You likely hear a lot about hydration from your coaches, athletic trainers and parents during the heat of preseason and early season practices. But the football season can have extreme temperature changes from incredibly hot to very cold depending on where you live, and hydration remains a key to your performance even in cooler weather. Regardless of the weather, you should drink enough to minimize how much weight you lose during a practice or game, without gaining weight (which happens if you drink too much). The amount of fluid you lose in sweat, and therefore how much you should drink, depends on your environment. Sweat cools your body by evaporating. The more humid the air, or the more equipment you’re wearing, the harder it is for sweat to evaporate. As the weather changes, so do your hydration needs. Below are tips to help maintain hydration to help support your safety and performance in different temperatures throughout the football season. For more information, visit the Korey Stringer Institute.

Hot and humid

You probably know you’re losing a lot of sweat when it’s hot and humid, and your equipment makes it harder to evaporate that sweat to cool you. Having a hydration plan can help you maintain body weight without overdrinking, helping you to play safe. You can do this by measuring your body weight before and after practice. You should try to drink an additional ~16 ounces of fluid for every pound lost throughout the course of your practice or game.  Also, including sodium in your beverage, such as a sports drink, helps replace sweat losses and keeps the fluid you’re drinking in your body.

Moderate temperature and humidity

As the weather changes, your sweat rate may, too. But your muscles are still generating heat while you play, and you still need to think about hydration to stay cool. Remember to start hydrated, and monitoring body weight changes can help you know if you’re on track.

Cold

You may not realize how much you sweat when playing in the cold, and you likely don’t feel like drinking a lot of cold fluid.  But you are still sweating. You also lose fluid through your breath, that puff of air that you can see as you breathe out is water vapor.   Remember to drink, and consider asking your coach, athletic trainer or parent to provide some warm fluids on the sidelines, like apple cider or chicken broth.

Actions

• Do: start practices and games hydrated. Your urine should be light yellow like lemonade.
• Do: bring water and/or a sports drink with you to practice if it is not provided.
• Do: rehydrate after practices and games to help get ready for the next one!

What’s the deal with body weight?

If your weight changes during a practice or game, it’s mainly due to fluid – either losing too much in sweat without drinking or drinking too much. Your weight doesn’t need to stay exactly the same, a small loss is OK.  A 2-percent loss in body weight (for example, if a 150-pound player loses 3 pounds) is considered the amount of dehydration where you start to see performance suffer. Any loss greater than that and increases your risk of heat illness. If you don’t want to know your actual body weight, ask a parent, athletic trainer or coach to record your numbers and just tell you the change.