Self Care | girlSportscentral

Hydration

Here are some tips on how to get, and stay hydrated. Hydration is essential in sports. If you are not properly hydrated you cannot perform at your best and you are putting yourself in danger. Excercising while not propery hydrated can lead to injuries.

Drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day. If you weigh 120lbs. then drink 60oz. water per day, 150lbs. then 75oz. and so on.
Your pee should look like lemonade, not apple juice. This might sound gross but it an easy self check to see if you are properly hydrated. If the amount of water you are drinking daily isn't cutting it, increase your intake. Every person's body is different and some may need more or less water than others.
Start hydrating about 3 days before your sporting event. Whether it is a practice, meet, or game. It takes time for your body to absorb the water.
Drink your water all throughout the day periodically, not all at one time. Water helps with digestion, and you eat periodically throughout the day so a good rule of thumb is to drink whenever you eat. A good schedule for eating and drinking is: breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, snack, dinner, before bed.
Gatorade and other hydration/sports drinks are very popular but they are not a replacement for water. Sports drinks are high in sugar and glucose, meaning they are good for a “pick me up” now or replacing lost fluids quickly after. Water should be your main source of hydration as it is the onl liquid your cannot live without. Drink gatorade while actively participating in intense workouts/sports session or after an intense workout/sports session. Sports drinks are also beneficial if you could not have a proper meal or snack before your workout. Unlike water, they do have calories and sugar which can help give you energy if your are running on a low tank. They are good for prolonged sporting events that are more than 1-2 hours like tournaments.

Injuries

| Hydration | Periods | Mental Health

Injuries, unfortunately, are a common part of sports. It is important to treat them so you can return to play. Do no be afraid to tell your coach you need to take a break. Your safety comes first.

R.I.C.E is a good method for treating injuries on joints and tendons. Achy knees, ankles and wrists are common and the most common treatment for them is R.I.C.E.

-Rest, your injured body part cannot heal and replace damaged cells as long as your keep working (it) out and tearing/wearing it down. REST IT! Take a break so you can heal. Continuing your activity can lengthen the healing process and make the injury worse.

-Ice, cold slows down motor and bodily functions. If a body part is injured, blood rushes to that area and swells it up. It is then more difficult for the body to transport healing elements to the area and bad elements out if it’s swelled up and blocked. Ice will help prevent swelling and decrease it by slowing blood flow in that area. Ice by placing the ice, wrapped in a thin towel or other barrier on the injured part for 15-20min. After 15-20min. Off, place it pack on and keep repeating this process until it is visibly less swollen.If you don’t have ice, frozen peas or corn will work fine.

-Compress, this will keep your injured body part from moving too much and worsening the injury. Use an ACE bandage or other cloth that can expand and is stretchy. Do not use a stiff cloth that is not stretchy or cannot expand. Compressing also helps with swelling. But be careful that you don’t compress too tight and restrict the injury, making it worse. If a compress starts to hurt, or your extremity is tingling or looks blue, take it off immediately. Never go to sleep with a compress on unless instructed to do so by a doctor.

-Elevate your injured body part. This will help the blood drain away from the injured body part and the swelling to go down. Elevation should occur by placing the body part above the level of your heart. Elevate whenever possible, especially when you are icing or sitting.

Periods

| Hydration | Injuries | Mental Health

It’s that time of the month. Again. You feel horrible and you might have atrociously bad cramps, but you have practice or maybe even a game today. You don’t want to let your coach and team down. Here are some tips to push through the pain.

Take Ibuprofen or Advil if necessary to relieve cramps. If you decide to take them, make sure you do at least an hour before practice to be absolutely sure they will be in effect right at the start.
Always carry extra pads/tampons/ and ibuprofen. If not for you, maybe your teammate or another girl will have forgotten and needs them.
If necessary double up (wearing both a pad and tampon) on heavy flow days during practice. This will help you keep your mind from worrying about your period in practice.
When you get home, you can use a heat pad to relax your stomach muscles. Sometimes a warm computer or electronic on your stomach while lying on the couch does the trick as well.

Mental Health

| Hydration | Injuries | Periods

Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. There will be times when you just don’t feel as confident about yourself and your abilities as an athlete . However, learning to push through this will make you a stronger person and athlete. Your mental state has an effect on how your perform. If you think you will crush it, you will. It is mind over matter. Sports is physical, but half the battle is mental. The best athlete could get too nervous and “choke” if she does not have a strong enough mental game. You can practice good mental health habits by:

Staying positive. It is ok to feel down, everyone does, especially after a hard loss. Just make sure to say one positive thing about every negative experience. Coaches love positive athletes because they bring the whole team up.
Writing down your accomplishments or journaling. This is a great method to not only record your successes, but you can look back on what you felt at that time and call on it again. Don’t just record what happened, also record what was going through your head and what you did. If you record your “successful mindset” you can read it over again, making it easier to get back into that mindset.
Meditating can help calm nerves before a big event and get you into the proper mindset to crush it.