The staggering amount of sweat Manchester City players lose in a single session has been revealed.And though treble-winners City may look like they don't break a sweat because of how easy they make their job, it turns out they do.
Gatorade, City's long-term partner give Pep Guardiola's side access to its elite portfolio of sports fuel products, equipment, and cutting-edge science through the GSSI (Gatorade Sports Science Institute) to ensure they perform to their maximum.And recently, as part of the 'Fuels you Forward' campaign, the whole 25-man squad took part in a "sweat test", which saw their levels monitored and recorded through the Gx Patch.
The patch is applied on the arm, two to three inches from the elbow crease and pressed down for 10 seconds.
Typically, after a period of physical activity, there are two channels in the pitch which fill up.
The orange channel tracks measure the rate at which the athlete sweats, while the purple channel monitors the sodium concentration in their sweat.The data is scanned and revealed in an email, informing athletes how much fluid and electrolytes are required.
My result for an hour of playing football in the Champions League final setting of Istanbul was 1254ml of fluid lost and 776mg of sodium lost.
But the GSSI uncovered that between them, City players lost 36 litres of sweat in a single session - the weight equivalent of almost five Champions League trophies.
Dr Ian Rollo, GSSI Principal Scientist and the Head of GSSI International, said:
"When it comes to sweat, every single person is unique. Every athlete sweats differently, which results in different sweat profiles.
"The footballers who cover the highest distances on the pitch tend to sweat the most, and goalkeepers, despite not running as much as their teammates, also lose a lot of sweat due to the layers of their kit. All players will also lose sodium in their sweat but will vary in the amount lost."“Some people have a high sweat rate and low sodium sweat, while someone else might have a low sweat rate but have a high content of sodium in their sweat. It’s important we can understand these things so that we can create specialised hydration plans for players to ensure they are sufficiently hydrated – both throughout the season, and especially when they are playing in hotter climates such as the recent pre-season."It is recommended that each player's post-training drink comprises of 1.5 times the amount lost during the session - so if one litres of sweat is lost in a 60-minute session, 1.5 litres advocated and some of the fluid can come in the form of a 500 ml electrolyte drink.
I myself am well-placed to comment on the importance of fluids with electrolytes as on the very same day, I took part in the 'Gatorade' challenge.
Coached by the Champions League final hero Rodri, I was tasked to complete a series of timed skill challenges in one go.
The first course was done with a weighted vest and goggles, while the second was purely in football kit and completed after some Gatorade had been guzzled.
Predictably the results the second time around were much better but unfortunately it wasn't enough to stop me finishing last in the leaderboard.
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