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5 Ways To Improve Your Physical Performance
- Richard J Yun
- Jan 12, 2020
- 3 min read
There is always room for improvement. If you can run a 100-meter dash in 12 seconds, aim for 11. If you can run a 10km without trouble, aim for 15km.
We are living in a time where we have accumulated a complex understanding of sports science, nutrition, and supplements. We have applied different approaches to give athletes an edge on their sports.
If you are planning to become healthier, you need to maximize your potential. What are the secrets to increasing athletic performance? Here are seven things that you need to implement.
1. Eating the right food
Food plays a crucial role in athletic performance. An athlete can’t afford to eat anything and expect the best results on their body. An athlete’s meal should be cleaner than the meal of an average Joe. Serious athletes can’t regularly eat junk food.
(You can read about my other blogs focused on food!)
2. Take useful supplements
Taking supplements can help with cognitive enhancement, sleep recovery, and physical performance, but it's only if you take the right supplements.
The most basic supplement that you can have is vitamins. This way, you don’t have to eat so much food just to fill in the vitamin and mineral requirements of the body.
Whey protein is a popular pre- and post-workout supplement among athletes. Whey provides and replenishes protein in an athlete’s body, allowing faster recovery and muscle development. Together with whey are branched chain amino acids (BCAAs). BCAAs are known to be anti-catabolic and are easily absorbed by the skeletal muscles.
There are also fat supplements, such as conjugated linoleic acids, used to increase metabolic rate and to prevent muscle catabolism. Some invest in stimulant-based pre-workouts in order to boost mental alertness. Of course, before you invest in supplements, you should be aware of the side effects. Supplements are only a secondary source of nutrients among athletes.
3. Good drills & practice
"Practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect" was a quote my elementary gym teacher used to say. You can practice bad habits, bad routines all you want and you won't improve. You may see some improvement but overall, it is important to take into consideration the way you train. One of the best ways to improve athletic performance is by repeating the same movements over and over again perfectly, not in a sloppy form. This helps improve the neuro-muscular reaction among athletes.
If you ever wondered how athletes react so fast to different scenarios, it is because of the specific drills that they have been doing over and over again. It helps them reduce the lag time in certain scenarios.
4. Track your performance and improvement
This one is an obvious rule that applies not only to physical performance but anything that you may practice or strive to become great at. Without tracking anything down, you won't see the incremental gains you are achieving. Tracking down your performance also helps you stay motivated because you are seeing real-life progression. This gives you a concrete idea of how much work still needs to be done. This can also give you an idea of the things that you can improve on.
5. Drink plenty of water but not too much
Staying properly hydrated throughout the day and especially during your athletic performance is crucial for making sure your body is able to perform at its best. A fluid intake of between 600 and 1200 milliliters (20 – 40 ozs) an hour is an absolute must during intense exercise.
When our bodies are placed under extended periods of physical stress, we lose significant amounts of fluid through perspiration. In order to prevent our bodies from breaking down during athletic performances, we need to be actively replenishing our fluids by consuming plenty of water.
Although it might be tempting to down mass amounts of water during intense exercise, you want to stay in the 600 – 1200 ml/hr range. When you consume more than that, it can cause bloating and nausea, which can really get in the way of your ability to perform at your best in the moments when it matters most.
I'm a UofT student and this is a student exploration project sponsored by KiImpact.com
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