Giguere rides the snake
Giguere suffered from cramping and dizziness after most games as a result of heavy sweating. Losing close to 12-15 lbs of fluid every game, Giguere was often dehydrated and susceptible to serious injury and decreased performance.
That's a lot of fluid. And it reminds me of that old Jim Carey weight-loss skit on SNL. I'm not sure why.The first thing I thought of when a helpful Gatorade rep emailed me this link was the incredible amount of padding and equipment Jean-Sebastien Giguere seems to be wearing every game:
Jim Craig, the goalie for the U.S. Olympic team in 1980, told friends he could barely stand to watch the new, armor-plated goalies. "Since they've made all these advances in technology, shouldn't the equipment be smaller?" he asked.It's a familiar refrain, one we heard from more than a few commentators throughout the playoffs, and it makes me wonder: Wearing 30+ pounds of equipment and playing 60+ minutes in the humid confines of a southern California hockey rink, it's no surprise Giguere loses that kind of weight each game. What he might need more than a revolutionary energy drink is some way to incorporate small cooling fans into his getup.
As an aside, I'm no nutritionist, but I don't drink Gatorade. In its concentrated form, a 35 gram serving is made up of 32 grams of sugar, with three of the top five ingredients consisting of sugar, glucose (dextrose) and salt.
Yummy.
It's also apparently awful for your teeth. (Not that that's a worry for hockey players.)
by James Mirtle @ 4:36 PM
Trackbacks
| Permalink |
14 comments
14 Comments:
Good call on the Gatorade, James. Unless you're a high performance athlete it's not the best drink for you.
I found the best sports drink was 100 percent orange juice but that's just me.
As for Giggy's fluid loss, of course it's his equipment and playing over half his season in a warmer climate (let's not forget away games in LA, Phoenix and Dallas). It's a wonder he doesn't suffer from heat exhaustion or heat stroke losing that much fluid per game!
Nothing's better than high-quality H20... with a little shot of lemon juice.
That's crazy, 12-15 lbs...
For those who want it, here's the link to the actual skit on YouTube!
Outrageous how much weight Giggy goes through! I have to say it still seems logical to me that instead of increasing the size of nets, further equipment size decreases should be implemented. And, from the sounds of it, it would not only help scoring increase, it would cause the goalies to be healthier!
'Keep the goalies healthy, decrease their equipment size'... uh, something tells me they aren't buying it.
The first thing I noticed watching the second round was Giggy drank from a straw while in net, something I haven't seen a goalie do before. In later rounds I saw he also had a standard water bottle, which led me to believe the straw was Gatorade, and there so he wouldn't splash it all over himself.
With this kind of weight loss, he really must have needed it. It just looks weird to see a goalie drinking out of a sippy straw through his mask.
dominic: the straw actually has to do with asthma or something. Essentially, he has the straw to prevent him inhaling/drinking(?) too much air. It's a medical thing.
I realize that's horribly vague, but they profiled it during the ducks' cup run in 2003.
Orange Juice isn't exactly a high quality drink either. Most people don't realize how much sugar is in juice.
Gatorade: 240ml, 50 calories, 14g sugar
(http://www.gatorade.com/formula_and_nutrition_info/)
Orange Juice: 240ml, 110calories, 22g sugar
(http://www.tropicana.com/TRP_ProductInformation/Detail.cfm?ProductID=21)
But is that sugar naturally occuring in the juice or is it added to the product?
That's the major difference between Gatorade, which loads up their drink with corn syrup (glucose-fructose) and orange juice.
Also, if you're using sweetened OJ, then yes, it's just as bad sugar-wise. That's why it's best to use unsweetened 100 percent OJ.
But again, that's just my take.
I think if you drank OJ on the bench you'd hurl.
Water during play, OJ after!
OJ is a great way to replenish the glucose your ATP energy system uses during intense exercise, then follow within an hour with a full meal that includes some protein and complex carbohydrates.
JMO.
Tropicana as far as I know is unsweetened so it is all natural sugar which I guess is marginally better than the unnatural stuff in gatorade. But ultimately sugar is sugar and it is not good for you. Stick to water.
Water is what you drink while losing fluids due to sweat. The reason you feel revitalized after drinking a sports drink is because of the simple carbs, which get turned into energy instantly in your body, just like sugar. Potassium is a great thing to consume before working your body and also after to replenish your body and help it recover faster.
This is the same reason you could drink a Pepsi on the bench and pretty much feel the same, all the simple carbs. Water and maybe a little bit of salt to tell your body to hold on to more of the water instead of sweating it all out. Correct breathing to push more oxygen through your blood and having strong muscles really helps as well. The more repeditive tasks a muscle does, the more it doesn't strain and need a stabilizing muscle to compensate.
As for warm weather and Giguere, he is fine. I have been in the arena plenty of times, it is nice and cool down on the ice.
Baseball umpires protection has gotten so much smaller that you can barely tell they're wearing anything (compared to those gigantic chest protectors they used to hold up before every pitch). Should be the same for goalies.
We shouldn't get confused here. Goalies don't wear big bulky equipment for safety. They do it to stop the puck. The bigger the better.
Post a Comment
<< Home