WHEN COACHES MONITOR their strength and conditioning program throughout the year, they’ll often hear the following.

“Coach, I’m tired all the time.  What can I take to help me get some energy?”

“Will supplements help my son get a college scholarship?”

“Coach, what do you think about this Rocket Boost Shake ad I found in my latest Tons Of Muscle magazine?”

How do we answer these questions? And what advice do you give to best ensure the long-term health of your athletes, yet help them to an improved level of performance? 

Recently, we were faced with this dilemma from some of our top athletes who wanted to gain size and increase their energy levels.

Personal Health Journals Revealing
We decided to have the players keep a journal to record their diets for a week. Each player was to write down what they ate, drank and their daily amount of sleep. In the meantime, I researched everything I could find on supplements and performance nutrition. 

After a week, I sat down with the research information I’d found and gathered all the journals from the players, excited about the chance to apply cutting-edge health technologies to our team’s situation.

My bubble quickly burst upon reading the journals. We discovered that our players’ diets were loaded with fast foods and snack foods, were almost completely without fruits and vegetables and soda appeared to be their primary fluid source. We quickly realized that we didn’t need cutting-edge health technology, we needed to re-educate these kids about basic nutrition and try to make them understand the effects and importance of good nutrition upon athletic performance. 

The Performance Triangle
We developed a plan that focused on something we termed a “performance triangle”— consisting of hydration, nutrition and rest. We now present this plan during the summer conditioning period to all participants, then try to preach and teach these three principles throughout the season. 

Now, when players or parents ask these questions or show interest in supplements, our advice is simple. “Keep yourself hydrated, eat right and get enough rest.” If the athlete follows the performance triangle and is still having problems, then we advise him to see his physician about using supplements. 

We tell our players that spending money on supplements without first following the performance triangle is simply throwing money down the toilet.

Hydration: Key Triangle Component
The adult male body consists of about 60 percent water and the adult female about 55 percent. Plain and simple, human beings lose water constantly, even at rest, so water must be continually replaced.

Hold your palm or a small mirror in front of your mouth and exhale. The water vapor you see or feel is water that’s lost through normal respiration. We lose about 250 milliliters of water daily just through breathing. With normal activity levels, estimates are that the human body loses about 2.5 liters per day. That is water that must be replaced. 

Water functions to maintain homeostasis — or a steady body state — by removing toxins, moving the nutrients and minerals required for metabolism and providing the proper aqueous environment for the body’s biochemical reactions.  We need to have an optimal level of hydration for proper ionic balance, proper muscle contraction and relaxation and for the myriad of neurochemical and physiochemical reactions taking place in our bodies every second.

Recommended Water Intake
A recommended rule of thumb for general health suggests a minimum of eight, 8-ounce glasses of water per day. Athletes and other physically active individuals should aim for a minimum of 12, 8-ounce glasses of water daily. In games, scrimmages or physically strenuous prolonged periods of activity, it’s a good idea to supplement water with a carbohydrate and electrolyte source, such as a sport drink.

Don’t rely on the thirst mechanism to monitor hydration levels. The thirst reflex is not an efficient mechanism. By the time the thirst mechanism is triggered in a player, his body is already in a dehydrated state.

Athletes should be taught to monitor their urination patterns, which is a more effective method of tracking hydration levels than reliance on the thirst mechanism. Urination should be at regular, frequent intervals and be pale yellow in color. A deep-yellow coloration or long periods of time between bathroom visits are clear signs of dehydration.

Begin A Water-Intake Policy
Preach water consumption to your players through the entire season, starting with summer conditioning and try to instill the importance of keeping one’s self properly hydrated seven days a week, 24 hours a day — not just before practice or on game day. 

At pre-season checkout each fall, each player is given a new 20-ounce bottle of water. They label the bottle with their name and are held responsible for it the entire season. Starting with two-a-day practices, each player must weigh-in before practice and weigh-out after practice. They record their weights and the difference between pre- and post-practice weights on a wall chart. For each pound a player loses, he must replace it with 20 ounces of water. 

Players with a greater than 4-pound loss during a practice session must visit with a coach, be supervised through their water replacement, assessed for their current state of health (nauseous, weak, dizziness, etc.) and advised to eat a well-balanced meal with plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

Performance Nutrition
For an athlete’s body to perform at a peak level of performance, it must be properly fueled. An entire industry has been built around the player’s desire and need for the perfect performance diet. Products, advertisements and shop talk tout the latest, greatest nutritional discoveries, creating confusion and the “magic-pill” culture we have to deal with on a daily basis. 

Realistically, most of these products show positive effects only in a very small number of elite athletes — athletes who train at an extremely high intensity level. The path to effective performance nutrition is a relatively simple one, grounded in the principles of a balanced diet that follows the guidelines set by the USDA in the food pyramid. With this foundation already in place, the trick is to get the athletes to follow the principles.

Macronutrients, Micronutrients
For performance and function, the human body requires both macronutrients (carbohydrates, fats and proteins) and micronutrients (water, vitamins and minerals), each at appropriate levels to produce and store the energy molecules necessary for physical activity. Somewhat shocking is the fact that these macronutrients and micronutrients aren’t found exclusively in designer powders, pills, bars or shakes, but can be found in foods that are readily available in any kitchen or supermarket shelf. The following are some of the recommended ratios for fueling athletic performance.

MACRONUTRIENTS
-  Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates should constitute about 65 percent of a player’s diet. They are the primary source of energy in the body for short-term, high-intensity activity. Complex carbohydrates, found in foods from the bottom two layers of the food pyramid (breads, grains, pasta, fruits and vegetables), should make up the majority of the diet. After strenuous activity, carbohydrates should be consumed as soon as possible to help the body refuel and recover faster.
-  Fats. About 20 percent of a player’s diet should come from fat. Fat is an important energy source for long-term, low-intensity activity. The majority of the fat in a diet should be from unsaturated fats, like those found in vegetables or fish oils. Check the labels on foods to ensure that the fat content is around 20 percent and that it’s unsaturated fat. 
-  Proteins. Proteins should constitute about 15 percent of the diet. The average American diet contains ample amounts of protein. One of the important functions of protein in the body is to rebuild and repair muscle; it plays only a small part as an energy source in prolonged, low-intensity activity. Excess protein in the body is excreted as a waste product or converted to fat and stored. For the majority of athletes, taking protein shakes and supplements above the 15-percent level is just a waste of money.

MICRONUTRIENTS
Vitamins and minerals are important as they help in the chemical reactions of food metabolism and energy production. A balanced diet that follows the food pyramid guidelines, along with proper water intake, should provide sufficient amounts of essential micronutrients. Some vitamin supplementation, especially with Vitamin B12, may be necessary with the vegetarian athlete.

It’s always a good idea to consult a physician or a registered dietician prior to making major changes in diet or training programs.

Gaining, Losing Weight
When athletes are trying to gain weight by increasing their total daily caloric intake or trying to lose weight by decreasing total daily caloric intake, it’s extremely important that the 65-percent carbohydrate, 20-percent fat and 15-percent protein ratios still be followed or adjusted to reflect the total daily caloric intake.

For example, an athlete who’s trying to gain weight by increasing his daily caloric intake by 500 calories, must not add all the additional calories from carbohydrate sources alone. Instead, he would add about 325 calories (65 percent) from carbohydrates, 100 calories (20 percent) from fats and 75 calories (15 percent) from protein in order to stay within the proper ratio of macronutrients.

Rest Is Critical
Rest is often the X-factor in sports performance, especially with high school players. It’s during periods of rest that the body has a chance to adequately replenish its energy resources, recover and rebuild itself. The body must be allowed time to recover from the physical stress and previous energy expenditure in order to start the next physical activity at an optimal level.

Mental and physical weariness can lead to injuries or critical mistakes. The amount of rest needed — as daily sleep, between activities or between sets in training — varies from individual to individual. As a general rule, about eight hours of sleep per night is sufficient. For workouts or events, 48 to 72 hours of rest between strenuous activities and 3 to 5 minutes of rest between workout sets are good places to start. Staying up until 2 a.m. all week can’t be balanced out with 30 hours of sleep over the weekend.