Nutrition For Soccer Players and The Importance of Proper Hydration

Proper nutrition for soccer players is what separates the winners from losers. There are many parts of soccer nutrition and in this article you will learn why proper hydration is crucial. Let’s start…

A soccer practice can be an extremely demanding situation. One of the key points in order to perform well is to ensure proper hydration of your body. This simply means that you are consuming enough of healthy fluids while minimizing the amount of fluids you lose. Proper hydration is one of the key points of nutrition for soccer players.

When a practice session occurs, the weather will usually be warm. With other words, your body will start to lose fluid. The loss of fluid occurs when your body starts to sweat. Your body is using sweat to keep you cool and the sweat comes from the hydrates you consume.

While sweat is a good thing it can also cause you problems if you are not hydrated properly. If you want to perform well on the soccer field, it will be crucial to drink enough fluids. It is also equally important to take in proper fluids during your practice/game and also after your training session/game as well.

There are many types of fluids that will help you keep proper hydration and increase your performance as well. However, the best, cheapest and the most tasteful fluid is water. There are also sport drinks that have been scientifically proved to provide good hydrate.

One of these sport drinks is the well known Gatorade. This drink was created during the Florida’s Gators football training. A group of players were experimenting with different types of hydration and the result become Gatorade.

There is an unofficial standard when talking about the amount of water you should consume every 24 hours. The important thing here is to understand that this average is actually based on the general population and not only for soccer players. The unofficial standard recommends you to drink at least 8 to 10 full glasses (33cl) of water per day.

However, when you are participating in your soccer training it is vital to consume more water on a daily basis. During a regular soccer practice/game you will lose a lot of water and it is therefore important to replace the lost water with new fuel. The minimum amount of water you should drink during a 24 h period is 3 liter.

The importance of drinking enough water in order to ensure proper hydration during your practice/game cannot be emphasized enough. However you should also keep in mind that there are food kinds that will help your body to replenish lost fluids. These foods should be a part of your regular diet (watermelon, oranges and bananas).

While ensuring your body proper hydrating during the practice, there are other things that you should try to avoid. These things will impact negatively on your performance as they will actually dehydrate your body. Following things have scientifically been proved to impact negativity on your hydration: alcohol, wine and sodas.