In every sport, performance is built on more than skill, strength, and strategy. At the foundation is something far simpler: proper hydration. Athletes in endurance sports and team sports - both collegiate and professional -all rely on adequate fluid balance to sustain performance and protect health. Dehydration doesn’t just slow an athlete down—it increases the risk of heat-related illness, injury, and long-term setbacks. Treating hydration as a safety priority is one of the most effective ways to keep athletes healthy and competing at their best.
Across sports, athletes lose significant amounts of fluid and electrolytes through sweat, but football players—particularly linemen practicing in full gear—can experience some of the highest sweat rates recorded. NFL linemen have been shown to lose about 2.4 Liters/hour during preseason practices.
Even a 2% loss in body weight from dehydration, which can occur quickly at these rates, can impair strength, power, and reaction time, all critical for sports that demand explosive performance and split-second decisions. When hydration is overlooked, athletes don’t just risk their performance—they risk their safety.
Historically, sports culture has celebrated pushing limits, but in hot, humid, or high-intensity environments, dehydration quickly becomes dangerous. This is especially true in football, where exertional heat stroke remains one of the leading causes of sudden death among athletes. Training camps, double sessions, and heavy equipment increase heat stress, while larger body sizes make efficient cooling more difficult. Training in one environment and competing in another with a large temperature difference can impair performance and increase the risk of serious conditions such as heatstroke or hypothermia. The body acclimatizes to the climate in which it regularly trains, so a sudden shift to hotter or colder conditions can disrupt thermoregulation, place added strain on the cardiovascular system, and elevate the risk of medical emergencies.
Protecting athletes requires staff to make hydration a structured part of training and recovery. Best practices include:
These strategies apply across a multitude of sports, but they are especially critical in football, where the combination of size, exertion, and climate amplifies the risks of dehydration. When LSU football examined their safety protocol during August training camp they utilized the Nix Pro app and Nix Hydration Biosensors to monitor player safety. When athletes reached critical losses for fluid and electrolytes they were able to intervene and prompt athletes to replenish accordingly. As a result, the LSU football program saw an astounding 90% decrease in IV fluids administered during training camp - a critical measure of player safety.
Hydration is more than a performance tool—it’s player protection. Just as helmets and pads guard against impact injuries, hydration strategies safeguard athletes from the silent but severe dangers of dehydration. Across all sports, and particularly in football, prioritizing hydration is a commitment to keeping athletes healthy, safe, and ready to perform at their best.
That device, approximately the size of a watchface, is a Nix Hydration Biosensor. It is used to monitor the fluid and electrolyte losses of each player.
The green hexagonal unit is a Nix Hydration Biosensor. It measures individual fluid and electrolyte losses worn by the athletes.
When applied to clean, dry skin and prior to beginning exercise the Sweat Patch has no adhesive issues. If someone has already started to sweat before application, it can impact the adhesion.
Many teams and organizations choose to utilize Nix Hydration Biosensors during training and team practices in a controlled environment to help develop a baseline and hydration strategy for each individual player. In some cases, sensors are used during games, particularly when there are safety concerns.
No, the Nix Hydration Biosensor is a completely non-invasive tool that sticks to the surface of the skin. There are no needles and the device measures losses through sweat versus a CGM which uses a person’s interstitial fluid to monitor. Nix is sweat powered and only used during active workouts versus a CGM which is worn continuously throughout the day/weeks.
Heat, humidity and intensity all have an impact on sweat rates. When athletes, especially football players, travel to a new location for a game it’s possible that they are not properly acclimated and this can cause added strain on the cardiovascular system. In short, their sweat rates can vary drastically from training and their hydration plan may not be adequate. This creates an elevated risk of player safety within the new environment.
The Nix Hydration Biosensor monitors both fluid and electrolyte losses during a given workout. Other important metrics included in Nix Pro are hydration status, change in skin temperature, sweat composition data, sodium losses, potassium losses and further statistics across the entire team. This is imperative for determining which athletes are at risk for dehydration.
Mild dehydration occurs at a 2% loss in body mass. This can result in muscle cramping, fatigue, dizziness, and reduced reaction time.
Typically we recommend athletes wear the Hydration Biosensor on their bicep when possible. For sports such as football in which there is an increased risk of knock-off, alternative locations such as the lower back are utilized instead.
Multiple professional and collegiate football teams utilize Nix during their training to create game day hydration strategies. Additionally, Nix is trusted by numerous MLB teams, NHL, PGA, and NBA teams. Endurance athletes also use Nix to help monitor and manage their hydration needs.
Nix Pro tracks fluid loss, hydration status, and skin temperature in real-time, to help prevent heat illness which includes heat stroke, heat exhaustion and heat cramps.
