Why tennis?
Researchers decided to study the effects on tennis players due to the variability and exhaustion of the season. Tennis matches can be short and intense, or last more than three hours; and it's also important to consider that tennis players can play several days in a row. Therefore, their recovery must be adequate to perform at their best. To achieve this, it's also important to know The effects of sports drinks on tennis performance.
In the study, each athlete did several tests to find out how his game and sports drink affected performance. Grip strength, power, running speed, fatigue, and anaerobic endurance were examined in detail (via a repeated sprint capacity test).
In addition, the players also performed three complete tennis matches (about 2 hours each) and for a day and a half. The researchers took into account three conditions:
- In one test, each player drank a sports drink before, during, and after games.
- In another test, players drank a placebo drink, but in the same amounts and at the same time as the sports drink.
- And then there was another group that didn't play tennis and just participated in the drinking tests.
What results did they get?
The scientists found that the only difference between drinking a sports drink or a placebo was the fatigue it produced in the upper body. Just the triceps was more fatigued when not consuming the sports drink.
Although it was not very remarkable, noted some improvement in sprint ability when not drinking sports drink. In the 10-meter and 20-meter trials, performance was better when the placebo drink was taken.
The reason is not known, but when the athletes drank the sports drinks, slower timesPerformance varied more in the group that did not consume sports drinks, so it can be concluded that the drink has a stabilizing effect on performance.
To delve deeper into how the best post-workout drinks and optimize recovery, it is advisable to understand how different types of sports drinks influence muscle recovery and performance.
The scientists wanted to conclude the study by stating that drinking sports drinks, when the effort is more than 6 hours spread over a day and a half, is not of great importance. Instead it's so much better follow a healthy and balanced diet, with a high presence of carbohydrates.