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

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.

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

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).

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.

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.