26/05/2021
The four aspects to maintaining physical health - for anyone, including athletes:
Train, often. Most days, steady state cardio at least once, weights at least twice/wk.
Sunlight, 15-20min skin exposure during the day. Every physical part of your body has a Vitamin D receptor, and the minimum amount of sun needed gives the same stimulus as 20 vit D supplement tabs (1000iud ea). Free performance and mental enhancement, and worth supplementing if you can’t get outside during the day.
Water, more than feels necessary. Similar to above the body is two thirds water. Nothing great happens when it’s running low. A few percent dehydration is enough to feel the effects - tiredness, foggy thinking, drops in performance.
Nutrition. Carbs to fuel performance but no more, omega-3 fats, protein. Your body sheds it’s cells completely every ninety days, and they are replaced using the building blocks you provide with the food you eat. You have a completely new body every ninety days! You won’t feel great with poor quality resources to build with, however you don’t feel the effects of a good or a bad diet until a few months down the line.
Sleep. Two different types; REM and non-REM. Four different stages of non-REM. What is important: stress impacts stages three and four of non-REM sleep which is where most adaptation to training and flushing out of unneeded metabolites occurs. This means recovery - you can go again the next day without getting injured or feeling fatigued. It also means results - the training session produces damage. The response to this damage which creates strength/fitness increases happens mainly when asleep. It also consolidates memory from the previous day and helps learn new skills and things faster. Pretty important when studying, learning a new training block or trying to grow in pretty much anything. REM sleep is impacted by alcohol - this is dream sleep and your brain needs it. Every part of the brain except the forward thinking logical part (pre frontal cortex) is increased in actin fort during REM sleep.
Where to start? Grade yourself on each one using this five point scale: -2 terrible, -1 not good, 0 fine, +1 good, +2 almost perfect.