Marks Blog: Get Durable and Maintain that Winning Mindset

I mentioned in my last post that over-training is the enemy of athletes and warriors in training – and for that matter anyone who embarks on serious training like ours at SEALFIT.

It occurs when you push yourself to the limit – time and time again – because you enjoy the physical, mental and spiritual growth that is unfolding before your eyes.  But you don’t take enough time to recover.

The mind gets a bit cloudy. Motivation wanes. Performance skids. Skills breakdown. We lose the edge.  The people who rely on us will suffer as our attitude goes south – we start to feed the fear dog and let ourselves and our teammates down. We simply can’t afford to be in the over-training zone…there is too much at stake.

I mentioned how important sleep was to durability and recovery. Let’s look into sleep a bit more and how a few simple changes can help you avoid the mess caused by over-training.

Sleep deprivation is a big issue with warriors and many executives as well. Solid uninterrupted sleep is simply hard to come by these days. Personally I love it when I wake up totally refreshed and ready to rock the world. But it is not every day that this happens…many times I am working long hours, or running an Academy or Kokoro Camp or I get woken up by a helicopter searching for the invading immigrant army just outside my window (I live on the Cali coast). Enough about my tribulations…

Sleep should be at the top of your durability training list. This is an investment in not just your physical health, but mental strength as well. It is no joke that your mind is less clear and your resiliency takes a hit when you are sleep deprived. Children who suffer from sleep deprivation have symptoms that get misdiagnosed as ADHD. That means that your attention span is also severely restricted, and you are agitated and unfocused when sleep deprived. That can lead to serious issues if operating in a high risk environment or can lead to costly mistakes in business.

Bottom line – your performance, safety, health and sanity depends on getting adequate sleep – meaning 8 hours a night most (if not all) nights of the week. here are some tips to help ensure this happens:

• Black out your room. Ambient light from electronics or the street light disturbs your melatonin release and disrupts your sleep rhythms.
• Avoid any alcohol, or anything with sugar, within 2 hours of bed.
• Do a meditation or breathing session before bed to calm yourself and begin to slow your brain waves down.
• Review your day and clear your mind of any unfinished mental business – re-frame it in a positive light – so you don’t obsess about it all night.
• Consider taking well formulated nighttime supplements. I personally use a performance recovery supplement called Nighttime Recovery and sleep supplement called Sleep Ready