incorporated…)

How is it done?

💧This aspect is very personal. There are players who prefer only to drink water because the ingestion of gels does not suit them, or drinking mineral salts makes them very thirsty, or they do not have a good tolerance to the ingestion of other types of nutritional and hydrating aids.

💧On the contrary, there are players who do assimilate the intake of gels very well to replace the carbohydrates they have lost in the first half and hydrate the muscles by taking mineral salts.

💧The way to ingest what we have proposed to you, has to be in a calm, controlled and leisurely way; to favor an easy digestion after spending a lot of moments of tension, pressure and having been at the limit.

Source: https://www.integrandoculturas.com/37896-no-deje-que-el-calor-se-transforme-en-una-emergencia-este-verano/

When is it done?

💧As soon as you enter the locker rooms and after finishing the first part of relaxation (2-3 minutes mentioned earlier); would be the ideal time to start replenishing all the water and electrolytes lost in the first half.

Why is it done?

💧During the first half, you make a lot of physical and muscular efforts. These efforts cause muscles to work, tire, and lose fluids (dehydrate). That is why you have to help the muscles to always be hydrated; so that there is no risk of injury due to lack of hydration.

💧At the same time you have to know that “the gasoline allowing your body and muscles to work properly” is carbohydrates. Every effort that you make causes an expenditure of carbohydrates in your body; So, when you get to rest, you have spent a lot of carbohydrates and, therefore, you have to eat them again to be able to give a good performance in the second part and delay the onset of fatigue as much as possible.