Dehydration
Dehydration is a killer for any athlete. When an athlete becomes dehydrated their performance is at risk. Drinking the correct amount of fluid for your body can prevent this. When talking hydration it is vital to know that everyone is different and the amount of fluid you need all depends on your sweat rate. Therefore, athletes wanting to perfect their training and race day nutrition need to conduct a sweat rate test. Some athletes when competing in high degree temperatures can sweat up to 3 litres per hour… For the body to perform at its best this all needs to be replaced with fluids.
Calculating sweat rate
Only a small percentage of athletes know how much they sweat but it is actually easy to calculate. Below is a download link that will show you how it can be calculated in a simple and easy way.
To produce accurate results a sweat rate test is best to be taken more than once. The reason for this is because there are certain factors that can determine your sweat rate. Some factors are: How hard you go, how far you go, the temperature, the clothes you wear and your generic make-up (some people sweat more than others).
A simple and accurate way we would recommend to conduct the test is by doing the same intensity session as your usual training day but spread over a hot day, cold day and indoor session. We advise to still fill your bottles with your chosen energy drink mix. You can purchase Surge Energy Powder here. Try and pick on a hot day your usual attire during high temperatures. Then do the same on a cold day with your usual attire during cold temperatures. For the indoor test just wear what you would usually for indoor sessions.
How to calculate sweat rate (All units must be in Kg or Litres)
1. Empty your bladder and record your weight. Record your weight ideally nude or with as little clothing on as possible.
2. Perform your workout, race or event and record how much you drank. Do this by measuring your bottle/bottles before and after and record the difference.
3. Post exercise remove all excess sweat with a dry towel. Empty your bladder and then record your weight again ideally nude.
4. For more accurate results measure total urine production. If not possible estimate this by using 0.3L per visit to the toilet.
5. Subtract your post-exercise weight from your pre-exercise weight to get the weight you lost during exercise.
6. Now subtract the weight of the bottle/bottles before and after to obtain the volume you consumed.
7. You now have all the data to calculate your sweat rate. Calculation: Weight loss + Volume consumed - Urine loss / Time (in hours) = Sweat rate.
