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Energy, Recovery, Sleep
Does a weighted blanket help you sleep better?
- November 8, 2022
In general the vast majority of people aren’t getting enough sleep. 7-10 hours of sleep is the general recommendation and even the idea of 7 hours seems ‘crazy’ to many people. This is the first problem. As a result there is a massive amount of people looking for help to sleep better. Weighted blanket sales have jumped trying to provide some help. Falling asleep with the feeling of a nice hug from a blanket sounds nice! What we need to know is if it actually produces results.

Importance of sleep & melatonin impact

Don’t sleep on the importance of sleep! The best recovery that our body does, is done while asleep. Sacrificing sleep significantly hurts recovery, meaning increased soreness and actually negatively impacts body composition. On top of the physical recovery, sleep is also important from the brain and cognitive side of things too. While asleep our brain is able to hit the refresh button. Important things get stored into longterm memory and some ‘less important’ items get cleared out to leave room for new things the next day.

Melatonin is a very popular supplement to help maximize one’s sleep to achieve these things. The body already produces it naturally but supplement companies market it to provide a bit of a boost. Melatonin is key at regulating the body’s circadian rhythm by sending the signal it’s time to go to bed. When the sun starts to set, melatonin levels increase to help fall asleep quicker. Modern technology and screen lights impact this and so in some situations a melatonin supplement may be warranted. Now though, weight blankets are targeted as an alternative way to increase melatonin.

Weighted blanket impact on melatonin

Many claims have been tossed around touting how a weighted blanket can increase melatonin levels. Now there’s finally a study to test that! Volunteers in the study had to lay under the blanket for an hour before going to sleep with the blanket. During that hour their melatonin levels were tested every 20 minutes leading up to going to sleep. Impressively melatonin levels actually increased by just over 30% with the blanket! Sadly though, the OURA rings used with the volunteers were wearing didn’t work properly preventing the ability to see sleep quality. Upon waking up though, restfulness wasn’t different between those with and those without the blanket.

Toss on the bed or leave in the closet?

It doesn’t look like it would hurt anything! Having that OURA ring would help a lot and showing the potential of a weight blanket though. Hopefully the future study will be able to fix the problem and see the impact on deep sleep, REM sleep and overall time asleep. Seeing that noticeable of an increase in melatonin certainly gives promise though. With the knowledge we have so far, feel free to try out a weighted blanket if interested! Just keep an open mind and don’t go in expecting a world of difference.

Study referenced: click here

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Inflammation, Performance, Recovery, Supplements, Vitamins/ Minerals
Too much of a good thing? – Antioxidants impact on training results
- November 2, 2022
Inflammation is something that gets a lot of negative publicity. Most people work and do everything they can to reduce it. Perhaps the most common strategy to reduce inflammation is through antioxidants. Antioxidants impact on inflammation has been studies a LOT! The results of those studies are fairly consistent showing their ability to reduce inflammation. But what if inflammation isn’t all bad? What if it’s just misunderstood?

Physical activity creates inflammation

Exercise and physical activity should be a regular part of everyones life. For athletes it plays an even bigger part. This activity has a wealth of health benefits and is crucial to improve an athletes performance. Right next to all of these benefits is something that typically is labels as a negative, inflammation. A build up of inflammation can leave you feeling incredibly sore the next day and result in decreased performance. Depending on what is in store for the next day this soreness could be a problem. This is where antioxidants can come to the rescue! For individuals who consume a lot of processed food, that can be very inflammatory. Antioxidants can come to the rescue here too! That is why you shouldn’t be eating fast food daily and should eat your broccoli.

Antioxidants impact on inflammation

Antioxidants are one of the first lines of defense against inflammation. The most popular way of acquiring antioxidants is normally by eating fruits and vegetables. It has become incredibly easy to consume an excessively large amount of these nowadays though due to supplements. Emergen-C is an incredibly popular example. One serving has 1,000mg of a key antioxidant vitamin C in it (1,111% of the recommended daily value). Nobody is eating enough berries to consume that much naturally! With such easy access to high levels of antioxidants the questions turns to whether we should consume such high levels? And if so, does timing matter?

When too many antioxidants have a negative impact

It’s a balancing act when it comes to inflammation in regards to exercise. When exercising, that inflammation is actually critical for progression and improvement. Your body learning to deal with inflammation on its own trains the body to be better able to handle those stressors again later. Handling inflammation better like this means what once made you sore and was difficult has gradually become easier. For example, when someone just starts running they may feel absolutely beat after a 10 minute mile. After months of running the body handles that stress/inflammation a lot better and now that level of soreness is felt when running a 5 minute mile.

Taking excessive amounts of antioxidants acts like training wheels for the body. Without having to learn how to handle the stress and inflammation on its own, it will take a lot longer to make the same amount of progress. So be cautious if taking excessive amounts of antioxidants regularly. Save it for those special circumstances when quick turnarounds are needed. This doesn’t mean to completely skip your fruits and veggies though, nice try. Continue incorporating those regularly and here’s to all your progress ahead!

Study referenced: click here

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Performance, Recovery, Sleep
More social media means worse sleep quality
- October 17, 2022
Few things will give you as much of a return on your performance and recovery than your sleep quality. Hydration is right up there too but let’s focus on sleep for now! When we are asleep is when our body’s are able to be the most effective at repairing the body and recovering after the exercise/work done during the day. If sleep is negatively impacted, so too is recovery and performance in direct response. One of the biggest impacts on sleep amongst everyone has been technology. Technology has certainly provided a ton of benefits in just about every aspect of life but it does have some negatives. Amongst all the technology, social media is front and center of it all.

Modern technology’s impact on sleep quality

Technology is everywhere you look. Case in point you wouldn’t be reading this if it wasn’t for technology. The vast majority of technology that is used in our lives though involve screens. Starring at these screens exposes our eyes to blue light that is coming from them. That blue light exposure can mess with the body’s ability to produce melatonin which is what signals that it’s time for bed. Melatonin helps the body to fall asleep quicker, sleep deeper and for a bit longer. And no piece of technology is arguably used more than that of social media.

Social media usage

In a recent study, college athletes with asked how much time they spent on social media and evaluated how their sleep quality was. Now I expected it to a decent amount but I wasn’t expecting this. On average, athletes in this study were spending 4.6 hours per day on social media. It wouldn’t be a stretch either to say a large chunk of that time occurred lated in the day. With the ease of access to social media on phones it’s all too easy to pull it up while laying in bed as the last thing to do before sleeping. But it also is easy to lose track of time resulting in a lot less actual time to sleep. This is in addition to the negative effects the light from the screen is having on melatonin production. As a result there was a very strong correlation with increased social media usage and decreased sleep quality.

Less phone time = better sleep quality

If looking to improve your sleep quality (who of us isn’t?) stop scrolling on social media. Social media is great for a whole lot of things. It can be a source of wonderful information from reputable people and help to connect with people easily from all over. But set limits for yourself on your screen time. If setting a specific amount of time is too tough, start with setting a “bedtime” for your phone. Avoid mindlessly scrolling while in bed before falling asleep. Your body will thank you and those social media posts will all still be there in the morning.

Study referenced: click here

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Hydration, Performance, Recovery, Supplements
Is hydrogen water just full of gas?
- October 11, 2022
Water is a very simple universal thing one would think. But just walk through your local grocery store and you’ll see an entire row with different types of water. You’ve got flavored, sparkling, distilled, flavored, glacier, artisan well, vitamin and on and on. Gas infused water is a relatively new one and we’re going to discuss hydrogen water in particular here.

What is hydrogen water?

The goal of hydrogen water is to pump the bottle of water with hydrogen gas. This is done with the hopes that it results in whoever is drinking it, consumes extra hydrogen. Originally I was skeptical about this as I wasn’t sure how much would actually make it from the bottle and into the body. When opening the bottle I would imagine the gas levels would begin immediately balancing with the surrounding air and thus become regular ol’ water again.

I will always keep an open mind though and hold my hand up if I’m wrong. More research is starting to show that there may be something to gas infused water. As a result, my hand may be starting to rise just a little bit.

Potential benefits

A recent study shows the potential hydrogen infused water can have on improving physical performance. The potential impact appears to stem from the apparent ability to reduce the lactate response in the body. Less lactate in the body means less of that burning sensation we’ve all experienced when pushing ourselves. With less lactate it helps to decrease muscle soreness and I’ve yet to meet anyone who doesn’t perform better when less sore.

So…..should you buy it?

In short, no. Not because it will be bad for you but because there isn’t enough proof yet. Your money would be better spend on other things with more confidently proven benefits. This is an area though that is worth keeping an eye on as it has potential.

Study referenced: click here

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Energy, Performance, Recovery, Uncategorized
Tournament Success Is About What You Do Between Events
- March 5, 2022
When competing in a tournament, there’s no rest for the weary. Games are typically packed much closer together than normally during the season. With such limited time, it’s vital to make the most of it. Tournament success is dependent upon it.

The name of the game is recovery. Training adaptations are not the focus right now. That work has already been done and now it’s time to show off that hard work. Being able to perform optimally and show off that hard work every game is the trick. Proper recovery and feeling fresh is what will allow this.

Maximizing your recovery takes proper planning. How much time between each event and the resources available will dictate what recovery strategy is best. But regardless, you need to make sure to have a plan.

“If you fail to plan, you should plan to fail”

How much time between events is the first piece of the puzzle. Most of the time there is likely to be at least 24 hours between events. While not perfect, this does allow a good amount of time to get back to close to 100% if things are done properly. For those situations with multiple events the same day, a different plan needs to be in place.

Knowing the schedule and how much time between events is crucial. This dictates what recovery strategies we can implement for maximum effectiveness and efficiency. The more time that we have, the more opportunity we have to eat and also to recover. On the other hand with less time, we naturally have to focus on what can provide more immediate benefits.

Optimized recovery is key to tournament success

After the first event ends, recovery should start immediately. Nutrition wise we want to make sure we have protein and fluid readily available. The protein can help us build muscle but right now we are more interested in how it helps repair the muscles we just beat up. Immediately after competition our muscle’s are like sponges and rapidly take up the protein provided. Simple protein shakes can be great due to their convenience to pack and ease of drinking.

All of the sweat that was lost needs to be replaced too! Drinking plenty of fluid starting immediately after helps to rehydrate us. Even just a slight dehydration can negatively impact our performance as well as increase our risk of soft tissue injuries. To help rehydrate quicker, drinking something with some extra electrolytes (sodium in particular) is important. The extra sodium helps the body to absorb the fluid better as well as reduces urine production to help hold onto that water as well. Two birds, one stone!

Carbohydrates help with quick energy replacement as well. With multiple events in one day where there are just hours between, carbs can play an even more important role. That quick energy carbs provide help to refill our gas tank to be filled up and ready to perform again. Carbs are typically very easy on the stomach as well and can help to provide that much needed energy without feeling as though there’s a brick in your stomach afterwards. When grabbing some carbs though make sure to do your best at limiting fiber due to the increased time it takes to digest fiber. That could create the uncomfortable brick feeling just mentioned.

Listen to your body

Overall, if it’s a full day between events we can enjoy whole meals to replenish our needs. There will be optimal time to digest and absorb everything. Fruits and vegetables will be of increased importance as well to help reduce inflammation. Those typically take a bit longer to digest but with this amount of time it won’t be a problem.

Same day quick turnarounds don’t allow us to have full meals necessarily. We have to focus more on ‘snack’ type items for quick access and digestion. Things such as sports drinks, protein shakes, granola bars, bananas and fruit snacks can be great in this moment. The closer that you can get to eating enough to fully replace the calories burned in the previous event, the better.

You know your body better than any body though. With that knowledge making sure to eat something that you know sits well for you and that you enjoy takes a big priority. At the end of the day, tournament success is based on feeling good and performing great. And one thing that is undefeated research wise is that eating something is better than nothing! So make sure you have snacks, drinks and are prepared to make the most of the time available to you.

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Inflammation, Injury, Recovery, Supplements
Sore Muscles Improved With The Help Of Omega-3s
- February 10, 2022
There’s nothing quite like finishing up leg day, walking like Bambi. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, we wake up the next morning with even more sore muscles than the day before.

While some muscle soreness is perfectly normal and part of the training adaptation, there’s certainly a fine line. Especially if it’s after a game with another one coming up again soon. Recovery is the key and omega-3s could help speed things up.

The first thing to discuss though is what omega-3s are! Omega-3s are fatty acids most commonly found in fatty fish. This is why you hear the recommendation so often to eat fish three times per week. These fats are great at helping to reduce inflammation as this study showed.

Why focus on inflammation for sore muscles?

Inflammation can be a good thing in limited quantities because that is what helps us improve our workouts and strength over time. Exercise beats our body up a bit causing an increasing in inflammation. Our body then is forced to have to control that new inflammation and bring it back down. Regular exposure to this helps our body to be able to handle that inflammation and workload allowing us to get strong and train even harder.

Too much inflammation and muscle breakdown though causes really sore muscles. This is because our body can’t handle the amount of inflammation and breakdown that is occurring. The fun part is, the soreness usually doesn’t peak until about two or three days after the event. Why have just one day of fun right?

In moments where we have quick turnarounds and need to perform optimally the next day (ie. tournaments) this is bad news. Muscle soreness, decreased range of motion and decreased strength is the exact opposite of what we are wanting. Having a good recovery strategy in place could be the key difference for you in these moments.

Maximize the recovery time you have

For optimal recovery the fundamentals will always be there; good sleep, hydration, fruit & vegetables, adequate protein, good fats and in case you missed it the first time…sleep! But omega-3s can certainly help provide a boost to maximize things.

Eating fatty fish (ie. wild caught salmon) is great but if not a fan of eating fish, a quality fish oil supplement would be worth looking into. Generally, 2-5 grams per day is perfect depending on the situation.

Enjoy your omega-3s, you will thank yourself later!

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