Are you hydrated enough during the training?

This article is aimed to monitor the hydration status changes of young judo athletes during different periods of the one-year training cycle.

This article is aimed to monitor the hydration status changes of young judo athletes during different periods of the one-year training cycle. Judo athletes quite often reduced their body weight prior to the competitions, exposing themselves to several risks, and one of them is dehydration. Athletes usually don´t know anything about their hydration status, as well as about negative impacts on their health and performance during multiple dehydration.

In our study, we investigated the level of hydration in four different periods of the annual training cycle. The research sample consisted of 10 active judokas (age 17.20 ±0.92 years; body height 177 ±7.76 cm; weight 76 ±10.77 kg; sports age of 9.5 ±1.434 years). The level of hydration was determined indirectly, by analyzing the urine sample, using the ATAGO PAL 10-S digital refractometer in the off-season period, pre-competitive, competitive and post-competitive period.

The data between seasons was processed and compared using Friedman´s ANOVA and the Kendall coefficient of concordance was used to calculate the effect size. The Wilcoxon´s T-test was used to compare data from each period with reference values.

There were no significant differences in the level of hydration between the training periods. When comparing the level of hydration with the reference values, we found a significant difference in the non-competitive period and in the competition period.

In the off-season period, judokas should pay more attention to the proper hydration of the organism, which plays the most important role in the optimal strategy of regeneration. In the competition period, we recommend avoiding deliberate hypohydration and judokas should choose more appropriate body-weight reduction strategies.