According to the dictionary, sweat is defined as “moisture exuded through the pores of the skin, typically in profuse quantities as a reaction to heat, physical exertion, fever, or fear.”
Snoop Dogg rapped about wanting to make someone sweat back in his 2011 hit with David Guetta but he would have had second thoughts seeing me dripping in the baking Istanbul sun in June. It was not a pretty sight.
I was over in the mega-busy Turkish city for the Champions League final, where Manchester City became champions of Europe and completed a historic treble after victory over Inter Milan at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium.
City have a long-term partnership with sports drinks giants Gatorade,who give the treble winners access to its elite portfolio of sports fuel products, equipment, and cutting-edge science through the GSSI (Gatorade Sports Science Institute) to ensure they perform to their maximum.
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And one of the products Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland use on the regular is the ‘GX Sweat Patch’ - which tells every single player how much fluid and electrolytes they need to properly rehydrate.
All needs are different. For instance, Phil Foden burns more fat than any other member of the City squad and so his hydration strategy will be drastically different to Ruben Dias’.
The aforementioned sweat test is also something seven-time Ballon d’Or winner and long-time Gatorade ambassador Lionel Messi partakes in to ensure he’s staying on top of his game.
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But earlier this month the technology was offered to teams from diverse backgrounds such as Latin America, Asia, Middle East and Europe, who were all flown to Istanbul for the Gatorade 5v5 Global finals.
In its sixth year, the mixed tournament, the brainchild of PepsiCo’s chief marketing officer Mark Kirkham and backed by 2004 Ballon d’Or winner Andriy Shevchenko, featured some incredible talent aged 14-16 strutting their stuff.
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15,000 competitors took part overall from the national qualifying onwards and, in the end, Honduras AFFI boys’ team and Chile’s Club De Lo Prado girls’ side emerged victorious.
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The prize? Only tickets to the Champions League final. Not bad at all. In previous years, participants have gone on to play professionally for the likes of River Plate and Tenerife.
I spent time watching the action unfold at a local community sports centre set up by former Fenerbahce and Turkey player Senol Corlu before it was my turn to put on my kit, boots and shinpads and get a bit sweaty to see how much rehydration I require.
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After a warm-up kickabout, I, along with other journalists and Gatorade staff members, played an intense game of five-a-side in the blistering 26 degrees celsius heat.
Following some cleaning and sanitising, the patch was applied on my left forearm – two to three inches from my elbow crease and pressed down for 10 seconds to seal by GSSI scientist Caroline.
It’s recommended that you do a single workout or activity between 20 minutes and 2 hours and then your data is scanned and revealed to you in an email.
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My particular workout totalled an hour and saw me deliver a masterclass that silenced the animated young Brazilians watching.
I found the net once in the first half and had a small powder of Gatorade in my water to refuel for the second period, where my team were able to see out a narrow victory.
It was then time for the patch to be scanned and the results to be revealed. If all goes well, the orange channel fills related to the rate at which someone sweats.
And clearly mine was a lot. Overall, I lost more than 1.2 litres of fluid and just short of 780 mg of sodium.
The assessment from Caroline that I am “salty and sweaty” was one I could not possibly disagree with – though I highly doubt Messi received such a comment.
A long shower commenced to finish off my brief foray into being a top-level athlete with the highest form of sports science available.
It opened my eyes to the role science can play in sport and made it easier to understand just how important every little detail is.
Josh Lawless