Health & Well Being

All professional footballers, including John Mullany, know how important it is to keep hydrated. Hydration is a measure of how much water you have in your body. Water is one of the most important nutrients in your diet. You can survive for only a few days without water, although you can live for weeks without food.

Drinking too little water or losing too much water through sweating will have a negative effect on your performance in training and matches. Effects on performance will mean that you:

• run slower like
• don't cover as much distance
• react to the ball slower when tackling/passing/intercepting/saving
• can't jump as high to head or gather/clear the ball for goalkeepers

Exercise increases the production of heat from your body, and sweating helps you to lose this heat, keeping you cool and preventing you from overheating.

However, it's important to replace these sweat losses otherwise you will become dehydrated.

If you do become dehydrated, your body temperature rises, performance suffers and at the extreme you could suffer heat stress.

The simplest way to tell if you are adequately replacing sweat losses is to check the colour and quantity of your urine.

If your urine is very dark you need to drink more fluids. When your urine is pale yellow your body has returned to its normal water balance.

If your urine is very dark, you should drink 500ml of water immediately, and continue to drink until your urine is pale yellow again.

You can monitor your sweat loss by weighing yourself before and after training and matches. For every 1kg of weight that you lose, you should drink 1500ml of fluid (1.5 times what you have lost since you will pee some of this out).

In addition to monitoring urine and weight loss, you should also monitor how you feel. If you feel chronically fatigued, have a headache, or feel lethargic then you may be chronically dehydrated, and you should continue to drink until you start to feel better.

Thirst is a poor indicator of hydration status, since you are already dehydrated by the time the thirst mechanism kicks in. Young children especially have a poorly developed thirst mechanism, so you should make a big effort to drink before and during training and matches, and afterwards.
The safest way to monitor your hydration levels is through the colour and quantity of your urine as highlighted earlier.

In a typical training day you should aim to drink between 3 and 5 litres of fluid. The exact amount will depend on the air temperature, your body size, daily activities and how much training you do.

You should experiment by drinking different amounts and checking the colour of your urine.

Try to avoid drinking too many fizzy drinks since these may cause you to feel bloated and may also cause stomach upsets.

Also beware of the sugar content of some soft drinks, since these can be very high in calories. Most fruit juices also contain a lot of calories, so drink these in moderation or dilute them with water. Drink as much water as you can, or choose diluted fruit juice or low-sugar cordials, as the main volume of your fluid intake.

• at least 500ml (approximately 1 pint) one hour before you start
• then drink 200ml (a typical glass) 15 to 20 minutes before you start. This fluid in your system will be ready to replace sweat losses
• aim to drink approximately 200ml of fluid every 15 to 20 minutes during training. In hot weather you may need to drink more than this, and less in cold weather if you're not sweating and the session isn't that intense.
• try to drink as often as you can during matches. But you're dependent on stoppages in play, so place fluid bottles all the way round the pitch so that you don't have to come over to one point to get a drink.
• Aim to drink during half-time.
• drink immediately after the match to start replacing the sweat and energy you have lost during the match.

The FA advises professional footballers to avoid drinking any alcohol immediately following training and matches. This is because after training you will already be dehydrated, and alcohol will cause you to become even more dehydrated. This will mean your body will take longer to recover and to return to normal hydration levels. So at least make sure you replace any water you lost during your training or match before indulging in any social activities!

The key nutrients from your diet that give you energy are fat, protein and carbohydrate. Carbohydrate is the main fuel you will use during training and matches, and you need to try to have a high amount of this in your diet.

Foods containing large amounts of carbohydrate include bread, potatoes, pasta, rice and cereals. Carbohydrate is stored in your muscles and liver as glycogen, and in your blood as glucose.

However, your body only has a limited store of carbohydrate so it's vital you replace this following every training session and match.

Within one hour of a training session or match your muscles are still active and the energy you've used during training or matches will be replaced and stored more quickly in your body.

During this time, you should aim to drink 1 litre of fluid and eat at least one of the following carbohydrate foods:

• two slices of toast, crumpet, bagel or English muffin with jam
• bowl of cereal with semi-skimmed milk
• 2 bananas
• cereal bar

As soon as possible after this you should have a high carbohydrate meal to replace the remaining energy and nutrients that your body has lost.

Here are two menu plans that you should try to follow during a typical training day and match day.

The timings given are just a guide, you will need to adjust these to suit your own timetable, but remember to eat your carbohydrate snack and a pint of fluid within an hour of finishing your training. And have a meal 3 hours before kick-off on a match day.

Source Foods Standards Agency

http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/foodforsport/

If you have special dietary requirements or are under medical direction by a GP or Hospital please consult them before changing your diet.