Hey everyone, I am writing this post a day later than intended as house projects took command of my day yesterday. My schedule during the week is usually occupied by work so I usually set my goals for the weekend each friday on what projects I am going to accomplish. What I’m noticing is a trend of starting a house project, and realizing its going to take longer than expected due to unforeseen steps or speed bumps during the process. So anyways, what was suppose to be my entirety of kitchen cabinet doors being installed with new hardware, turned into about half of those being installed.
Another point I want to state and make clear is this. As a coach, I am a vessel of information for those I serve and those who choose to listen, not the source. I give credit where it is due and do not claim any of this information or ideas as my own, as it is information that is often recycled and refined that I choose to adopt and follow.
Anyways, let’s get into it. Today the topics I want to go over are
Prioritizing athleticism.
Supplements that can enhance your sleep.
What journaling has done for me.
Prioritizing movement quality
I was listening to a podcast between John Welbourn and Mike Bell this week discussing Mike’s fitness journey and how he is exploring his boundaries as an athlete. They spent time discussing athleticism and the difference between task specific athleticism and universal athleticism which got my mind churning.
I have always said each sport and position has its own specific demands that an athlete must train and develop in order to execute their position efficiently enough to beat the opposition. If you strip the demands of the sport away though, you are looking at a person that must be able to move well through space.
Let me clarify before I go farther, task-specific athleticism is important. Being superior to your opposition in your sport or task is what leads to being victorious. Being able to exhibit high level quality of movement however can raise your floor and potentially ceiling as an athlete.
Moving well through space, I would define as having a high rate of force production and motor unit recruitment, and fluidity of movement through full range of motion in a multi-planar universe (Multi-planar referring to the sagittal, frontal, and transverse planes).
I don’t shy away from throwing heavy weight around, or doing compound sets for biceps and triceps to chase a pump, but my tunnel vision for chasing task specific athleticism of my own, has turned into an admiration of universal athleticism or who moves the best through space as my understanding of human performance has evolved.
As a coach I prioritize quality of movement first over how much weight is being moved. Everyone likes to talk about how much weight they can lift, but if you can’t do it with proper execution and technique, you are only subjecting yourself to increased risk of injury in order to stroke your ego. Greg Walsh and Heather McAllister of Wolf Brigade Gym are a great resource for mastering the foundations of movement.
However, someone who is able to exhibit high levels of strength and power through a multiple planes of motion, and can do so with efficient movement patterns, that to me is admirable. The first person who comes to mind that fits this description is Christian McCaffrey, arguably the best at his position in the NFL. Don’t believe me, watch some of his training and game highlights and decide for yourself.
To conclude on this long winded explanation, prioritize how well you perform a movement first before chasing numbers. Don’t be that person in the gym trying to quarter squat weight well beyond your means, doing doing half rep pull-ups, or so stiff you can’t touch your toes or rotate 90 degrees. Subject yourself to new ranges of motion through mobility in all planes of motion, then practice building strength through those full ranges of motion.
Enhance your sleep
I don’t intend on this section being solely a plug for Thorne Nutrition, but the past two subjects are areas that can greatly benefit from proper supplementation.
Disclaimer, these supplements will only enhance your sleep if you are first already practicing good habits around your bedrest. This includes limiting blue light exposure before bed, sleeping at low enough temperatures in a quiet, dark environment, nasal breathing, limiting caffeine consumption, etc.
That may be a subject to go into next week, but for right now, here are three supplements that will help enhance the quality of your sleep and recovery.
Glycine
I first heard about glycine from Dr. Eric Serrano when discussing sleep and memory. Glycine is considered one of the more important inhibitory neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. It is shown to decrease the time it takes to fall asleep, helps increase the amount of REM sleep and decrease the amount of non-REM sleep each night, improve memory retrieval in those with sleep deprivation, and help regulate your circadian rhythm.
L-Theanine
L-theanine has been shown to help reduce stress through enhancing production of dopamine and seratonin and plays a role in the production of GABA which also has a role in regulating stress. L-theanine also shows enhances alpha wave activity in the brain, a key marker of relaxation in those with high levels of stress.
Magnesium
On top of the numerous benefits for cardiovascular, brain, bone and muscle health, and roles it plays in enzymatic reactions, magnesium can also benefit sleep. Magnesium helps relax both skeletal and smooth muscle, which helps dilate blood vessels and reduce blood pressure, leading to a more relaxed state before bed. There are many forms of magnesium on the market, I personally use a Calcium-Magnesium Malate supplement from Thorne.
If you are interested in any of the above supplements and are looking to enhance your sleep, check out the link below to add them to your daily regiment.
What journaling has done for me
This is something I have never been very consistent with until now. I had a professor during undergrad, Dr. Thomas Fisher, who taught Motivational Aspects of Strength and Conditioning. I loved that class, we would go over literature like The Art of War or certain motivational subjects and you would leave every class feeling like you could conquer the world. Even better, the only assignment during the semester was to keep a daily log on your thoughts. You would turn it in at the end of the semester, he would flip through the pages without reading to see that you wrote, and that would be it.
Looking back I could have probably written a bunch of nonsense and still passed the class, but I took it seriously and used it as an exercise log and writing down my daily agenda which at the time helped me be more organized.
Recently however I picked the practice back up and have taken a deeper dive. I’ve used it as a place where I can take the clutter and racing ideas in my head and put them in one place. Where I can have discussions with myself and find expand upon ideas as I write them. Where I can let my mind expand and wander on ideas but keep track of the journey a thought takes me on. Where I can write down what has been happening to me in life and what my feelings and reactions were at the time and why I think I felt that way.
I have found I write about 4-5 times a week and it has been very beneficial to me with collecting my thoughts and being able to revisit them if need be. I have always been very impulsive growing up, a trait passed down to me which leads my mind to race and often lose sight of a valuable thought from time to time.
Especially as a business owner now, losing valuable thoughts and ideas due to being a scatterbrain can be frustrating, but journaling has helped alleviate that issue. Regardless of what you feel journaling could help you with, I encourage you to try it, writing down your thoughts at the time or a recap of your day to day, you may be surprised how good it feels or what benefits you made discover from it.
Go practice moving well, kill bad habits and put an emphasis on your sleep, and write down your thoughts. Stay tuned for next week.
Cory