Hot Topic | Challenging Postural Control Through Stroboscopic Eyewear

Sight is one of the key sensory inputs for maintaining upright posture, regardless of whether a person is playing a sport or standing in line at the grocery store. Visual processing helps a person understand body position alongside the vestibular and somatosensory systems. If we compromise any of these key sensory inputs, the common result […]

Hot Topic | Mental Toughness Is Trainable for Collegiate Athletes

In my dual role as a mental performance specialist and researcher, I spend a lot of time in collegiate weight rooms, training rooms, and team meetings. One pattern is hard to ignore: we plan physical development with surgical precision, but we often assume mental toughness will “take care of itself.” Strength, power, GPS loads, sleep, […]

Hot Topic | Sit Less and Move More to Slow Arterial Aging

Does the thought London’s red double-decker buses make you want to move around to prevent endothelial dysfunction and slow arterial aging? In 1953, a landmark study of London bus crews found that bus drivers, who sat at the wheel all day, developed coronary artery disease at a younger age and more often than the conductors […]

GSSI Pre-Conference

The Physiology of Hydration: More Than Water Alone

This session explores the physiology of hydration through an integrated lens—examining how carbohydrate, sodium, flavor, and fluid interact to influence intake, absorption, retention, and performance. We’ll review current research on fluid balance, osmotic drivers, and palatability, highlighting mechanisms that underpin voluntary intake and thermoregulation. Attendees will gain insight into individualized strategies, including sweat profiling and timing approaches, to optimize euhydration and mitigate performance decrements associated with >2% body-mass loss. Practical applications will be linked to laboratory- and field-based research, ensuring translation from bench to field. This pre-conference equips you with evidence-based tools to support athlete hydration across diverse environments and sporting contexts. 

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  • Session 1: Sweating the detail: New insights on hydration considerations for athlete performance
    • Lewis James, PhD, Associate Professor in Human Nutrition in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University
  • Session 2: Functional ingredients in fluid replacement beverages for athletes
    • Lindsay Baker, PhD, Director at the Gatorade Sports Science Institute
  • Session 3: The hydration toolkit: Practical approaches to athlete support
    • Floris Wardenaar, PhD, Associate Professor at the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University