Nutrition: How to Drink Your Daily Water

Dick Moss, Editor

Water intake is crucial for everyone, but especially for athletes. In terms of athletic performance, adequate blood fluids allow the blood to efficiently transport glucose to the muscles and remove waste products. Fluids in the urine allow wastes to be removed, and fluids in sweat allow body temperature to be controlled.

Water Requirements
Experts believe that everyone should drink about eight cups of fluids per day. Athletes may need even more; nutritionist Nancy Clark estimates about 1 liter (or quart) for every 1000 calories of energy an athlete burns up.

But few people can fathom drinking eight cups of water per day. Eight sounds like a huge number, and how do you keep track anyway? As a result, many athletes just ignore their fluid requirements.

Fortunately, track consultant Loren Seagrave has a quick and easy method for ensuring adequate hydration.

One-Liter Bottle Method
Have your students fill a one-litre (or one quart) bottle with water. They can re-use a bottled-water container from any grocery store. They then carry the bottle with them throughout the day and sip from it whenever possible.

Once one bottle is done, they fill it up and start again. When two bottles have been downed, they've consumed the minimum needed for optimal performance (a liter/quart equals about 4 cups). Any extra they drink is a bonus, as are the juices, milk and other liquids they might consume.

This method makes it easy to keep track of the amount of water your students need, and the amount they've actually consumed. After a while, sipping two litres per day will become a habit.

References

Loren Seagrave, Canadian National Coaches Seminar–Athletics, Mississauga, September 1997.
Loren Seagrave is an international speed training consultant and IAAF technical course conductor.
Nancy Clark (M.S., RD), Nancy Clark's Sports Nutrition Guidebook, Human Kinetics Publishers, 1997.
Meg Heithcock, Sports Nutrition: Keeping it Real, Carpenters Son Publishing, 2013.
Marilyn S. Peterson, Eat to Compete, 2nd Edition, Mosby Publishing, 1996. [Contact Mosby Publishing, 11830 Westline Industrial Drive, St. Louis, MO, 63146, USA].

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