Optimizing hydration in Chinese youth taekwondo athletes: evidence-based daily and training session-specific fluid intake recommendations.

Abstract

Background: Adequate hydration is crucial for athletic performance and health, particularly in adolescent athletes with distinct physiological demands. Comprehensive data on the daily and training-specific hydration status of populations like Chinese youth taekwondo athletes remain limited, hindering evidence-based strategy development.

Objective: This study aimed to rigorously evaluate the daily and training session hydration status of taekwondo athletes in the Chinese youth team.

Methods: This study evaluated the daily and training session hydration status of 58 Chinese youth taekwondo athletes (30 males, 28 females; age 17.7 ± 2.2 years) over a 7-day period. Assessment included 24-h rehydration behavior, daily fluid intake surveys, and objective hydration indices (urine osmolality, specific gravity, sweat ion concentrations).

Results: A significant prevalence of suboptimal hydration, with 48.3% of athletes demonstrating persistent dehydration (defined as urine specific gravity >1.020 and urine osmolality ≥800 mOsm/kg) throughout the entire 7-day period. Median daily fluid intake for male athletes was 27.98 mL/kg BM, and for female athletes was 29.70 mL/kg BM; both values were below the daily fluid replacement volume of urine specific gravity ≤ 1.020 subjects for this athletic population. Training sessions significantly exacerbated dehydration, evidenced by elevated post-session urine specific gravity and osmolality of technical/tactical training session (P<0.05), alongside substantial median body mass loss rate of 2.51% for technical/tactical, 2.16% for physical fitness, and 1.97% for strength training sessions.

Conclusion: This study identifies inadequate daily and training-induced hydration in Chinese youth taekwondo athletes. Based on the median values observed in euhydrated athletes in our cohort, daily fluid intake >30.35 mL/kg BM/day for males and >32.63 mL/kg BM/day for females on training days, alongside a training session intake of 1.87-2.78 mL/kg BM/h, may support maintenance of optimal hydration. However, total intake volume alone does not guarantee euhydration; beverage composition, timing of consumption, and pre-training hydration status are also important factors.