With players being stretched to their limits these days, so are the boundaries of sports science. However sometimes getting the best out of players physical shape takes on strange and interesting directions. The latest trend is giving players vinegar.
According to Relevo, numerous La Liga team doctors have been supplying players with shots of vinegar in order to fight the effects of fatigue. Borrowing the idea from ironman competitions and marathon runners, doctors are giving players shots of vinegar in order to take away the effects of cramp.
Generally the shot is cocktail of vitamins, potassium, zinc, and water, but is primarily vinegar. It replaces some of the elements burned by the body during exercise, and for some, completely resolves the pain immediately. Some don’t even ingest it, rather just wash their mouth with it, and it is sufficient. Other players are so enamoured with its effects that they take the vinegar before games, although scientists assure this has no actual benefit to their fitness.
As the number of games players are asked to play continues to rise, no doubt doctors, sports scientists and fitness coaches will search even harder to give their players the edge and the gas over their opponents. For many sides, fitness is sometimes the difference.
