Hidration assessment of rugby athletes

Abstract

Introduction: Rugby is a rising sport in Brazil, however there are few academic studies about athletes of this sport, particularly the risk of dehydration and hyperthermia. During a game there are few interruptions that provide an opportunity for intervention to fluid replacement, which may lead athletes to a state of dehydration and thermoregulatory inefficient. Purpose: To evaluate, during training, the degree of dehydration of a high-level competitive Brazilian rugby team to design strategies to combat the harmful effects of dehydration and hyperthermia. Methodology: 23 male athletes participate the test. It was performed tetrapolar bioimpedance tests, obtaining the following variables before and after 90 minutes of training without water intake: body mass (BM: kg), height (m) and percentage of total body fat (%BF). It was calculated the sweat rate (SR) and percentage of water loss (%WL) as positioning of the ACSM (2007). It was performed paired t-test (p <0.05). Results: The athletes were 26.2 ± 5.5 years old, 1.82 ± 0.06 m and %BF of 14.9 ± 4.2%. There was statistical difference between BM before and after training. The SR was 13 ± 5.5 mL/min and %WL of 1.3% ± 0.6%. Meir et al (2003) estimated SR in a game between 11 and 17mL/min although the reduction of %WL was <2%, this value has been identified as critical to the performance for thermoregulatory stress. Conclusion: Even though there is a low risk of dehydration, studies with professional rugby leagues indicate intermittent characteristic it self of the sport, damages may occur in physical and cognitive performance of high level athletes.