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The magic words for the sports performer is consistent and predicable performance. Most performers carry around a terminal low-grade ever-present anxiety about their next performance whether that’s in training or competition.
This festering preoccupation steals energy that reduces performance and eats into recovery.
Nothing small is insignificant as one small thing can disrupt an entire system from producing its best result.
Small things include frictions or omissions.
A tiny muscle imbalance or missing nutrient compromise performance.
By far the fastest way to create better performance is to do something that isn’t sport specific. And, I say that because most committed performers have covered most of the major requirements to perform well so spending exponentially more time there to eek out micro-improvements not always the best use of time.
A top performer I work with is performing extraordinarily well at the moment.
To build on that by doing more specific to the discipline carries a big risk of doing 1% too much that takes the edge off their performance at the level which is the difference between winning and losing.
I told them that to gain the 1% to win big in the world they play at can come from developing a side of them that builds their spirit, resiliency, and enthusiasm for life itself.
We looked at his life and things he had done in his past that he no longer does.
And, I might add he is very different from the typical athlete as, in addition to his intense training at the Olympic level, he likes photography, reading, and taking online college classes.
As our conversation continued he told me that he studied the violin for 10 years but hadn’t touched one for about a decade. I never knew that. And, when he told me that I instantly understood why he was different.
On the spot, I told him the best thing he could do for himself was to get out his violin and play it again as this would re-awaken a side of him that has been dormant for years. And, by doing so his life would be more enriched and he would have an overall higher life enthusiasm that would translate to a 1-2% boost in his athletic performance.
He found his violin, dusted it off, and played for 45-minutes for the first time in a decade.
Despite how rusty he was a part of his life was reignited and as the result he has gained another 1-2% in sports performance that no amount of additional training would have gained him access to.
Becoming a better person makes a better athlete.
Never discount the value of that.
If you suffer chronic inflammation, chances are you’ve tried everything you could think of to make the pain go away.
The usual solutions people turn to include:
For most people, these solutions fail to provide consistent, long-term relief.
Medications provide short-term relief, special exercises help to some extent, but herbal remedies or supplements may not have worked as well as you hoped.
In today’s highly competitive economy, the new normal is for food manufacturers to use marketing ploys to make their products appear healthy – even when they aren’t.
Maltodextrin is one of the most common, hidden-in-plain-sight cons on the market today. It is glorified, processed sugar that masquerades as “carbs.”
It might sound unbelievable, but read the following quote from BellChem – a top US producer of maltodextrin:
“Maltodextrin is a complex carbohydrate that can be hundreds of sugar molecules in length, which is much larger than the simple carbohydrate arrangement of glucose. Many soft drinks and other flavored beverages contain maltodextrin in their formulas so that they can have a lower amount of sugar on their nutrition facts labels. On the nutrition label, maltodextrin is included under the “Total Carbohydrate” heading, instead of the “sugars” label.”
The Infantry Battalion that I am fortunate enough to command - 3-187 Infantry, the Iron Rakkasans - conducts an event each Spring called the Iron Warrior Challenge (IWC).
The IWC can be a single event or a series of events designed to test Soldiers physically and mentally. The purpose of this event is to link the currently serving Soldiers with those who previously served in the unit, and to remember those that have gone before us and all they endured in the service of our Great Nation. The event was started by GEN (retired) David Petraeus when he commanded the Iron Rakkasans in the early 90s, and has continued on ever since.
