This is the first issue in a series on Extreme Athletes, those who push themselves to the max to achieve their goals and, possibly, greatness.

But, while the information in this series applies very strictly to extreme athletes, it applies just as much to anyone else trying to achieve peak performance for themselves in fitness and athletics, while staying healthy overall.

Also, while we will cover points individual to specific sports, most of the information is applicable to all sports and performance, energy, and recovery as a whole.

In this first article we’ll start with one of the key, over-riding aspects to maximize not only the ability and performance of an elite athlete, but of anyone.

Because, when you put your body through as much stress and pressure as an athlete does, every one of your organs, muscles, nerves, bones, hormones, etc., all play a part.

And, while any weak links will bring down the rest, improving any weak spots in health will help increase the energy production and performance of the overall.

Let’s dive in.

THE SPECTRUM OF ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE

Health and fitness levels exist on a spectrum.

On the left side of the spectrum we have someone with many body organ systems not functioning well, the person is in bed, they have low energy, and their body, overall, is doing very badly.

And on the right side of the spectrum we have someone with excellent health, vitality, and energy.

And then, of course, we have everything in between.

But if we take this right side (excellent health, vitality, and energy) and then add to this both genetics and a very high work ethic — we have an elite athlete.

This is important. If they have a very high work ethic, but not the genetics, they may be able to achieve a very high level of performance, but not necessarily the elite of the elite.

And reversely, if their willingness to work isn’t there, they may have a gift — but without pushing their limits, they’ll never achieve or even find their true maximum potential.

Each of these points are needed to achieve elite athlete status: high health, vitality, and energy; a very high work ethic; and genetic potential.

If any one of your health, your energy levels, your vitality, or your work ethic or genetics are not up to par, you will not achieve the maximum achievable by you.

But now let’s break this down even further.

Because, what are each of these points actually trying to achieve in the end?

And what lowers if one of these five points lowers?

Your performance.

Your peak performance.

That’s what it’s all going towards.

And behind performance we have one very key point: energy production. How much energy can our cells both produce and use in any given moment?

There may be learned skills, what to eat, when to feed, how much water to drink, when to raise speed or lower it in a race, etc.

But behind everything is the question: how much energy can our cells produce and use, and for how long?

The more energy they can produce and use, the faster our athlete is, the stronger they are, the better their reaction time and alertness, and the better their endurance.

If we can raise energy production and utilization, we can raise performance.

So how do we do that?

RAISING ENERGY PRODUCTION IN ATHLETES

When we talk about raising energy levels, we’re talking about energy production — can their body, can their cells, make energy?

If they can make high levels of energy, we could have an elite athlete. If the body has a lot of trouble making energy, we get organ trouble, sickness, and general low health.

Everything hinges on energy production.

Now, this isn’t how much energy they have. Maybe they have lots of energy because they just had a so-called “energy drink.”

Now they have ENERGY!

And then they crash.

Because that’s not real energy.

That’s not making energy.

Making energy, producing energy, has to do with our whole bodily system.

Our mitochondria, the tiny organelles in our cells that take in fuel and use it to produce energy, they’re the actual energy production units in the body. But how many of them there are per cell, and how well are they performing?

And what is the state of our nervous system, which must be able to react fast and continuously?

What is the state of our liver, which plays a key role in cellular performance?

How about our electrolyte levels, the conductors along which electrical charges in the nerves flow?

All of these things play a part. And to the degree we can raise these points, whether we’re a runner, biker, bodybuilder, sports athletes, martial artist, fencer, or whomever, we can increase our energy production and so our performance.

Even small tweaks, such as finding any deficiencies in vitamins, amino acids, minerals, recovery, or addressing any possible infection or hormonal disruption can make a big difference in performance.

But energy is key. Can our body produce energy?

To the degree it can, our organs, cells, mitochondria, nervous system, hormones, and gut bacteria are in good working order.

And to the degree it can’t, these same factors need correction.

And it works out that what helps the elite athlete and the sick individual alike are the same things, we just find more things to correct when someone is in poor health and less to correct when someone is in good health.

But wherever we can find a deficiency, hormonally, nutritionally, etc., in an elite athlete, we can make quite a difference.

The first thing an elite or extreme athlete should do to improve performance, beyond taking the full spectrum of vitamins and minerals, taking their PerfectAmino in quantity, eating whole foods, and getting rest and proper recovery — is testing:

1. Get your serum protein levels tested and any other blood tests to see if there is any bacterial infection in the body. If there is, it’s burning up your energy and slowing you down and needs to be corrected.
2. Measure your Resting Heart Rate (RHR) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Resting heart rate should be low, and heart rate variability should be higher. If they’re reversed, your body is having trouble with something and we need to find out what it is: infection, deficiency, over-training, lack of recovery time or sleep, too little nutrition or amino acids — something. We need to find it.
3. Test your hormones to ensure they’re balanced and at proper levels.
4. Check your inflammatory markers, liver health, heart health, kidney health. All of these can influence performance, speed, energy production, agility and mental concentration.

This is the first thing to increase overall performance.

Wherever in the above we find something suboptimal, when we fix it, we can get significant increase in energy production and performance.

Remember, in some events, a half a second makes all the difference.

I hope this helps.

Programs To Raise Physical Performance & Health

We have many Guides and Protocols to help you address areas of health and fitness you want to gain greater control over: From Gut Health to Sustainable Fat Loss, a Lean Body/Lean Bulk Program, and much more.

Here we detail our most popular protocols so you can see which would most help you attain your goals:

The Lean Body/Lean Bulk Protocol

The Lean Bulk/Lean Body Guide is very in-depth and the protocol itself is set up to be tailored to your specific goals.

If you just want a lean, toned, and shaped body, you can do that. This is Lean Body.

Or, if you want to build significant lean muscle without having to cut afterwards, and then keep building more, you can do that too. This is Lean Bulk.

This protocol was designed to be tailored to you — where you are at now and where you want to be — so you can achieve your goals.

But this isn't just a program where you count calories and workout.

If we want to build lean muscle without the excess body fat of bulking, or attain a lean, toned and shaped body and keep it, we need to do more that.

We need to look at digestion, cravings, recovery, sleep, energy levels, blood flow and hormones.

The diet is specifically designed to raise levels of our fat burning and muscle building hormones, while lowering our fat-creating and muscle-destroying hormones to normal levels where they should naturally be.

We improve digestion to ensure you are getting all the nutrition from the food you eat and so poorly digested proteins don't raise your cortisol levels.

We address sleep and recovery to ensure growth hormone is releasing properly at night for maximal recovery along with IGF-1, your primary fat burning hormone.

And we help balance the hunger hormones so that you are able to eat as much food as your body needs to build muscle and lean out, but not feel hungry for more food than is needed, as well as quickly get you over cravings for any processed or high sugar foods.

All of these are necessary to achieve and maintain our goals, as well as for overall health and longevity.

You can purchase individual products for this program and save 15%-30% on each order with our subscription program, our save by purchasing them in a package.

Note: this program is designed to target building and/or toning muscle while slimming down, not to help you lose significant body fat.

If you have more body fat to lose, the most effective thing would be to first do the Fat Loss Protocol and then transition onto Lean Body or Lean Bulk afterwards. This would be the fastest and most effective route for you, and you will be toning and shaping muscle along the way.

The Guide To Sustainable Fat Loss

If you've ever had trouble losing excess body fat, or keeping it off afterwards, this guide and challenge are for you.

This isn't some quick fix to help you lose body fat fast only to gain it all back again, or some miracle product that helps you lose body fat but also harms you in some other way.

No, this is a very exact protocol that addresses the reasons you gained the excess body fat in the first place, why it's so hard to lose it, and why it's so easy to gain it back again once you have lost it.

It also addresses physical form, building up the muscle that helps to shape our body.

Even more, once you've lost the excess body fat on this challenge, you will be in a position to easily keep it off, because you will know exactly what caused it in the first place.

And you won't go hungry during it.

By the end of the 30-Day Protocol:

You will no longer have sugar cravings (or they’ll be almost gone).

You will have lost inches of body fat.

Your hormones will have been addressed allowing for keeping the body fat off.

Your mood and energy levels will be higher.

Your muscle tone and physical shape will have improved markedly.

And... you won't be gaining it all back again.

Sound good?

Then read The Introduction to Sustainable Fat Loss and let's get started.

Here are discounted product bundles you will need for maximum results, or you can subscribe to needed products and receive a continuing 15% discount on each recurring order.

Or, if you have stomach bloating (your stomach will press out, mostly above the belly button and feel somewhat hard like pushing on a balloon) and strong sugar cravings, we would first recommend the Gut Health Protocol.

This is because this bloating is not body fat, but comes from harmful bacteria and candida in the gut which create constant gas and bloating. Addressing this can help us lose inches around the waist in a matter of days or weeks.

And it makes the Fat Loss and Lean Body/Lean Bulk programs much easier.

The Gut Health Guide & Protocol

This Guide & Protocol addresses every aspect of Gut Health: SIBO, Candida, Protruding Stomach, Sugar Cravings, H. Pylori, C. Diff, Leaky Gut, and much more.

Our gut is one of the most important aspects of our health.

If our gut is generally healthy, so are we. If our gut is not healthy, then neither are we. It really is that simple.

It's where over 80% of our immune system is.

It's more connected to our nerves and brain than any other part of our body, affecting our mental clarity and alertness, and our mood.

It affects our hormones.

It can cause or prevent cravings for sugar and junk food.

It helps us to burn body fat or prevents it.

It helps us to build lean muscle or prevents it.

It's our first and best defense against harmful bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites and toxins coming in through food and water.

It affects our skin health.

It affects our sleep, helping us to relax and get deep refreshing sleep, or preventing it.

It affects our energy levels, helping to raise them or keep them low.

It affects our cardiovascular system.

An unhealthy gut can even cause our immune system to mistakenly target our own cells and attack them.

In fact, the health of our gut could be used as a measuring stick for our longevity.

But about two thirds of Americans are living with gut issues.

Acid reflux, heart burn, and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Gas and bloating, causing a protruding stomach that can't be “exercised off,” or a feeling of still being "full" long after we've eaten.

Leaky Gut, SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), Candida, H. Pylori and C. Diff.

Gluten reactions.

An imbalanced microbiome causing higher stress levels, poor energy, and much more.

And those who are 18-44 have nearly twice as many gut issues as those in higher age brackets, something which, 50 or more years ago, was the opposite.

Each generation has more and more gut issues, which then cause or contribute to other physical issues.

If we want the healthiest body we can have, with high energy levels, an easy time maintaining our figure, healthier skin, a calmer mood, hormonal balance, lean muscle, and good sleep — then we need to take control of our gut.

In this guide we cover every aspect of Gut Health: how it works, what causes what, and how to know what is happening in our body.

If you have any of the issues above, or just want the healthiest gut you can have for overall health, this protocol is for you.

I hope you enjoy it and experience the results you deserve.

Here is your Gut Health Protocol. You can expect to experience significant results in just 30 days, if not in the first few days.

In our Gut Health Collection we also have Gut Health Packages at discounted rates, or you can pick out the specific supplements you will need. And if you subscribe to an item, you automatically lock in 15% off each order.

Doing any of these key protocols will drastically increase overall health and performance.

I hope this helps.

And make sure to join our PerfectAmino VIP Group if you haven't already, where you can ask all of your questions and we can help you with anything you need.

We'll see you there!