Pre-practice hydration status in soccer (football) players in a cool environment

Urmo Kiitam, Lilita Voitkevica, Saima Timpmann, Inese Pontaga, Jaan Ereline, Eve Unt, Vahur Ööpik (Corresponding Author)

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Only a few studies have reported the pre-practice hydration status in soccer players (SPs) who train in a cool climate. The primary purpose of this study was to examine the hydration status of male semiprofessional SPs immediately before their regular training session in winter. The secondary purpose was to compare the urinary indices of the hydration status of Estonian and Latvian SPs. Materials and Methods: Pre-training urine samples were collected from 40 Estonian (age 22.1 ± 3.4 years, soccer training experience 13.7 ± 3.9 years) and 41 Latvian (age 20.8 ± 3.4 years, soccer training experience 13.3 ± 3.0 years) SPs and analyzed for urine specific gravity (USG). The average outdoor temperature during the sample collection period (January-March) was between -5.1 °C and 0.2 °C (Estonia) and -1.9 °C and -5.0 °C (Latvia). Results: The average pre-training USG of Estonian and Latvian SPs did not differ (P = 0.464). Pooling the data of Estonian and Latvian SPs yielded a mean USG value of 1.021 ± 0.007. Hypohydration (defined as a USG ≥ 1.020) was evident altogether in fifty SPs (61.7%) and one of them had a USG value greater than 1.030. Conclusions: Estonian and Latvian SPs do not differ in respect of USG and the prevalence of pre-training hypohydration is high in this athletic cohort. These findings suggest that SPs as well as their coaches, athletic trainers, and sports physicians should be better educated to recognize the importance of maintaining euhydration during the daily training routine in wintertime and to apply appropriate measures to avoid hypohydration.

Original languageEnglish
Article number102
Number of pages10
JournalMedicina (Lithuania)
Volume54
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 5 Dec 2018

Keywords*

  • Hypohydration
  • Soccer
  • Urine specific gravity
  • Wintertime training

Field of Science*

  • 1.6 Biological sciences

Publication Type*

  • 1.1. Scientific article indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus database

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