If you weren’t watching Mayweather/Marquez 24/7 on HBO this past Saturday night, we’re sure you’ve heard by now about Juan Manuel Marquez drinking a glass of his own urine after a training session.
Athletes downing strange beverages is certainly nothing new. The great Sugar Ray Robinson used to regularly drink tall glasses of beef blood, and told a shocked Jake LaMotta before their famous final meeting that the drink was his “secret weapon.” Blood, I can somewhat understand… but urine!?
Having downed the contents for the 24 /7 cameras – there looked to be about a shot’s worth in the glass – Marquez explained his curious activities.
“I think that this has helped me. I’ve done it for the last 5 or 6 fights with good results. I also drink my urine because that’s where a lot of proteins and vitamins are, part of your vitamin intake… and why not drink them again instead of wasting them?”
Why not?
Admittedly, I’m no expert when it comes to matters of this nature, and rather than just speculate on the various horrors of drinking one’s own urine, I asked Tro Kalayjian of ThreeBrothersHealth.com for his more informed opinion. “Drinking your own urine can pose some problems. If the source of the urine has a urinary tract infection, then you would be gulping down bacteria. If the urine is highly concentrated because of dehydration, the urine can become toxic. In wilderness survival, drinking urine is not recommended past 2 or 3 times, because each pass through the kidney increases the toxicity.
All in all, Juan Manuel Marquez’s action is obscure, but pretty harmless. He is a well fed, well hydrated athlete. This means that his urine is dilute, and may not adversely affect him. As far as being a good source of “protein and vitamins”, we recommend Centrum and Whey!”
– Tro Kalayjian Three Brother’s Health
That doesn’t sound too bad.
The masterful Mexican likely isn’t doing anything particularly risky, but for the same benefits, he could easily be going with store bought vitamin supplements. Although that wouldn’t be sending the same I’ll do anything to win message to Floyd Mayweather Jr, and perhaps that’s the whole point of Juan’s vitamin elixir.
For as Sugar Ray explained in his autobiography, “I wanted to create a doubt in his (Jake’s) mind that he wasn’t training as hard as I was.”
