Today I'm going to share with you The Power Health and Performance Method and why it's such an effective way to sustainably achieve your best health, performance, and fitness.
This method is the product of the last 20 years of my life learning and working to achieve my own best health, performance, and fitness as a basketball athlete, rehabbing from countless injuries, and the last 10 years as a coach working with hundreds of clients and athletes.
The Power Health and Performance Method is a holistic approach focused on establishing 33 habits and achieving 20 goals within The 6 Pillars of Health and Performance to optimize the function and coordination of the 11 systems of the body and the expression of genes, which ultimately determines health and performance.
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The first pillar is The Mind:
Your mind starts with your thoughts, when you focus enough attention on a thought it creates emotion, which is energy in motion, and your brain makes a chemical messenger called a neuropeptide which is sent out to the cells of your body and creates instant changes to your central nervous system, hormonal state, and genetic expression.
When this cycle is repeated consistently you condition the mind and body to this internal state of thoughts and emotions and establish your beliefs which create your reality by driving your actions and habits and through the laws of quantum physics which is the study of matter and energy at the most fundamental level and has proven your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs influence the behavior of atoms which are the smallest particles of matter.
When you're conditioned to the low vibrational frequency emotions of guilt, fear, and anger you create experiences in your life that align with those emotions, chronically activate your sympathetic, fight or flight nervous system, and create too much of the degenerative, catabolic hormones of stress like adrenaline and cortisol that cause, muscle breakdown, fat storage, and disease. These hormones are actually beneficial to us in the short term and provide us with the quick energy and alertness to fight or flight in a life threatening scenario or perform during a high stress physical challenge but when they're over created they cause degeneration and disease.
Then on the other side, when you're conditioned to the high vibrational frequency emotions of love, gratitude, and joy you create experiences in your life that align with those emotions, activate the parasympathetic, rest and digest side of your nervous system, and create the regenerative, anabolic hormones like oxytocin and testosterone that allow for muscle growth, fat loss, and health.
Your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs are also exchanged with others through the various relationships you have and the communities you participate in which can significantly influence your mind and internal state so it's just as important to nurture relationships and participate in communities founded on the high vibrational frequency emotions as it is to cultivate it on your own.
This is The Power that you have within you to create your best health, performance, and life and it's the main reason why I named my company Power Health and Performance.
To unleash this power and achieve your potential, first you have to accept that your health is your most valuable asset in life and live in alignment with this belief. Then you have to clearly define your health goals, why they're important to you, and make a full commitment to them. With this mental foundation in place, you'll naturally be driven to gain the knowledge and strategies you need to execute an action and accountability plan that will empower you to sustainably achieve your goals.
Only once you've completed this process and established the essential habits within the Mind Pillar will you have elevated your consciousness to the level necessary to establish the habits within the other five Pillars.
Missing the habits within The Mind Pillar is the primary reason why most people don't achieve or sustain their goals and struggle with the ups and downs of making short term progress but then regress back to their previous level.
The second pillar is The Breath:
You breathe about 20,000 breathes a day and the way you breathe has a significant effect on the function and state of the systems of your body and your posture.
Oxygen is the brain and bodies primary fuel source, with food being the secondary fuel source. You can survive for days and even weeks without food but after only a few minutes of oxygen deprivation brain damage and death can occur. And as much as the quality of your food is important so is the quality of the air you breathe so it's important to be aware of the quality of the air in the indoor and outdoor environment you live in and avoid exposure to toxic chemicals as much as possible.
The breath works hand in hand with your thoughts and emotions and also has the power to influence the state of your nervous system.
When you breathe short and primarily through the mouth and upper chest you activate the sympathetic, fight or flight nervous system, minimal air is drawn into the lungs, and you develop overactivity of the accessory breathing muscles in the chest and neck which leads to an excessively rounded thoracic spine and forward head posture.
But when you breathe deep and primarily through the nose and diaphragm you activate the parasympathetic, rest and digest nervous system, maximal air is drawn into the lungs, and you maintain a neutral spine posture. This is why deep diaphragmatic breathing is such a powerful way to decrease the stress response and improve posture.
The optimal breathing cycle is an inhale through the nose and diaphragm for the first two thirds of the breath and the upper rib cage for the last one third followed by an exhale through the nose. During high intensity exercise breathing in tandem with the mouth often works best but during low to moderate intensity exercise it's still ideal to breath only through the nose.
The third pillar is Sleep:
We spend one third of our lives sleeping and the quality of your sleep has a massive impact on your health and performance.
We all have a specific chronotype which is our internal biological clock that determines our natural sleep and wake cycles. On one end of the chronotype spectrum there are morning types and on the opposite end there are evening types, then there are intermediate types in between.
Sleeping out of alignment with your chronotype and getting low quality sleep has many devastating effects on your health.
Short term you can suffer from:
• low energy levels
• decreased cognitive function and ability to focus
• Increased stress hormone levels
• irritability and anxiousness
• And impaired motor functions like decreased coordination and reaction time
Long term you can suffer from:
• Decreased Immune System function
• Decreased memory
• Chronic injuries that won't heal
• And fat gain due to the disruption of our hormonal state, especially the hunger regulating hormones of the body
So sleeping and living in alignment with your specific chronotype is essential for optimizing your sleep quality and health.
Deep Sleep and REM sleep are the two most restorative cycles of sleep. Deep sleep is most restorative to the tissues of the body and REM sleep is most restorative to the mind and brain. Most adults need 7-8 hours of sleep in alignment with their chronotype to get adequate Deep and REM sleep.
The fourth pillar is Hydration:
The body is made up of 50-60% water, every cell and organ in the body depends on pure, living water to function properly. Pure, living water is spring water that is free of contaminants and chemicals and has been minimally filtered, if filtered at all. Water that has been contaminated with chemicals and over filtered is dead water that has been stripped of the naturally occurring minerals and can actually deplete the minerals in our body.
Sufficiency of the electrolytes sodium, chloride, calcium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, and bicarbonate is an important aspect of hydration as well but electrolyte sufficiency is mostly accomplished through proper Nutrition and use of salt, in this way Hydration and Nutrition work hand in hand.
Dehydration can cause fatigue, headaches, muscle cramps and more severe dehydration can cause a loss of consciousness and even kidney and liver failure. Physical and cognitive performance are impaired when you are dehydrated by as little as 2% of body weight.
So proper hydration increases physical and cognitive performance, helps muscles and joints to stay lubricated, and encourages proper digestion and elimination which aids in detoxification.
Drinking about half of your bodyweight in fluid ounces daily, accounting for the water content in food as well, is typically the right amount and then adding more as needed based on sweat rate.
The fifth pillar is Nutrition:
Food is the bodies secondary fuel source, remember the first is oxygen, and has massive impacts on your hormonal state, organ function, fertility, gut microbiome, digestion, immune function, energy levels, cognitive function, physical performance, and of course body composition.
If you get your nutrition wrong not only are you going to be overweight and fatigued, you're putting yourself at an increased risk of just about every disease but especially heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.
Optimal nutrition is eating organic whole foods rich in micronutrients and free of toxins and allergens, in the right proportions of the macronutrients protein, fat, and carbohydrates, at the right times that align with your internal biological clock, and in the right state by being in a parasympathetic state and chewing food to a near liquid.
The sixth pillar is Movement:
The primary purpose of the brain is survival and maintaining homeostasis within the body, the second purpose of the brain is to allow us to move through the world. Movement is life.
High quality movement encourages pain free, high level performance and bad movement encourages dysfunction, poor posture, and pain which decreases how much we move and leads to progressive decreases in brain function. Our brain and body function on The Use It or Lose It Principle and they must be activated regularly to function properly.
Just like the most effective way to sustainably achieve great health and performance is by taking a holistic approach the best way to achieve great movement is the same. Taking a holistic approach to movement means focusing on developing sufficient levels of mobility, stability, and strength to effectively perform the 7 fundamental human movement patterns which are hip hinging, squatting, lunging, pushing, pulling, rotating, and gait which is walking or running and ensuring proper function of the visual and vestibular systems.
This holistic approach to movement should be the foundation of any exercise program. So not only are we reaping the many benefits of exercise like increased strength, bone health, cardiovascular health, endurance, energy levels, mood, blood flow and lubrication to nourish our tissues and joints, detoxification through sweating, and decreasing the risk of nearly every chronic disease we're also optimizing our movement function and posture to prevent injury. Movement is medicine.
I'll be sharing the 33 habits and 20 goals within the 6 Pillars of Health and Performance more specifically along with the best strategies and tactics to implement them in future articles I publish on the site so be sure subscribe to our email list by filling out the form below.
Unleash Your Power, Achieve Your Potential
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