It’s no secret that hydration plays a crucial role during the intense days spent training on and off the bike, but what is the proper way to prehydrate, hydrate during exercise, and rehydrate during the hottest months of the year? Aside from acclimatization to hot and humid weather, hydration status plays the biggest part in thermoregulation for motocross racers. Expecting your body to perform at the highest level without enough water and electrolytes is like expecting your bike to make it through two mud motos with half the coolant the bike requires, and we saw how that went last weekend at the second round of the motocross season at Loretta’s II. But unlike a modern 4-stroke that can run with no coolant for a bit of time, a 2% loss in body weight due to sweating can result in noticeable performance decrement. Larger losses of water through sweat, as can happen during a single 35 minute moto, can result in a significant decrease in blood plasma volume, increase core body temperature, ...
My blog for promoting professionalism in elite trainers, clarifying misconceptions on training the Motocross, Supercross, and GNCC athlete, ongoing professional development, reviewing topics pertinent to the physiology of MX/SX, and whatever else I can cook up!