Work out your personal vitality rating

I know lots of my readers take part in sporting competitions and they always want to perform at their peak and win.  So is it best to abstain the night before a competition?  Certainly here is a myth that abstinence before sporting activities improves performance? But does it? Researchers at the University of Florence reviewed hundreds of studies to determine if there was any truth in the myth that abstinence helps performance.  They found no evidence to support the myth that abstinence before a sporting competition improves performance.  In addition they found no evidence that having sex the night before impairs performance the next day.  They came across one study that found marathon runners did better the next day after having sex the night before. All sporting competitions are as much about the mind as the physical activity.  So the impact of sex the night before on marathon runners may be psychological.  Maybe that is why the organisers of the Rio Olympics distributed more than 450,000 condoms in the athletes' village during the 2016 Olympics. Reference Stefani Laura, Galanti Giorgio, Padulo Johnny, Bragazzi Nicola L., Maffulli Nicola, 2016, Sexual Activity before Sports Competition: A Systematic Review,  Frontiers in Physiology, Vol 7, pg 246 http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphys.2016.00246

In my lifetime I have seen more and more people become what a friend insightfully called amateur athletes.  This is due to the impact of the public health campaign to get to us to recognise the importance of regular exercise to keep us healthy.  This has led to more people going to the gym regularly taking part in all forms of sporting competitions. I appreciate I am older than most of the clients who visit out clinic.  But when I was growing up it was quite rare for people to go the gym or for adults to take part in sports-based competitions who were not professional athletes. A recent review published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine concludes that sleep is an important determinant of health, wellbeing and performance in collegiate athletes, it is not always a priority for them.   In addition sleep allows the body to repair itself which is crutial if you are working towards a fitness goal e.g. a triathalon or marathon or big hockey game etc This made me wonder about the clients we see at the clinic, who are juggling demanding careers, personal fitness goals, busy social lives, families and sometimes living in environments that are not conducive to restorative sleep. So, I wanted to leave you with a question, how much of a priority is sleep in your life? Here is a reminder of some Sleep tips Reference https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/53/12/731.full

Following on from my last post on calm breathing, I want to introduce you to calming counting.  The advantage of this technique over calm breathing is that it helps you stop focusing on worried thoughts! Calming Counting

1. Sit comfortably.
2. Take a long, deep breath and exhale it slowly while saying the word "relax" silently.
3. Close your eyes.
4. Let yourself take ten natural, easy breaths. Count down with each exhale, starting with "ten."
5. This time, while you are breathing comfortably, notice any tensions, perhaps in your jaw or forehead or stomach. Imagine those tensions loosening.
6. When you reach "one," open your eyes again.