Barriers to Performance 1
I have never met an athlete who is satisfied with their "Game". No matter what skill level a person may be, they always want to do better. Somewhere along the line though, things start to go away and their competitive edge seems to either stop expanding or even worse, diminishes.
In the world of extreme sports we demand peak performance from our bodies. In fact we don't just demand, we take for granted that our performance will always get better if we practice more and train harder. The average athlete does not take time to understand that there are barriers to performance. I can list at least a dozen barriers to athletic performance, but here are five that are the most common:
1) Physical Pain
2) Poor or Inadequate Nutrition
3) Emotional Stress
4) Environmental Allergens
5) Human ego
In the world of sports pain is almost a way of life. There are always injuries that need to be healed whether from trauma or from over use or over training. It is common for an athlete to be in pain one way or another. Pain is a chemical process that takes place in the body. These chemicals interrupt the normal flow of information from the brain to the muscles and from the muscles back to the brain. Thus pain inhibits normal function, reduces strength and flexibility and disrupts normal coordination. An athlete performing while injured will always increase the risk of re-injury or sustaining a new injury.
One of the most common mistakes the average athlete makes is that they don't support proper healing. Healing should not begin with the injury. Healing should be a part of your training plan and lifestyle. The smart athlete will factor time and money into their schedule to actually take care of themselves from a preventative perspective. Chiropractic care, muscle therapy, acupuncture, cold laser are a few therapies that should be considered on a regular basis. Simpler things one can do for example are sleeping in a couple of extra hours one day a week, factoring in a rest day or being smart enough to not take unnecessary risks before a big event.
Probably the best area to focus on to promote the healing process of the body is with nutrition. Food is nothing more than an energy source that gets reconverted into energy in the body. The smart athletes will make wise choices on the types of food they put into their body. They look at food differently than something that simply satisfies hunger. They look at food as an energy source that will have an effect on their metabolism and health. Poor sources of food will create more acids in the body that will accentuate pain, slow down the healing process and weaken muscles. Good sources will reduce acids, inhibit the pain process, speed up metabolism and healing, and improve strength.
Emotional stress is usually under estimated as having a negative effect on performance. Ask any defending champion and they will tell you that "being the guy to beat" puts much more pressure on them than they ever could have imagined. Emotional stress can hinder performance a number of ways. The most obvious way is that it impacts the ability to focus and concentrate, but it is the impact on the immune system that has the most profound effect. Emotional stress weakens the body by derailing the body's natural cycles. Digestive problems, poor quality of sleep and mental fatigue can all be symptoms of emotional stress. Just these few things alone are enough to negatively impact heart rate, lower endurance and reflex speed and thus hinder performance.
Environmental allergens ranging from pollen to pollution to household cleaning products and pesticides can have a similar effect. The reason why I bring these things up is that the average person does not take these things into consideration. The savvy athlete does.
The amateur athlete can usually get by on talent alone, but once he makes it to the expert or professional level he needs to start looking for a competitive advantage. One of the things that can give you an advantage is to start thinking about your body as a machine. You need to develop a strategy to best take care of that machine and help it run as efficiently as possible. I've seen motocrossers run 110-octane race gas in their bikes only to turn around and eat a cheeseburger before they go out and race. I've seen snow boarders spend $60 on a performance wax job only to turn around and eat a slice of pizza before they go out and compete. It is time to wake up people! Power bars and Cytomax alone are not going to get a person to the Olympics.
Concentrating on things that are going to make you faster or better is just one part of the equation. You need to start looking at and understanding the things that are limiting your ability to be faster and better. You need to find out what your barriers to better performance are. Then you need to develop a plan to over come those barriers.
This is where human ego gets in the way. One thing that is a consistent with humans is people always want to look good. Thus, people hate to admit that there might be something wrong with them. If they do admit it, chances are they will never do anything about it, because they don't like to think about those kinds of things. The single most important thing that guys like Ricky Carmichael, Tony Hawke and Lance Armstrong have over everyone else is that they will stop at nothing to be the best. When it comes to their performance they are ego-less. These guys work with trainers and coaches to study their weaknesses and correct them. These guys look for their barriers to performance and eliminate them one by one until one day they find themselves not only at the top of their game, but at the top of their sport.
And..you know what? These guys don't stop there.
Dr. Mark utilizes the highest quality supplements and products available. For more information:
drmark@proactivehealthcare.net or 408-294-4074
Copywrite 2007 Dr. Mark Lucas, D.C.