Body Fluid Balance Of Competitive Male Swimmers During A Training Session

Abstract

Dehydration has a deleterius effect on exercise performance. Because athletes in aquatic environment have a greater opportunity to dissipate heat through conduction and convection, dehydration is seldom considered a problem in aquatic sports. PURPOSE to examine the effects of water and a sport drink intake on hematocrit concentrations, urine specific gravity (Usg) and voluntary drinking in trained acclimatized swimmers. METHODS eight boys (age 17,2 ± 3,2 years, body fat 13,6 ± 2,1%) performed two 2-h swimming sessions of 6000m in two different days in an indoor pool (water temperature = 30°C). The beverages were: unflavored water (W) on the first session, and an orange flavored sport drink containing 6% carbohydrate and 18 mmol/l Na (FD) on the second one. Drinking was ad libitum. Weight, blood and urine were colected before and 3 minutes after the training session. Mean and SD are given as descriptive statistics. Differences were established using Student's paired t-test.TableCONCLUSION A smaller amount of sport drink consumption was enough to maintain urinary and blood measures within euhydrated status. When an athlete rehydrate with pure water or hypotonic fluid it may result in an urine specimen with a lower Usg, however the body water deficit might not have been replaced completely.