Beyond Survival. Learn to Thrive.
7 Simple Steps to Perform at Your Best
If you’re looking to perform at your highest level, there are a few things you should consider to ensure that your systems are firing on all cylinders and that you’re actually achieving your full potential.
Stay Hydrated: Many studies have shown that even a small drop in hydration levels can negatively impact performance. The ideal beverage is, of course, water. Being calorie free, it can be an important component of not only helping your physiological systems do what they are designed to do, but also helping you shed those unwanted pounds.
Fix Your Fuel: As any of the top race car drivers could tell you, their finely tuned machines wouldn’t be able to push the limits of performance without a solid supply of the best fuel out there for their engines to burn. Think of your body the same way. Eating the right foods, at the right time, will ensure that your body has the energy source it needs to keep you going. And going.
Pre-hab: The easiest injury to treat is the one you don’t have! Pre-habilitation means doing the right things to make sure your body is able to tolerate your sports and activities before you get hurt. This is prevention at its finest. Adding a pre-hab component could be as simple as putting a joint mobility/stability program in place (e.g. mobile hips and stable spine for low back pain avoidance), or it could mean working on some of your weak points (e.g. increasing core strength).
Rehab: While pre-hab is a great and can help reduce the risk of many injuries, unfortunately, it’s not 100% guaranteed. In sport, as with life, injuries can, and do, still happen. What’s important here, though, is that they are dealt with immediately before any secondary or compensatory issues occur. This is where enlisting the help of a sports-injury focused physiotherapist or chiropractor can really make a difference. The sooner you address the problem and resolve any lingering issues, the sooner you can get back to what you love!
General Fitness and Athleticism: Who couldn’t use more strength and flexibility? Or more cardiovascular endurance? Or more anaerobic power? While you may not be paid millions of dollars to play a sport, you are still an athlete! And these are just a few of the physiological components that you can significantly improve with a well-constructed, progressive and consistent training plan. As a bonus side effect, you’ll burn off a bunch of unwanted fat and have to buy yourself a new wardrobe to compliment your new chiseled, athletic physique.
Sleep: Tired. Fatigued. Fighting to keep your heavy eyes open, and your mouth closed from perpetual yawning. Sound familiar? If you’re like most people, you’re probably not getting enough of it. Or, if you’re one of the lucky few who gets enough hours down, you’re might not be getting the quality of sleep your body needs. To help with this, develop good sleep hygiene habits. Set up a pre-bedtime routine that allows you to free your mind of the day’s stress and negativity. Disconnect from all your tech gadgets and gizmos (that means leaving your cell phone out of your bedroom!) and make sure your room is as dark as you can get it.
Rest and Recover: This goes beyond sleep. If you’re always on the go, there’s a good chance that you’re not getting enough rest and recovery. While not all stress is bad (it can be a really good thing, under the right circumstances), fighting it day in and day out without the opportunity to reset will leave your endocrine and nervous system fried. Carve out a small chunk of time where you can decompress, de-stress, and just let yourself unwind. Take a walk, read a book, or hop in the tub for a stress-busting soak. Your mind, and your body will thank you.
Yours in Optimal Health,
Team Primal
Why am I in pain?
Do you get out of bed feeling tired, sore and achy, even after having slept for 8 hours?
Do you come home from work, at the end of along day, your neck and shoulders screaming at you, tight and tense?
Does your knee wobble, give out, and curse every time you try to jog around the block or even tackle a set of stairs?
The bad news: you’re probably hurting yourself every single day without even knowing it.
Sounds strange doesn’t it? But for most of you out there, it’s true.
From back pain to neck pain to shoulder pain or even knee pain, there is likely something you do everyday that keeps you in pain.
The good news…
It can be fixed!
There’s a good chance that with the appropriate steps, a splash of education and a dash of dedication, you can be pain free and doing the things you love. And usually, these fixes don’t have to consume your free time or even cause huge changes in your life!
So what’s the fix?
Postural Awareness!
Postural awareness is your awareness of your posture throughout the day. Since a large number of injuries, aches and pains (such as those described above) can be attributed to repetitive strain and overuse, being aware of your posture can help you decrease the chances of this happening.
How is posture implicated in repetitive strain and overuse injuries?
For example, if you work in an office setting all day, you likely spend a large amount of time sitting at a desk. This would likely involve using a computer, talking on the phone, writing etc. But overall, it’d be fair to say that you’d spend most of your time seated. If you’re like most people, you also likely slouch when seated. And again, like most people, you probably slouch the same way you always do, in the same position.
By holding these sustained slouched postures for a good chunk of the day (5 or 6 or more hours), the various components of your body such as your joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments are forced to do more work or different work than they’re designed to do. Over time, these repetitive stresses build up and cause small injuries called micro-traumas to these structures. As time goes on, these micro-traumas accumulate causing changes in how you move or use your body (compensations).
At first these compensations are quite small and you probably won’t even notice them. It may be something as simple as a slight weight shift onto one hip more than the other when you’re sitting or a sneaky elevation of the shoulder when you reach for something.
As these compensations continue to take place, the micro-traumas become bigger problems, which we call macro-traumas. Think of this as the straw that breaks the camel’s back. These are the ones you’ll notice. This is where the pain stops you from doing the things you love doing and really starts impacting your life.
What can you do?
- Change your postures often: You can do this by getting up and moving around more. Or change your position every time the phone rings. Our bodies are designed for movement. The more they move, the better they function and the healthier we are!
- Improve your fitness: If your fitness level is higher, you, and your body, can tolerate more stress before hitting a breaking point. Plus, as an added bonus, exercise can be a great stress buster! Who couldn’t do with less stress in their life?
- Improve your nutrition: In fact, this component may be one of the most most important steps you can take to change your life for the better. As your mama always told you, you are what you eat! Unfortunately for many North Americans, life is busy. And that means that we try to find fast and convenient ways to feed ourselves. Sadly, our choices tend to be sub-optimal which will then impact our body’s ability to prevent injury or recover from injury.
How we can help
Our highly trained team of physiotherapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, personal trainers can help you get back to the business of life by consulting with you to design a personalized treatment plan to assist with a variety of injuries, aches and pains. Contact us to start on your journey to your Optimal Health and Ultimate Performance.
How can a physiotherapist in Woodbridge improve your health?
There’s Health and Then There’s Optimal Health.
Health is the ability to survive. Optimal Health is the ability to thrive.
Optimal Health is about taking, or regaining, control of your life, from managing stress to dealing with nagging aches and pains. It means doing everything you can to recover from injury, illness, or surgeries; it means being an active participant in your own care.
It’s about taking the right steps to improve your most valuable asset: your health.
Optimal Health is about living with an abundance of energy so you can readily take on daily challenges. It encompasses your nutritional status and your general fitness. It’s more than just doing the bare minimum to get by. It’s about reaching your true, untapped potential. It’s your opportunity to show the world who you really are. It’s your opportunity to shine.
The choice is yours…
You can choose plain, regular health. And just float through life in a haze, scraping by.
Or you can choose Optimal Health and experience the endless possibilities.
At Primal Human Performance, we’re here to help you find solutions to your problems.
Contact us today to start living your life, on your terms!
(inside Peak Performance Golf)