Kelsey HigginsonSports Nutrition Coach and Founder at Clutch Day Coaching

The hydration pyramid for athletes

18 Jul 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:05

In this instructional video, the speaker presents a three‑tier hydration strategy for athletes, visualized as a pyramid. The base tier, the daily base, recommends drinking an amount equal to half of one’s body weight in ounces every day, even on rest days (e.g., a 150‑lb athlete should aim for 75 oz). The middle tier, refill rounds, covers fluid intake during training, practice, or competition, suggesting 16–24 oz per hour (more in hot conditions). The top tier, the electrolyte strategy, stresses that water alone is insufficient; athletes should start with an electrolyte powder providing 500–1,000 mg of sodium, depending on sweat rate. The speaker asserts that following the full pyramid will prevent dehydration and markedly improve performance.

Chapters

This is my hydration pyramid for athletes. Each tier of this pyramid is essential for your hydration. We have the daily base, refill rounds, and electrolyte strategy. The bottom tier is going to be your daily base, which is what you need to be drinking even on rest days when you're not performing or training or anything like that. This is going to be half of your body weight in ounces. So if you're 150 pounds, 75 ounces would be your daily base. The next one is refill rounds. This is outside of your daily base of what you need to be drinking during practices, trainings, and games. You've got to make sure that you're getting your fluids in. There's a way to personalize this much more, but typically if between 16 and 24 ounces. If it's hot, you do more than that each hour. This is going to be perfect for refill rounds. The last tier is our electrolyte strategy. Water means nothing if we're not getting enough electrolytes in, especially on those hot, sweaty summer days. So we have to make sure that you're at least starting with one electrolyte powder. Shoot for an electrolyte powder that has at least between 500 and 1,000 milligrams of sodium. 500 if you don't sweat as much during practice, and 1,000 if you are dripping buckets. If you put this whole pyramid together, I promise you, you will not be dehydrated and you will be performing so much better.