Recovery From Hard Exercise: Part 2

Adequate fluid intake deserves full attention from athletes who perform hard exercise-particularly if you are doing double workouts and need to rapidly recover from one exercise bout to prepare for the next one.Your best bet is obviously to minimize water losses by drinking adequate fluids during exercise. But many athletes, to the detriment of their performance, fail to complete that task either because their sweat losses during exercise are too high or their fluid intake is too low. Whatever the story, rapid recovery from one bout of exercise to prepare for the second bout depends upon replacing fluids and electrolytes (the minerals lost in sweat along with the water). Be you a soccer player in a weekend tournament, a swimmer competing in two events at a meet, a cyclist doing back-to-back century rides, or a triathlete doing two-a-day workouts, you'll be able to perform better during the second session if you have planned your recovery diet. This article addresses fluids for rapid recovery after intense exercise; carbohydrates for rapid recovery were discussed previously in Part I of this two part series.Minimizing sweat lossesPreventing dehydration during exercise is preferable to treating dehydration post-exercise. To determine how much fluid your body needs, the best plan is to learn your sweat rate. Simply weigh yourself naked before and after an hour of hard exercise during which you drank no fluids. The weight loss reflects sweat loss. By learning your sweat rate under various conditions, you can then develop a schedule for drinking adequate fluids during exercise to minimize sweat losses and hasten recovery. A 2 lb. loss equals 32 ounces (1 quart). In the future, you should target drinking 8 ozs./15 minutes of exercise at that pace and under those climatic conditions. Because most athletes voluntarily consume only half of what they need, they inevitably need to pay attention to post-exercise recovery fluids. For each pound lost, you should now target drinking 150% more than that during recovery. That is, if you lost 2 pounds during a workout, you should replace that loss with at least 3 pounds of fluids (48 ozs.) within 2 hours post-exercise. An alternative to counting ounces is to simply monitor your urine. You should be urinating every 2 to 4 hours post-exercise, and the urine should be pale yellow color (like lemonade), not dark (like beer).What's best to drink for rapid recovery to prepare for the next tennis match or soccer game? Your best bet is fluids and/or foods that contain sodium. That is, if you are going to be consuming only fluids, a sports drink (with sodium) will do a better job of replacing sweat losses than will plain water, juice or soda pop. The sodium enhances fluid absorption and retention. Or, if you prefer sodium-free beverages, simply eat salty foods alongside, such as pretzels, crackers, pizza, or pasta with tomato sauce.What about sports drinks...?Sports drinks are designed to be taken during hard exercise, a time when digestion can be compromised due to reduced blood flow to the stomach. Hence, sports drinks are dilute and are actually a weak source of sodium and carbohydrates. If you need to rapidly recover for a second bout of exercise within an hour or two and are worried about gastric distress during the second event, consuming sports drink is a safe bet. But if you have a tolerant stomach, or more than 4 hours to recover, you can refuel and rehydrate yourself with higher carb fluids (juices, soft drinks) along with bagels, pretzels, and whatever carbohydrate-rich foods taste good and digest comfortably. You simply have to learn through trial and error which recovery foods and fluids you tolerate best--particularly in competitive tournament situations where stress and anxiety can take a toll on your digestive system.What about beer...?Hands down, a highly popular recovery fluid is beer--but is beer an OK choice for a top notch sports diet? Well, juices and soft drinks are preferable, but alcohol-free beer is fine, and so is near-beer or diluted beer with the alcohol content cut from 4.5% to less than 2.5%. Eating pretzels or other foods along with the beer improves the recovery process by providing carbs and sodium.CAUTION: Do not follow the common practice of drinking too much beer and eating too little food! Obviously, this hinders both glycogen and fluid replacement. And be careful to not drink alcohol on an empty stomach. This rugby player explains why: "After a game, when I'm dehydrated and haven't eaten any food that day, a beer hits me like a ton of bricks. I've learned to enjoy the natural high of exercise--it's better than walking around in a drunken stupor. I save the beer for later, when the tournament is all over!"Can alcohol ever fit into the recovery diet? According to Australian sports nutritionist Louise Burke, Ph.D., the answer varies. Burke researched the effect of alcohol (vodka) on glycogen replacement. She compared three recovery diets: carbohydrates only, vodka only, or carbs plus vodka. The bottom line: alcohol itself does not convert into glycogen, so it is a poor choice for a recovery fluid. But alcohol itself does not impair glycogen storage, as long as adequate carbohydrates are available. Burke stressed the importance of eating while drinking. Athletes who fail to consume enough carbs while drinking alcohol, plus fail to get up for breakfast the next morning have two strikes against them. Add alcohol's diuretic effect and you've done yourself in for the day!

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