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Are you Tracking Your Metrics?

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The following post is Adapted from the June 20, 2019 article by Joe Hamilton on TrainingPeaks

As a previously coached athlete (and that is what we are as instructors) and a coach myself, the nebulous “listen to your body” mandate once perplexed me. What exactly does listening to your body mean? And does everybody listen to their body the same way? As I have trained and coached, I have gained perspective on how and when to listen to your body to help achieve your goals. As indoor cycling instructors, this can be very important as many of us teach upwards of five classes a week in addition to other workouts that we may do for our own health.

While it can be tempting to focus only on the physiological aspects: Training Stress Score (TSS), heart rate and intensity factor (IF), we need to look at one of the most important (yet overlooked) metrics: how you feel when you wake up in the morning.

For example, there are days when I wake up, measure my morning heart rate, and crawl to the shower. As I make my way out the door, I feel agitated and grouchy. At work, I find that climbing the two flights of stairs is difficult. If I look at my Performance Management Chart, it will usually confirm what I’m feeling: my Training Stress Balance (TSB) is negative and/or my ramp rate is high. All of these indicators will help confirm what my body and mind are already telling me: to adjust my workout or rest for the day. But, that can be extremely tough if you have two classes to lead this afternoon.

For this reason I encourage all of my athletes to record their morning metrics daily, including their morning heart rate, Heart Rate Variability (HRV), and general sense of wellbeing. With the Performance Management Chart, it’s easier than ever to match an athlete’s “morning indicators” with training stress balance (TSB) and ramp rates to help decide whether or not to adjust a workout.

Of course, many athletes, including myself, either misinterpret or ignore their morning indicators in fear they will lose fitness or not gain results. But I would rather my athletes be rested for a hard workout than to go into that workout fatigued, which will ultimately negate the effect of the training stimulus and response. Learning to be honest with yourself and your coach about how you’re feeling will make you a happier and often stronger and faster athlete.

How to Track Morning Metrics
Each and every morning I have the athlete go into TrainingPeaks and input their morning metrics. I then compare this to their post-workout comments. Things I consider when reviewing morning metrics include resting heart rate variability, motivation to train, mood, sleep, appetite, and current stressors that the athlete faces during the day. I then compare the performance management chart in TrainingPeaks. If trends in the metrics charts show high stress and fatigue, TSB is negative, and post workout activity comments are negative, I then consider whether the next day’s workout is substituted for a rest day or adjusted to an easier workout.  Here are some tips for logging your morning metrics:

  1. Don’t think too hard or overanalyze your morning metrics. When recording morning metrics, include what and how you immediately feel. Overanalyzing can make recording morning metrics more a chore and more likely inaccurate. For example, if you feel fatigued, click fatigued and in the comments explain to your coach what fatigued means for you.
  2. When in doubt leave it out. (“It” being your workout.) If all the signs indicate you are stressed and fatigued, then don’t push it. Either adjust your workout or take a recovery day. Most athletes are afraid to lose fitness if they miss a workout, but you can look at it as an opportunity to put your best foot forward for your next workout. Think long term. As an instructor, this means you may have to back off a bit during a class, or even teach off of the bike.
  3. Training and stress can and will impact your sleep. That’s why it is important to monitor how your sleep was the night before. Trends of sleepless nights not only add to daily stress, but can create a negative cumulative effect.
  4. Record your morning heart rate every morning in the pulse field. Do this right when you get out of bed. Heart rate variability can tell a coach or athlete a lot about how the athlete is doing in adapting and responding to training.
  5. Record and pay attention to your day-to-day psychology or sense of wellbeing. Record your moods, motivation, concentration, focus, even how agitated you are. Your mood is often the first indicator that rest and recovery are needed.

Consider Physical Stress
These are the demands we place on our body through workouts, mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, going to the grocery store, hiking with the family, even taking the dogs on a walk or short ride.

On a bike it’s easy to measure training stress through power and heart rate–but the stress we accumulate every day is less measurable. There are no TSS scores for mowing your lawn or repairing that deck–but that doesn’t mean you can ignore the physical stress these activities place on your body.

Mental Stress
Training for any sport does not happen in a vacuum. As an athlete and a coach, you have to be able to effectively manage your psychological stress with physical stress, because the two act in tandem.

Any athlete knows the psychological demand of completing high-intensity intervals after a very stressful workday, or even worse, a job loss, any other life set back.

Managing your training stress in relation to your existing physical and mental stress is the key to knowing how much you can handle before becoming overtrained or start logging counterproductive workouts. Remember, give yourself a break and understand that all stress plays into your capacity to train.

Managing Stress and Training
I have heard it said, and truly believe, that amateur athletes have the toughest jobs in the world. They don’t have the luxury of centering their lives around their athletic careers, so they have to have the ability to juggle the demands of training with their lifestyle, kids, jobs, marriage, travel, and finances. The athlete who can manage all of that is a superhero in my mind–but they’re also often the most stressed.

The key to managing that stress is to strike a balance between work and recovery. When it comes to that balance, the body never lies. It is perhaps the best tool we have to tell us when we move from overreaching to overtraining. Ignoring these critical signals from our bodies (which I often have) can lead to illness, injury, or just total burnout.

Remember, training and competing in your sport are (most likely) not what you do for a living. You train because you love it, it’s your passion, and you want to get better at something you love and that makes you a better and healthier person. So, listen to your body and mind and let it serve as just one tool of many tools available to help you effectively and efficiently train.

Are You Sabotaging Your Training?

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Below is a summary of an outstanding article that I read on Training Peaks. The original article published on March 28, 2019 · By Maria Simone can be found HERE.

Many slogans that you find about doing work can inspire and motivate! However, it’s only through doing the right work that you will make our big dreams a reality. We can think about doing the right work in three ways: consistency; discipline with intensity and volume; and recovery.

Consistency

Consistency is the most important element of any training plan. In order to build your fitness and prepare your body for the demands of race day, or a really hard class, you need to be able to train daily.

To train consistently, we need to plan ahead in order to balance training with other life priorities. Of course, in some cases, it may not be possible to fit the scheduled training on a particular day. If you are self-coached, review the rhythm of the plan. Consider whether it’s possible to swap days, shorten or modify a workout, or skip the session when unexpected conflicts arise. When all else fails, remember one day here and there won’t ruin your overall consistency. Try not to regularly miss key workouts or rethink the flow of the plan and/or your life schedule to set yourself up for success.

Discipline with Volume and Intensity

A second area where athletes unknowingly sabotage themselves is in their discipline sticking to intensity and volume targets. It’s important to stick to the targets for how hard or easy a workout should be (intensity) as well as how long or short a workout should be (volume). All too often athletes like pushing their endurance-based workouts into a tempo or Zone 3 effort because they feel like they aren’t working hard enough. Unfortunately, by raising the intensity, the athlete no longer reaps the endurance benefits, and they are not working hard enough to reap the benefits of a high-intensity session. We often see this in our classes. This is where we are doing work, but not the right work.

Recovery

Recovery is central to your body’s ability to adapt to the training sessions. Training breaks you down – recovery lets your body put itself back together.

How can we enhance recovery? The most important recovery tool is sleep. According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep deprivation or “sleep debt” increases the production of the stress hormone cortisol while decreasing the production of glycogen. This combination means you won’t wake up feeling ready to tackle the day’s training session.

Beyond sleep, you can enhance recovery with daily nutrition, as well as properly fueling and hydrating before, during, and after workouts. If you aren’t putting the right gas in your tank, your car won’t work the way you want it to. If you aren’t incorporating a consistent recovery protocol into your training plan, then your body won’t adapt to the training stimulus.

Proper training isn’t just about doing the work. It is about doing the right work, which includes a focus on consistency, discipline with your intensity and volume, and recovery. Get the mix right, and you will continue to see your body and mind working properly towards your next big dream.

YOUR MUSIC IS TOO LOUD!!!……….WHAT DID YOU SAY?

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soundear proper sound levels for fitness and indoor cycling studios

Does your club or studio have a way to measure the volume level of the music you and the other Instructors are playing? I want to say that there's a sound meter floating around Life Time, but I've never used it… we do offer members free ear plugs 🙂

What got me thinking about this (beyond frequent complaints; “are you listing?” from Amy and daughters) was this very cool wall mounted sound meter I saw yesterday. It's called a SoundEar studio sound meter and it hangs on the back wall of the fitness studio, in full view of the Instructor. It changes colors as the volume in the room increases, displaying the Red dot when levels exceed the adjustable limit – in this case, 85 dBA.

According to the The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) the damaging effects of loud noises are cumulative and they have published these guidelines for the duration of exposure at specific levels. It's important to note that NIOSH is concerned with worker safety (that's you) – it's sister .org is the more familiar OSHA.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety – NIOSH – Recommended Exposure Limit – REL – for occupational noise exposure is

  • 85 decibels, A-weighted, as an 8-hr Time-Weighted Average -TWA – (85 dBA as an 8-hr TWA)

Note! Exposures at and above this level are considered hazardous.

Exposure to continuous, varying, intermittent, or impulsive noise shall never exceed 140 dBA.

 

Chart from http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/noise-exposure-level-duration-d_717.html

So how loud is the music in your studio? Do you even know?

I'm struck by the similarity between asking an Instructor; “Is your music too loud?” and asking someone; “Have you had too much to drink?” Without an objective form of measurement, both are completely subjective and the responses to both can be couched by ego, rather than honesty.

I'm very curious to know if you have some way of measuring and/or limiting the sound levels in your studio . Please let me know below.

Should Endurance Athletes Do Yoga? from TrainingPeaks

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Yoga can be a great addition to any endurance athlete’s training plan and overall health. It can improve your strength and balance, as well as give you a heightened sense of how your body moves. But like all aspects of fitness, it’s not without risks.

The Benefits of Yoga for Endurance Sports

Yoga helps develop strength through controlled movements and poses. In any sport, consistent movement is vital for efficiency and injury prevention. Consider running – the connection of your feet to the ground, where you toe-off, your body symmetry in dynamic movement, and your posture are all dependent on good core strength. Boat pose, downward facing dog, locust pose and plank are examples of poses that build strength and stability.

Yoga also develops balance. Cycling (cornering, descending, and out-of-the-saddle climbing), swimming (holding streamlined body alignment during rotation), and running (maintaining a limber, dynamic gait through technical cross-country courses) can all benefit from better balance. Tree pose, warrior, and side plank are good examples of poses that develop balance.

As you move through various poses, remember to breathe into the stretches and be mindful of how your body is feeling as you work through any discomfort. This will give you context in racing and training and help you hone in on imbalances. Simply slowing down your day and moving through a flow session with intent and focus can also be incredibly relaxing.

The Risks of Yoga for Endurance Athletes

If you are in the thick of training for a 100-mile century ride, an hour of strength-intensive vinyasa yoga at the end of the day may take away more than it provides. Even practicing yoga on your recovery day can be too much exercise. To continue yoga without adding fatigue during heavy training blocks, choose a beginner class, or opt for yin yoga, which is more regenerative.

Injury can be a concern in yoga as well. Athletes tend to be physically competitive in nature, which isn’t always ideal for deep stretching. To avoid going down with a yoga injury, try to err on the side of under-doing your poses. Remember, there’s no prize awarded at the end of class to the downward dog champion! Instruction quality is also important. An experienced instructor can help you avoid excessive soreness, a strained muscle, or joint injury.

It’s also a good idea to approach bikram (hot) yoga with caution. It’s a style of yoga enjoyed by many, and can help with heat adaptation for hot climate races. On the flip side though, it can also contribute to fatigue and dehydration. Additionally, the heat opens your joints and muscles for further range of motion, which may increase the risk of a strain or a tear.

Whether you are a yoga novice or a veteran returning after a break, adaptation is key. Yoga should be supplementary to your training, not deleterious. Be consistent and ease into it gradually over a span of three to four weeks. Learning new skills can benefit your main sport as well as overall long-term health and happiness. Be calm, consistent, and patient, and yoga will be a great supplement to your endurance training protocol.

By Lance Watson, LifeSport head coach, has trained a number of Ironman, Olympic and age-group Champions over the past 30 years. He enjoys coaching athletes of all levels. Contact Lance to tackle your first IRONMAN or to perform at a higher level. For more training tips, visit LifeSport Coaching on Facebook or on Twitter at #LifeSportCoach.

Exercises to Boost Hip Strength

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Exercises to Boost Hip Strength

When discussing muscles involved in the pedaling motion of cycling, most people think of quadriceps and hamstrings. While these muscles certainly play an important role, the many muscles of the hip also deserve attention, and the weight room is the perfect place to keep them functioning properly.

Before discussing different strength and mobility exercises, we should first look at activation exercises for your Gluteus Maximus (referred to as the glutes) muscles. The reason for needing to activate your glutes is simple–as a population, we spend way too much time sitting, and as a result, what happens is what noted spinal researcher Stuart McGill terms gluteal amnesia–your glute muscles can “go to sleep” and not function properly.

When your glutes aren't functioning properly, other muscles (hamstrings and lumbar extensors) are called in to do the job of the glutes, mainly hip extension. Think of hip extension as the downward action of pedaling.

The problem is that these muscles aren't designed to be prime movers–they're designed to support the action of the glutes. Inability of activating the glutes can result in low back pain (low back muscles compensating), hamstring strains (overacting hamstrings), hip pain (resulting from hamstring-dominant hip extension) and knee pain (poor glute medius strength).

So, to activate your glutes, try the Single-Leg Hip Lift. Here's how it's done: Lie down on the floor with your legs bent and lift one foot off the floor. Lift your hips up in the air, concentrating on contracting your glute muscles. Make sure you keep your toes of the working leg up as shown. Pause for a second or two and lower. Perform 2 to 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps on each side.

Hip Mobility: Keeping your hips mobile is important for overall hip function and athletic performance. Mobility refers to the ability of your joints to move through a pain-free, unrestricted range of motion. For cyclists, hip mobility is critical since pedaling occurs in one plane of motion, and after miles and miles in the saddle, hip tightness and restriction may develop. The following movements will help with hip mobility.

Split Squat: The traditional split squat is a great exercise to get started on hip mobility. To make this exercise even better, concentrate on contracting your glute on the trailing leg to help stretch your hip flexor.

Lateral Squat: Stand with your feet approximately double shoulder-width apart. Shift your weight to one side and drop your hips down and back, keeping your knee over your toes and your weight over your bent leg. Pause for a 2-count, return to the starting position and repeat to the other side.

Hip Strength: If you are currently doing a regular strength-training program, chances are you're already doing some foundation exercises for your hips. Squats, lunges, leg presses, and step-ups all work the prime movers of your hips. Along with these exercises, it's also important to do some supplementary exercises to work your hip's supporting muscles. you've probably heard of your shoulder's rotator cuff. Well, your hip also has a cuff, or a group of muscles that help stabilize and support movement. For these exercises, you'll need a mini-band, a longer thera-band or tubing (both are sold at many sporting goods stores, or can be purchased online), and a cable-column unit.

4-Way Mini-Band: Place a mini band around your ankles and spread your feet about shoulder-width apart. Keeping your legs relatively straight (you want the motion to come from your hips) and toes pointing forward, walk forward 10 steps, then backward 10 steps. Take a short break and then walk to the right 10 steps, then to the left 10 steps. Again, focus on keeping your legs straight and toes pointing forward. It is very important to start with a light-resistance band. You'll be working the smaller hip stabilizers, so you don't need a lot or resistance.

X-Band Walk: For this one, you'll need a large band or piece of tubing. Step on the band and spread your feet shoulder-width apart. Form an “X” in front of you with the band and stand up tall with your shoulders down and back. Keeping your toes pointing forward, take 10 steps to the right, pause and then return.

4-Way Cable Hip: You'll need a resistance band for this one. With this exercise you're focusing on four movements: flexion, extension, abduction and adduction. Stand up straight while doing the exercise. If you have to lean excessively, step closer to the anchor point of your band to decrease resistance. You'll find that not only are you working the muscles of the leg that's moving, the muscles of your stance leg will work quite hard stabilizing and balancing.

Modifications to Traditional Exercises: Our hip joints are very mobile and allow for movement in three planes of motion: the sagittal plane (flexion and extension), frontal plane (lateral movements), and the transverse plane (rotation). Knowing that, here are several modifications you can make to your traditional exercises to work your hips through a more complete range of motion.

Lunge Variations: You can do traditional lunges, or even clock lunges where you keep one leg stationary for 12 to 6 and then the other leg stationary for 6 to 12. To make the movement a touch more difficult, hold weights in your hands while you perform the exercises. There are Lateral Lunges, Rotational Lunges, Lateral Step-Up, and Rotational Step-Up as well.

Please see the full article for complete descriptions and videos of the exercises: https://www.active.com/cycling/articles/11-exercises-to-boost-hip-strength?cmp=18N-PB2000-S20-T9-cycling-AR2&eps=title_1004667

INJURED? THINK TWICE BEFORE POPPING THAT PILL

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Lower back painPain sucks. When we get injured or sore or uncomfortable, we instinctually try to fix it. We reach into our medicine cabinets, pop some pills, and “get back out there.” But are we really doing ourselves a service? Can we actually be inadvertently putting ourselves at risk? Turns out, maybe so.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), which include ibuprofen (Motrin, Advil), naproxen (Aleve), celecoxib (Celebrex) and a ton of others, are available over-the-counter and are widely used by the general population for, well, everything. Studies have found a disproportionately high use of NSAIDs amongst athletes, particularly elite athletes, as well as a lack of awareness of key dangerous side effects.

Standard care in medical practice is to discourage prophylactic use (taking medications in advance of preventing a problem, as opposed to treating an existing problem) of NSAIDs. But what about NSAID use after injuries? NSAIDs have traditionally been part of hallmark treatment, particularly for facilitating an early return to activity. But there is a controversy in sports medicine about whether NSAID use in the first few days after acute sports injuries can actually compromise the healing process. Let’s examine how that might be so. 

Continue Reading…

Protein Power: It’s Not Just for Muscles (Part 2 — Appetite Control)

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Protein Power:  It’s Not Just for Muscles (Part 2 — Appetite Control)

By Joan Kent, PhD, and Shawn Bevington

Protein is used to make hormones, which are messengers in the body. They’re produced in one part of the body and then distributed — through blood, interstitial or other body fluid — to other organs or tissues. There they modify activity and function.

This brief post will focus on just a few hormones and how they affect appetite.

*CCK (Cholecystokinin) – Satiety is the feeling that you don’t need another meal because you’re still satisfied from the last one.

CCK is arguably the most powerful satiety hormone in the body. It reduces appetite by stimulating the function of the brain’s key satiety center, the VMH (ventromedial hypothalamus).

CCK is released when we eat protein and fats. It affects our food preferences by reducing the desire for carbs.

Anyone who suffers from an exaggerated desire for carbs probably needs to eat more protein. Vegans, for example, may experience strong cravings for carbs, including sugars. Finding a true protein source is a key factor in reducing vegans’ cravings. More on that in Part 3.

Eating adequate protein can also be key in conquering sugar addiction for this same reason.

*Ghrelin – Ghrelin increases appetite by stimulating the brain’s lateral hypothalamus. The LH can be seen as a ‘feeding’ center.

Eating protein can help to reduce ghrelin release. In healthy men, a high-protein breakfast decreased post-meal ghrelin levels more than a high-carb breakfast. The high-protein meal also slowed gastric emptying. Researchers attributed both effects to the secretion of CCK and glucagon, both triggered by protein.

*Glucagon – Glucagon is a hormone made in the pancreas. Insulin is, as well, but the functions of the two hormones are oppositional and work to balance glucose levels.

Insulin also tends to be a fat-storage hormone, while glucagon moves fats out of storage and into the blood stream so they can be utilized as fuel, rather than stored.

While many foods trigger the release of insulin, only protein foods trigger glucagon. Glucagon is also secreted when we exercise.

As mentioned above, glucagon and CCK seem to control appetite by modifying ghrelin levels.

Don’t miss protein and brain chemistry, age, and the vegan solution in Part 3, right here this week!

 

Shawn Bevington is a holistic health coach, certified by the National College of Exercise Professionals (NCEP). He has been a fitness trainer for six years, and boasts another seven years of activity in various programs, including football, shot-put, pro wrestling and other strenuous sports. Self-motivated, Shawn has spent years researching on his own – and putting that information into practice with his clients. His knowledge, skill and experience have made him a sought-after fitness trainer, both by clients and by colleagues who bring questions to him.

Dr. Joan Kent has a PhD in Psychoactive Nutrition. She was the first to document the brain chemical pathways of sugar addiction and to explain the sugar/fat seesaw hormonally and chemically.  Joan has helped hundreds and hundreds of clients with metabolic conditions — diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, cancer — as well as clients with inflammation and mood disorders. Joan has written 2 best-selling books:  Stronger Than Sugar, on conquering sugar addiction, and The Sugar-Free Workout, on fueling before, during and after training for optimal performance. Visit www.LastResortNutrition.com and grab your free gifts.

The Overtraining of the Long-Distance Rider

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long dist

by Team ICG® Master Trainer Jim Karanas

“Today was the hardest recovery ride ever! I complained the entire way and had three different plans to abort and shortcut the ride throughout the route.”

That’s an actual comment sent to me by a former student of mine.  The rider is dedicated, committed and strong.  And the statement raised so much conflict in me, I felt obliged to write another post about the all-too-real dangers of overtraining.  (Please see my earlier post, “Endurance Exercise and Heart Damage”.)

Being able to ride long distances makes you feel like a cyclist, regardless of how fast you are.  Riding long gives a feeling of accomplishment.  It’s the kind of training that can easily become overtraining because the conditioning increases your ability to endure whatever happens on the bike.  Aches, pains, bad weather, lousy traffic are all part of it.  You get tough.  The tougher you get, the more you ignore the signs that it’s time to let the miles go.

Many of my students have graduated from my classes to the road.  Some have gone on to become accomplished cyclists.  Several have gone in the direction of riding long distances.

If you’ve never racked up a lot of miles, it’s important to understand that there’s a “buzz” to it.  Each week, you end up riding many more miles than are good for you, but it’s gratifying to have finally reached the point where you can ride that many miles.  All the training has culminated in considerable ability; you don’t want to let go of the conditioning.  Couple that with the resilience you had to develop and, before you know it, you’re no longer getting stronger.  You’re doing whatever you can to keep yourself from breaking down.

This kind of overtraining syndrome can be hard to discern.  The intensity isn’t high, a day or two of rest helps you feel better, and there’s a mindset that this is what it takes to get strong on the bike.  It’s difficult to know when you’ve crossed the line.

Dr. Philip Maffetone talks about three stages of overtraining.  He calls Stage 1 Functional Overtraining.  It may include a seemingly minor plateau or a slight regression in training performance.  While that may be noticeable in a professional athlete receiving close observation, it’s likely to be overlooked in the situation I’m describing.

Maffetone refers to Stage 2 as Sympathetic Overtraining.  The sympathetic part of the nervous system becomes overactive, which results in a classic overtraining sign — increased resting heart rate. This is discussed by cyclists and indoor-cycling instructors all the time.  I can say from experience is that it’s easy to keep training through this.

Stage 3 is Parasympathetic Overtraining.  Chronic overtraining has led to more serious hormonal, neurological and mechanical imbalances that parallel adrenal dysfunction.  Eventually the sympathetic nervous system becomes exhausted, and most, if not all, hormone levels are significantly reduced, including cortisol.  Believe it or not, this is not an uncommon state for many of our students who like to ride long distances.  At this point, negative feelings increase, such as depression, anger, fatigue and irritability.  Ratings of perceived exertion increase, as well.  (Consider the statement at the beginning of this post.)  Serious injury is possible, as is an increased likelihood of crashing.   Yet getting on the bike for another ride is still within reach, still feels accessible.

My question for discussion is:  What can be done with students in this state?  I know from experience they don’t want to hear anyone tell them to stop riding so many miles.  They know from experience that their conditioning will lose its edge and they’ll detune.  That’s hard to accept.  The ego is engaged here because they’ve reached a level of conditioning that makes them proud of their training.

I’ve often tried to intervene — to little avail — with students going through this.  A coach of mine once told me that life is the only real coach when it comes to ego, and that everyone needs to go through significant downturns and trauma to learn life lessons.

I’m interested in what the rest of you have experienced.

How Proper Sleep Affects Athletic Performance

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If I could tell you that I had access an incredibly effective performance enhancer that couldn’t be picked up on any drug test and is completely and utterly free, I’m fairly sure you accuse me of lying.

What about if I then said that you had unlimited access to it too? You’d probably just shake your head and walk away. Well it’s all true. What is this wonder drug? Sleep. That’s what.

Sleep has been called the most potent natural performance enhancer known to humankind. With very good reason. Below we take a brief look at exactly how sleep and athletic performance are linked…

Sleep and training

Getting sufficient rest is vitally important for all of us, athlete or not. It plays a role in just about every single thing we do, The Sleep Advisor team discuss this in great detail. But it’s importance takes on new levels when you start putting your body under unusual amounts of physical strain — like training for a race for instance.

No amount of hours spent on the track or gym will make you into a top athlete if you are not sleeping well. Those hours pumping iron or pedaling furiously are actually doing your body harm, you are tearing muscle fiber down. it's only with sufficient down time that the body is able to repair and reinforce.

Any training regime that clocks up the hours spent in the gym or on the track, without making account for sufficient time to allow the body to repair itself, is doomed to end in failure.

So if you are looking for things to cut out of your schedule to make space for more training don’t you dare thing about cutting your sleep shorter. Dump the girlfriend, quit the day job or cancel your Netflix subscription. But don’t cut out on sleep. If anything you should be sleeping more.

Sleep and motor skill acquisition

When it comes to learning new skilled actions and behaviors such as those needed for athletic success, it has long been thought that practice is the only thing required for improvement. Studies now suggest this view to be too simplistic.

Research now suggests that the brain continues to learn even when the day’s practice session is over. In fact it’s during sleep that night that the brain consolidates any new techniques learnt during the day. Say for instance you’re working on a new tennis swing, it’s during your sleep than the brain replays the action over and over again.

So remember, it's no longer just ‘practice that makes perfect’ when it comes to mastering a new technique. It’s ‘practice, sleep, practice again, makes perfect’. Not quite as catchy I will give you that, but more accurate.

Sleep and performance

The gap between medal winners and also rans (or also-cycled), often involves little more than hundredths of seconds. Sleep has a huge impact on cognitive performance. The difference between winning a race and finishing dead last could be as little as an hour more (or less) in bed.

Don’t believe me? Ok. Just as a thought exercise, try and recall the last time you had a bad night’s sleep. Statistics suggest you won’t have to think too hard on this. Now consider for a moment what your reaction times were like. I bet it took you a good five minutes to even decide what breakfast cereal to have. Now imagine you’re on the starting line waiting for the gun to go off. Yikes!

The impact poor sleep has on reaction times has been compared to the impact alcohol has. And no athlete looking to perform at the highest level would dare turn up to race after a couple of pints. In terms of performance that’s exactly what they’re doing if they turn up after a bad night’s rest.

Sleep and injury

Excelling at your chosen sport is a lot to do with consistency, are you able to get out there week after week and perform at a high level? If the answer is no, it might not be because of a lack of talent but because your body simple can't cope.

Study after study has shown that one of the most reliable predictors of injury in athletes is how well they sleep. It’s quite simple, athletes who got eight or more hours a night have been shown to get injured far less than athletes who sleep less than eight hours.

There seems to be two main reasons for this. The first relates to what we discussed above, our body needs time to repair and prepare, sleep is this time. If we don’t get enough sleep or our sleep is broken then those repairs and preparations aren’t properly carried out. The result is injury.

Training without sufficient sleep is kind of like driving the car out of the garage before the mechanic has put the engine back together and bolted the wheels back on. You might get a little way down the road but it ain’t gonna be pretty!

The second reason for the upturn in injury amongst sleep-deprived athletes relates to cognitive performance. When we’re tired we’re low on energy and our reaction times are significantly impaired. To make up for these shortfalls we overcompensate. We stretch further than we should. Tackle harder than we need to. This overexertion leads to poor technique. Both of which can lead to injury.

If you’re an athlete and you’re trying to work out why you keep getting injured or why your times simply aren't improving as you’d hoped — maybe it’s not your training or your diet that needs altering — but your bedtime. Sweet dreams!

Prescriptive Exercise – Your Doctor writing a prescription for YOU to attend indoor cycling classes

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Prescriptive Exercise - Your Doctor writing a perscription for you to attend indoor cycling classes

How cool would it be if your insurance company paid for indoor cycling classes?

A national policy of Prescriptive Exercise would be the holy grail* for small studio owners. 

Imagine; A new client walks in with her doctor specified exercise regimen for you to “fill”, just like at a pharmacy. As an approved provider, you and your studio would provide the required exercise and then bill the clients insurance company… and not at your normal class rate – at a much higher rate in recognition of your fitness expertise.

A fantasy? Nope**, not if you're near The Wellness Institute in Winnipeg Canada. Doctors there are actually writing detailed prescriptions for exercise. How cool is that?

Prescriptive Exercise - Your Doctor writing a perscription for indoor cycling classes

Winnipeg doctor Kevin Saunders writing prescriptions for exercise

Doctors at a unique medical facility in Winnipeg are starting to write some unusual prescriptions.

“A lap a day keeps the doctor away” is one of the mottos at the Seven Oaks Wellness Institute (SOWI), a fitness facility attached to the Seven Oaks General Hospital on Leila Avenue, where doctors have started prescribing exercise instead of pills.

Dr. Kevin Saunders is one of the founders of the SOWI and the medical director. He said exercise is an effective treatment for all kinds of illnesses, including hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and even some forms of cancer.

The facility offers clients a more holistic approach to fitness, helping people from all walks of life to understand what kinds of exercise they should be doing, and what they need to avoid if it puts their health in jeopardy.

You'll note that what Dr. Sanders is targeting with this program are Special Populations of people who would benefit from physical activity. I'm guessing you'd have a little trouble getting a prescription for a USAT Triathlon coach to get you ready for your next Ironman 🙂

What has me most excited here is the potential for prescriptive exercise for people suffering from Parkinson's Disease. It's been shown repeatedly that people of all ages with PD respond well to Indoor Cycling classes. Especially classes that are designed and taught by a Parkinson's Cycling Coach. Indoor Cycling studios already have the necessary tools to conduct this hugely beneficial classes. They're best held around 10:30 – 11:30 in the morning, which is normally a time without a scheduled class

I did some research and found an excellent article here at emedicine.medscape.com that explains in detail what Perscriptive Exercise is (different from physical rehab) and includes a number of areas where exercise is typically prescribed by a physiian.

Background

Exercise prescription commonly refers to the specific plan of fitness-related activities that are designed for a specified purpose, which is often developed by a fitness or rehabilitation specialist for the client or patient. Due to the specific and unique needs and interests of the client/patient, the goal of exercise prescription should be successful integration of exercise principles and behavioral techniques that motivates the participant to be compliant, thus achieving their goals.[1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

Components of exercise prescription

An exercise prescription generally includes the following specific recommendations:

  • Type of exercise or activity (eg, walking, swimming, cycling)
  • Specific workloads (eg, watts, walking speed)
  • Duration and frequency of the activity or exercise session
  • Intensity guidelines — Target heart rate (THR) range and estimated rate of perceived exertion (RPE)
  • Precautions regarding certain orthopedic (or other) concerns or related comments

Note that a properly structured, Power based Indoor Cycling class would easily include all of the stated components.

Consider this simple prescription:

  • Type of exercise or activity – Indoor Cycling class.
  • Specific workloads – Below, @ and Above riders observed 4 minute Best Effort PTP Watts or FTP if known
  • Duration and frequency of the activity or exercise session – 3 x 60 min classes weekly
  • Intensity guidelines — each 60 class to include: 5 x 5 min intervals @ PTP, 3 x 1 min intervals Above PTP, that remainder of class Below PTP and Above VT1 (staying aerobic) + adequate recovery after each @/Above interval.
  • Precautions – None

What you'd have is essentially an endurance training program, written by an MD.

Taking this further. If you were to incorporate the rider's performance data capture, from a Display Training system like Performance IQ or Spivi, your doctor could review your progress = make informed recommendations for future exercise prescriptions. Wouldn't that be awesome?

If you can offer any additional information about prescriptive exercise, I'd love to hear from you!

*Yes, I'm aware that many insurance programs offer a discount/rebate for club dues – if you attend a speciaf number of days a month. This is very different.

** I don't know the specifics of Canada's reimbursement system, but I'm looking into it. I have asked for a representative join me on the Podcast to discuss all of this.

Help Reverse Metabolic Conditions in Moms-To-Be That Result In Autism In Their Children

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I’d like to ask for your help with an extremely important campaign. The campaign is to raise money for pregnant women with metabolic disorders: diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, low “good” cholesterol, obesity, insulin resistance, and more. These metabolic conditions make it more likely that the moms-to-be will give birth to babies that develop autism.

I specialize in reversing these metabolic disorders through nutrition. I want to help get these pregnant women healthy, so they can give birth to healthy babies that stay healthy. This is significant and worthwhile — and I definitely need your help.

The research linking metabolic disorders in pregnant women and babies that develop autism is new. Researchers are worried that autism will increase due to rising obesity rates nationally, which, of course, impacts pregnant women. No one to my knowledge, however, is targeting the cause of these metabolic conditions at the root level — specifically, the nutrition of the pregnant women.

These metabolic conditions can be completely reversed; I've been helping people reverse metabolic syndrome for 20 years. I would now like to target pregnant women and try to reduce the incidence of autism.

Please help by donating if you can and/or by spreading the word and letting your friends, family and coworkers know about this campaign. Any support they can offer would be greatly appreciated.

I truly believe we can make a difference by reversing a problem that looks as if it will only get worse — unless people like you help to stop it! Thank you for your support and your willingness to help.

Here’s a link that will take you to the Indiegogo site, where you can get more information on this important campaign: ‪http://goo.gl/ouS9NR ‬

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