Cycling and Endurance Sport Training Information - Are you Overlooking the Obvious?

By Jeb D. Stewart MS, CSCS, Coach

   Today, too many people spend so much time and effort in an attempt to accomplish body composition and athletic performance goals only to end up disappointed and disillusioned. We think that if we just lift more often, run farther, or use this supplement that we are going to get that ever-elusive result. Many of us suffer from the mistaken assumption that if some is good, then more is better. What all of these vain attempts at the impossible inevitably lead us to is decreased performance, impaired immune function, and eventually burnout. What many of us are overlooking and missing out on, are the essential elements of healthy living.

   The humorous thing about all this is, that the pieces we are missing are right at our fingertips. They are free of charge and do not come from a pill, a personal trainer, an infomercial, or even from trying any harder than we already are. In contrast to our ever popular “Type A” approach to life in contemporary society, what we are lacking in actually involves taking things a little easier and as a result, taking better care of ourselves.

    You may be asking at this point, in agitated anticipation, what the heck are these essential elements? They are found by simply addressing the basic needs of the human body to live and function. These are your sleep patterns, and your diet. The first of these three, your sleep patterns, are often the first to get pushed aside in this fast paced life we lead in the modern world. If I had a dollar for every time I heard people say, “I don’t have time to sleep”, I would be a very rich man, although none-the-less amused. In actuality, we should be saying, I do not have time not to sleep. It is nearly impossible to function optimally on too little sleep. On average, a person needs 8 hours of sleep daily. Far too few of us get anything like that on a regular basis, and if we are training in any capacity, our sleep needs are even greater. For it is when we sleep and rest, that we recover from our efforts and get stronger. If we lack in this area we end up run down, do not see the results from our efforts, and often end up falling prey to illness. The practice of rest applies not only to sleeping, but also to varying our training intensities to include “light days” and rest days between hard efforts. These days lead to increased performance and better overall health by allowing the body to recover and adapt to training efforts and allow the immune system to recover and work properly. So remember, when we aren’t performing as well as we would like to we might want to, try operating from a “rest harder” rather than a “work harder” mentality.

   What? You say in astonishment. Are you crazy? I just need to work harder or do more! I shake my head in amazement, when I hear this. Once again, here is the more is better philosophy at work. When people learn about the economic principle of diminishing returns it makes sense to them to stop putting forth effort when the efforts are no longer leading to the desired outcome. However, when it comes to our health and our bodies, why is it so hard to see how this same principle applies? Many times when people come to me for advice on their exercise programs from which they are no longer getting the results they are looking for, the glaring problem I see when I examine their current routine is that they are doing too much rather than not doing enough.

    The bottom line is, we have to address these aspects on a daily basis or the results we are looking for are not only going to elude us, but eventually, so will our health and our peace of mind. Without a good foundation including the appropriate amount of sleep and healthy eating habits, we are attempting to build our temple on sand rather than on bedrock. Until we address and bring into balance these elements, we are going to get lackluster results from our physical efforts. Try getting enough rest, eating healthily, and breathing deeply over a period of time and you will be amazed at the increased energy level within which you will be functioning. You will begin to see you efforts produce results, results that are real and maintainable. Aches and pains will diminish, along with the frequency of illness and fatigue. You will now be giving your body a chance to function at an optimum level, a level that many of us have never known.

    So now, when you start to feel run down, or that your training efforts are not producing the results you were looking for, rather than just “pushing through it”, address these basic tenets. Identify which one or ones you are overlooking, and adjust them to bring your body and your life back into balance and into a state of optimum functioning and performance.

*Jeb Stewart has a Master’s degree in Exercise Science, is a Certified Strength & Conditioning and Performance Enhancement Specialist, a USA Cycling Expert Level Coach and co-owner of The Peaks Coaching Group. He can be reached for training questions and comments at (540) 586-2400 or at jeb@peakscoachinggroup.com.  Check out their web site at peakscoachinggroup.com