The main purposes of this review were to provide a qualitative description of nine investigations in which sweat losses were estimated by participants following exercise and to perform a quantitative analysis of the collective data. Unique estimations (n = 297) were made by 127 men and 116 women after a variety of exercise modalities in moderate to hot environmental conditions. Actual sweat loss exceeded estimated sweat loss (p < 0.001) for women (1.072 ± 0.473 vs. 0.481 ± 0.372 L), men (1.778 ± 0.907 vs. 0.908 ± 0.666 L) and when all data were combined (1.428 ± 0.806 vs. 0.697 ± 0.581 L), respectively. However, estimation accuracy did not differ between women (55.2 ± 51.5%) and men (62.4 ± 54.5%). Underestimation of 50% or more of sweat losses were exhibited in 168 (54%) of estimation scenarios with heavier sweaters displaying a higher prevalence and trend of greater underestimations in general. Most modern guidelines for fluid intake during and between training bouts are based on approximate sweat loss estimation knowledge. These guidelines will likely have minimal efficacy if greater awareness of how to determine sweat losses and accurate recognition of sweat losses is not increased by coaches and athletes.

Post-activation potentiation has proven to be an effective strategy to enhance performance for many tasks, but little research has been conducted specifically concerning endurance sport performance. This study examined whether 5-km run performance could be improved by completing pre-run strides while wearing a 6.8 kg weighted compression garment (LOAD). A counter-balanced crossover field study design was incorporated with NCAA Division I Cross Country runners (n = 10) during coach-led, official team pre-season "speed day" practices. On Monday of Week 1, testing participants completed a course preview run and strategy session with their coach as they would do in preparation for a meet. The following two Mondays, participants completed the 5-km run as quickly as possible while blinded to pace. The team's habitual warmup routine was used, which included a 3.22-km run followed by a series of dynamic warm-up movements before four, 80-m strides were completed with LOAD or without load (CON). Average wet-bulb globe temperature for both sessions was 22.3 °C. CON did not differ (p>0.05) from LOAD in split times for kilometres 0.00-1.61 (339±13 vs 341±13 s), 1.61-3.22 (312±15 vs 312±16 s), 3.22-4.83 (339±21 vs 338±22 s), or the 0.17 km distance kick at the end of the run (71±16 vs 69±14 s). Overall time was also not improved for LOAD (1060±49 s) versus CON (1062±55 s). The ~10% body mass LOAD warm-up strategy failed to improve early, mid-, or finishing kick performance in a 5-km time-trial with well-trained runners.