Season Advice To NCAA/Club Gymnasts: Sleep, Fuel, Stress Management

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode
of the Shift Show where mynumber one goal is to give you
tools, ideas and the latestscience to help you change
gymnast lives.
My name is Dave Tilley, todayon the podcast, super excited to
bring you a very timely episodeon kind of pre-season advice to

(00:23):
gymnasts themselves and also,obviously, coaches, parents who
are helping them out.
But went down and did a talkwith Yale Gymnastics and it's a
very good place for me to justlike share all the current
thoughts I have that I'm givingto people behind the scenes.
You know, like you know, withconsulting work or in the clinic
or when I kind of talk todifferent audiences and all the
things I give to the athletesthemselves for advice, I rarely

(00:44):
get the chance to kind ofpackage that up into a podcast
and share that with everybody.
So this is perfect because youknow I kind of chat through how
to be healthy during season,what things we're thinking about
for sleep tips, fuelingyourself well, making sure your
workload management is good,staying ahead of injuries all
the things I think a lot ofcollege athletes and club
athletes asking me about everyyear around this time.
I kind of package those up intoa nice little discussion and

(01:06):
then kind of also chat aboutsome of our recent research
around workloads in the NCAA andthen take a bunch of questions
around everything from melatoninto sleeping well, to fueling,
to strength and conditioning, tolifting weights, all that kind
of stuff.
So it's a really nice way forme just to pack it up in an hour
and give it to everybody elsehere, because I know that this
is a very popular topic thatpeople ask me about.
So hope you all enjoy thiswonderful quick episode with

(01:26):
Yale Gymnastics.
So that is the first thing isthat when you get to senior year
and you look back, I personallynow that Andy's, I mean I would
say it finished here anyways.
But senior year I did likethree vaults Like I could not
vault, my legs hurt.
I had like maybe one Rudydismount on floor because I had
a meniscus tear in my knee andlike my coach would be like hey,
do you want to do a couple more?
And I was like no, I just dolike one floor routine a week

(01:48):
because I was just so banged upand I think a lot of the reason
I got banged up, my teammatesgot banged up.
My teammate had two labraltears, couldn't raise his arms.
He did like one days per weekand then we started lifting, but
we didn't really take itseriously because no one ever
explained it to us properly,nobody really helped us

(02:08):
understand why we were lifting,and so we just literally ran
until the wheels fell offcompletely.
And so when I got out of schoolI did my doctorate at
Springfield and then a postdocand then strength conditioning,
and in those four years of likesports-specific residency I
learned a lot more aboutgymnastics, physical prep,
medical care, mental healthnutrition than I, and I never
learned that with coaching.
I coached preschool gymnastics,then you know rec kids and the

(02:31):
whole nine of the traditionalgymnastics coaching.
But when I got out of school Iwas like whoa, there's like a
lot of stuff that we have notbeen taught outside of how to
teach your Chanko or do a packthe right way so kind of got my
eyes open to that, spent a lotof time in pro sports and elite
sports that were not gymnastics,and that was very helpful.
My boss was the AT for the RedSox and so he had exposure to
every strength coach, everyfancy medical doctor in Boston,

(02:52):
and I watched how they trained,how sprinters train, how
baseball players train and I waslike, wait a minute, I think we
are definitely missingsomething here in gymnastics.
That was like 10 years ago, andthen Ellen and I started to get
together and we personallyfound that the biggest issues in
gymnastics were that peoplewere under educated on the
non-gymnastics stuff, right?
So 90 percent of peopleespecially if you're at Yale and
you're in the college settingyou know how to work hard, you

(03:13):
have most of your skills.
Andy's great, he'll teach yousome new stuff.
But more or less the gymnasticsthing is like going in the right
direction.
Right, you guys know how to dogymnastics well, and that's only
half the equation, right, whichis this first point we're going
to talk about.
So, understanding how to getbetter at gymnastics and, more
importantly for me, it's likehow to stay sane during a hard
academic year and not fall apartmentally or physically, right,
or emotionally when school ishard, plus you're doing

(03:34):
gymnastics.
It really comes down tounderstanding how stress works
in our body, because I think ifyou understand how stress works,
you then understand whystudying for a test works and
why it's not a bad thing towatch Netflix every once in a
while and like take a chill,right?
Understanding how that works isreally important.
And that relates to gymnastics,because that equation is what
led to our studies on workloadscience of, like, how hard is

(03:54):
gymnastics and how much shouldwe do?
Should we do three floorroutines, five floor routines?
Why do we do five bar routinesbut not five floor routines?
Right, like, why do we?
Why do we do five beam routines?
It's not that terrible, butfour floor routines would like
make your legs fall off.
Right, understanding how hardit is and how to measure that
lets us inform you on how youcan do that better and then how
to recover better.
So, like, what things can youdo that are simple, that have
really good science behind themto help you feel better when you

(04:19):
wake up in the morning, not bea sore?
You know, not on Tuesdays,unfortunately.
So, yeah, that's kind of whereall this evolved.
So ask questions as we go.
I'm an open book.
I promise you there's noquestion that you guys have that
.
I have not been asked before orhave some sort of hopefully
good answer, for it's definitelygoing to be on there.
So I'm really sorry.
If you guys can't see, maybeeveryone can just like I'm going

(04:40):
to go this way and block you.
So I feel terrible.
Yeah, okay.
So stress is a good thing, right.
When you guys hear the wordstress, what do you think?
Like?
What comes to your mind?
Stressful things?
Exams, right.
You're at Yale, right.
Academics, right.
So you think about the stressof studying.
And stress generally means likeyour stomach, like your palms
get sweaty, right, your stomachkind of hurts, Like you get

(05:01):
jacked up Mom's spaghetti that'san eight mile reference but
generally your body gets rampedup, right.
So stress works like this.
When you are going throughsomething stressful, stress can
be studying or taking a test.
Stress can be training here.
Stress can be a really hardconversation with someone that
you care about, who's likeawkward, right.
Stress can be somebody justblowing you up on Tik TOK

(05:21):
because they're making fun ofyou, like.
All that stuff is treated thesame way.
All stress is universal.
Whether it's a test or sprintshere or a hard conversation with
someone you care about, yourbody does the same thing.
It ramps up adrenaline, right,you go crazy.
So what happens is that whenthat ramp up occurs, your body
actually drops down in terms oflike it can't handle more.
There's only so much you canfast before your body's like nah

(05:42):
, I'm done here and it makes youwalk.
You can only study so muchbefore you fall asleep.
You can only deal with somebodyfor so long before you're like
bro, I can't take you anymore.
So that is your bodyessentially getting depleted of
resources to handle stress.
When you sleep, when you eat,when you drink water, when you
do all that kind of stuff, youbuild up a reserve, and we'll
talk about that.
Next.
Drop down below right, that isphysically.
That is when you're justexhausted.

(06:03):
You have to lay down and sleep.
Like mentally and emotionallyit's when you just can't really
be around people.
I call it the social battery,like I only have so much of my
social battery that I can dealwith people and I have to be by
myself, like watching Netflix ordoing something to kind of
recharge my battery, right.
But the good thing about humansis that when it goes down, if
you take care of yourself welland we'll talk about that you
don't come back to baseline, youcome above baseline, right?

(06:23):
So this gap here is calledsuper compensation for the dorks
in the room like me, right?
Your body says I'm going toswear, I'm sorry, this is just
how I roll.
He's like oh shit, something'swrong and it gives you resources
to take care of yourself.
This is all the things that youwant out of probably your
academic career in gymnasticshappen in there.
That's when you actuallyremember the math equations that
you study, right, that's whenyou actually can hit a floor

(06:43):
routine.
After two months of suckingwind and falling on your butt 40
times, you finally hit a fullfloor routine because you're
stronger, right, you're fitter,you've worked really hard over
the preseason, right?
Or up in here, it's when youlearn how to deal with hard
emotional situations, right,like everybody remembers the
first time you had to talk infront of class, right, you, like

(07:08):
, we're not really feeling it,but everybody more or less can
probably engage in socialconversations and not feel like,
oh my God, I'm going to passout, right, but this Delta, here
is where all the good stuffhappens.
So if you don't have either theright dosage of stress or this
time interval is not long enough, you kind of go, ooh, red
marker, this is going to beperfect, right?
If it's too short, or you don'thave enough of the right stuff,
which we'll talk about, younever quite get to baseline.
And so what happens the nextweek?
You dip lower, right, so yousee how like we've dropped that.

(07:28):
That's when you start to dipand then it keeps happening in a
cycle.
This is what Ellen and I findwith a bunch of the research
studies we track, um.
We tracked four D1 programsover a whole year, every single
day.
How much did you sleep?
How much gymnastics did you do?
How many routines?
How do you feel tractor scoresor injuries, the people that
don't have enough time torecover or don't take care of
themselves.
They keep troughing lower,right Down to here, right?

(07:54):
So what do you guys think thatendpoint looks like Physically?
What is this like superendpoint?
What happens physically whenyou just keep running yourself
down to the ground?
Injuries, right, that's whereyou get hurt.
Right.
Mentally, that's where you getpeople who start to flirt with,
like mental health problems,like over anxious, right,
oversat all the time, like thatkind of stuff, and then
emotionally, mentally kind of gotogether but that is, that's
over training, right.
So that is what happens whenyou don't have enough time or

(08:14):
we're not doing the right thingshere, right?
So time is you guys talking tothe coaching staff and being
like dude, I could, but like hada big test last night.
I was up late dealing withsomething with my family, like I
can't get through a floorroutine right now, I'm going to
die.
Can I do it tomorrow?
Yeah, sure, thanks for lettingme know, and you do it tomorrow.
Life goes on, but there's a lotof which is how we'd like to say
is that you come up here, right, this is like two weeks of

(08:48):
preseason, and then the next twoweeks of preseason and then,
right, inner squads, you beatMichigan.
Yale goes down in history asthe best team ever.
I'm sorry, bev, if you'relistening to the podcast.
Um, so that's what we want,right?
So that's, the blue line iskind of what normally happens,
and it can shift up or downbased on a lot of factors.
That's going to be the endequation.

(09:08):
Okay, any questions on that?
Cause?
That's really important as abaseline level, right?
That like get stressed reallyhard and then kind of come up
this way is the basis of howanything that you want out of
your career works.
Yes, great question.
That's a great question.
I work with 13 year olds.
Man, I totally get that.
So what do you think?
So, what are like normal signsof training that you would

(09:30):
expect to happen, like when youtrain super hard for two days.
What's a normal response inclub?
Or now, let's say that yourpast growth, like you've gone
through puberty.
You're a full adult.
What's a normal response totraining?
You're sore, right.
How long does that sorenesslast, though?
Two days, right.
Two days is the upper limit ofsoreness.
So one of the classic signs ofovertraining like drama versus
actual overtraining is someonewho doesn't get less sore two

(09:53):
days plus, right.
There's actually some reallyinteresting studies from Yale
related to this that we'll talkabout.
So that's a big one is how yourecover physically after the
two-day window, especially inpreseason.
If you do a really hard legtraining days, you should.
The next day you wake up you'rekind of sore.
It's two days after.
You're like butt scooting downthe stairs right, like oh, my
God, my quads are on fire, right, that's DOMS, that's called

(10:13):
delayed onset muscle soreness.
So two days is the window,right, but by the third or
fourth day you should berelatively recovered right, more
or less.
Like I wouldn't say you'reperfect, but you should.
And there's been studies thatlook at how long it takes Level
tens to do all their physicalprep testing from tops like leg
lifts or rope climbs.
So they get what?
20 leg lifts in a minute orwhatever.
How long does it take them toget back to their baseline level

(10:33):
of physical prep?
That's like recovered.
It's three days, so like whenyou're training super hard,
within two to three days youshould be more or less back
together.
So that's a big one, right, howphysically you are.
What else?
There's like a couple otherones.
Think non soreness, nongymnastics, related like overall
life right, tired level, right.
So if training is gettingharder and you're intentionally

(10:53):
making trainer harder, likeAndy's, like we're going to push
real hard this week, you shouldfeel like you're going down the
road a bit right, cause you'regetting to here.
But if there's a light week andyou're supposed to
intentionally back off andyou're doing like basics or
you're trying to get yourself torecover and you're still
tanking and you can't quite getup in the morning, you're still
quite tired.
Those things don't match eachother, right, they're going
opposite.
So if you're having a rest week, you should feel overall better

(11:15):
.
If you're having a week whereyou're getting buried, you
should feel overall not well.
When those things mismatch formore than a week, that's
overtraining, right.
So when usually it's like youdo three weeks where you're
pushing really hard, then, likeone week you'll back off a bit,
or like you'll taper, going intoa meet.
If the start of the taper weekyou're like I feel just as tired
, just as exhausted, I can'tquite sleep, I can't wake up,
that's a sign that something ismaybe off tilt.

(11:36):
So that's physical, right,tiredness is a big one.
And then irritability isprobably the biggest index for
most college athletes, right.
So overall irritability levelsright, and you guys will know
with friends, who's who knowseach other.
But like you know, whensomeone's not quite their self,
right, like like hi, can I havethe remote?
And like what do you mean?
You're like, oh my God, jesusChrist, like this one on the
remote, right, like, so, peoplethat are highly irritable, who

(11:56):
are normally chill, right, sothe they define it as a change
in personality, right, so it'snot like some people are more
mellow, some people are moreupbeat, right.
I've had some situations withathletes where they're actually
just like the chillest peopleall the time and they start to
get like more, I don't know,energetic.
They're like they're fidgety,right All the time, like they're
always a little bit more onedge, they're always a little
nervous, um, so that person isat normal, it's just chill,

(12:17):
right, but they're they oppositeis true.
Someone who's usually bubblyand upbeat is high how are you
doing?
They're just like I'm fine, I'mgood, like yeah, I'm good,
you're like I think, all rightover there.
So, yeah, those are usuallythree things physical soreness,
um, sleep in like wake cyclesand then, um, irritability are
like big ones to look at.

(12:37):
So in yourself, if you kind ofnoticed that over the course of
two weeks, you're like kind ofit, you know, cause there are a
lot of things that we'll do aslike a checklist to be like okay
, are these things?
Do I have all these thingschecked off Right?
And if not, usually those arethe first like two or three
things you start with.
So, great question Okay, yeah,so it's all about, um, the
dosage is really important.
So, getting the dosage right,no-transcript, that's just way,

(13:14):
way too early, bro.
And then the other side of thatis you are just killing
yourself with all nighters allthe time.
You're waking up super earlytrying to get through the day
and you're still up till two.
You get four hours of sleep,I'll be fine.
No big deal Like that isobviously too much right.
You're just not going toconsume information.
I highly recommend Andrewhuman's podcast.
If anybody doesn't listen toAndrew, he works at Stanford.
I say Andrew like I know him,but I definitely don't know him.
Um, but he has a lab atStanford and he studies like a

(13:36):
lot of this stuff and just givesaway like tons of really good
information on about like how tostudy optimally, how to take
care of yourself well whenyou're in high stress situations
like that.
So, yeah, so dosage is reallyimportant.
And then time is reallyimportant.
To write like three weeksleading up to a test or four
weeks leading up to a test,maybe like a little bit every
single day.
Then you cram harder as theweek comes up.
That's like a very normal wayto study for stuff.
But too much or too little isproblematic, right.

(13:58):
Like freaking out four monthsbefore your exam and not being
able to do anything else becauseyou're so worried about it.
Or waiting till three daysbefore and trying to go, like
you know Celsius to the dome asmany hours as you possibly can
to stay up late.
That's not good as well, right.
So dosage is really the bigthing here.
The interesting thing about thisis that we have issues in being
humans, that the way that ourstress system developed is from

(14:20):
like way back in the day when wedidn't have modern people
problems, right, we didn't haveTikTok, we didn't have like
stressful friends on socialmedia, like we didn't have the
same environment.
We've only been doing thisthing for like a hundred years.
So a lot of our like anxietyprovokers are things from back
in the day that were stressful,but now we're still dealt with
it.
So like people worried abouttigers back in the day and like
lightning, storms and, like youknow, drowning, like that was a
big thing, right, that's notwhat we have to deal with here.

(14:41):
So a lot of the reasons that wefeel stressed, uh, slowly build
up over time.
So it's made to go really upfast and really down fast.
It is not made for a slow burn,right, that's the phrase that I
wrote down is called death by athousand cuts.
It's one like nothing really isout of place.
That's horrible.
But just all these littlethings keep adding up.
It's like this little testthing and like this little thing
here.
It's like this little thing.
Then this little thing, right,and everybody knows that like

(15:03):
like slow burn, right, that isnot healthy for us.
So that is not how our body isdesigned right.
That is like all the stressesof daily life.
That's like as adults.
It's like traffic and moneyissues and like all that kind of
stuff.
Those are all the slow, chronicstressors.
That's very bad for us.
So it's important to have thingsthat like it's actually really
good to do things that areuncomfortable or challenging and
then quickly stop doing them soyour body can chill.

(15:23):
That's like very healthy andvery normal.
That's what exercise is, that'swhat studying is, that's what
gymnastics is, that's whatacademic stuff is, that's what
hard conversations are withpeople that you care about.
Like you get through thattogether but you're better on
the other side.
Like everyone knows thatfeeling of just waiting, slow
burn of like this thing, thenthis thing, then this thing,

(15:46):
constantly stacking up on top ofeach other.
That's like four tests and I'mnot hitting my routines and my
mom's upset with something athome and like I had this other
family drama and he or she islike dating issue, like all that
stuff in the pot together.
That's chronic stress.
That's not good.
So that to try to be more awareof like what chronic stressors

(16:06):
are and how to deal with thosethings.
Yeah, um, okay, I think we gotthat.
Are there any questions on that?
Make sense, okay, cool.
So, oh, eraser.
I have a tiny eraser.
Is there a bigger eraser?
Okay, I said it's reallyawkward if I spend four minutes
to erase every single line.
Um, okay, so I think thatthat's more or less a great way
to think about it.
Is that like it's good to workhard?

(16:28):
Uh, the research that we've doneand some other friends of ours
has done, especially with, likeinjuries and gymnastics or
performance, I'm definitely moreof a performance person than an
injury person Like I.
Of course I'm a PT, but I caremore about people hitting
routines and enjoying theirmeats and doing well, and the
injury stuff comes along with it, of course.

(16:50):
But, um, if you look at some ofthe research that my friend Tim
has done that we use, it's a Ucurve.
So if you do too much too fast,you spike the risk of injury
and you also risk having aterrible performance, right.
That is the equivalent of doingnothing all summer and coming
back and doing hard floorroutines and your shins blow,
right.
That's like nothing, nothing,nothing, floor routines, right.
That's why it's important to dosummer stuff or performance
wise.
You don't really do full barsets or floor sets until you're
too close to inner squads, andthen you try to do an inner

(17:11):
squad set and you justcompletely bomb right and then
you like kind of recover fromthat, but then you never quite
get back to multiple sets in arow.
Routine construction is notright.
Something's not right.
Um, performance wise, if you gotoo fast, too soon, there's a
huge reduction in performance.
You can't hit your routines andyou're also at a higher risk
for injury.
But the other side of thatequation is also true.
So Tim's research is famous fordon't train too hard, too fast.

(17:31):
But it's also famous for, like,you actually do have to train
hard though, just train smart.
So a longer time interval,slowly building up how hard
things are, is actually reallyreally good for you and it's one
of the best things thatpredicts who does well at big
competitions.
So national level athletes,olympic level athletes the ones
that can perform really wellunder pressure they have what's
called a high chronic workload,so they can actually train
really hard.

(17:51):
They can handle a lot of likecardio work and strength work
and routine work.
They're very good.
That's why they get to the meetand they're like autopilot
because they've done so manyroutines, they feel like they're
ready to hit.
So it's.
It's equally as problematic todo too much, too fast or not do
anything and hope that.
It just like pray for a miraclewhen I hit the vault runway
right.
That's not really a good way tooperate.
So right in the middle is thesweet spot, which is that

(18:12):
equation kind of going up.
So okay, so now the fun stuff.
The analogy that I like to useto explain how we get the best
out of that is the human bankaccount.
Right, just like a real bankaccount In a bank.
You have withdrawals and youhave deposits.
Right, you can put money in thebank.
You can take money out of thebank, right, so we'll go with
the withdrawals first.
This is my favorite oh no, thisis my favorite conversation with

(18:36):
academic people like me.
All right, so what are the moststressful things in your life?
Like, what are the things that?
Like take money out of the bank, drain your energy sources day
to day, week to week, whatever.
Studying, right, so we're atYale, so we're going to say
that's like that much.
So academics, right, what else?

(18:57):
What's that?
Yeah, training, right,gymnastics, just for Annie,
we'll make it out.
Can you imagine if I made itlike just a little sliver.
I'm just kidding, I'm justkidding.
So gymnastics is a huge one,right.
So that's mental stress andthat is physical stress, right.
So, every practice, every day,you study actually being in
class ironically, too, classgymnastics right, it pulls out

(19:20):
energy reserves or stressreserves, we'll call them right.
So that's really good.
There's a lot more in here,though.
Social people, right, annoyingpeople I'm just kidding, not you
guys, but no drama, right,bullshit in your life.
Um, so, social media and orsocial drama right, all that
stuff is actually a little morestressful than you would think.
I think that peopleunderestimate how stressful, um,

(19:43):
relationships are.
Family drama is, uh, housemates, classmates, like even when you
care about.
But I mean, I trained with thesame five guys for four years in
a row, right, like I love thosedudes to death.
I was in their weddings.
There were still weeks where Iwas like, bro, get away from me,
like I can't stand you.
Right now, you spend too muchtime together.
So, yeah, social, the socialbattery, the social drama aspect
, the social interactions right,all that stuff's really

(20:04):
important too.
There's one more in here, too.
That's really important too.
What pulls out?
So we have social gymnasticsand academics.
I mean, maybe it's notgymnastics, maybe it's the same
bucket, but I would say, likeall the conditioning is a
separate bucket, right.
Weights, physical prep, allthat stuff Like gymnastics.
For me is like gymnastics, likeroutines, your Chankos floor
routines this is like extrastrength on top of it, or extra

(20:26):
medical stuff, or PT or whateverit's more stuff you have to do,
right?
So every day you go through thiscycle, more or less, and of
course, some days you draw moreout, some days you draw less out
.
All that really happens.
And so you pull down yourreserves of this battery and
that's what shoots you down intothat down here, which is good,
right, that's a good thing.
You need these stressful thingsto be a part of your life,

(20:47):
right?
So that's one side.
Come on, marker, I need you.
There we go.
So what are on this side,deposits?
So how do you get?
How do you restore energy, getyour mojo back?
What do you get?
How do you restore energy, getyour mojo back?
Anything but yeah, I like thatone.
Drinking waters in there.

(21:07):
So I'm gonna put that all inthe bucket of fuel.
We'll get back to that in asecond.
So fuel is just like food,water, electrolytes all that
jazz is in one bucket.
What else?
Sleep?
Sleeps a big one, and sleepshonestly the one that we're
probably to spend a little moretime on, because it's the
easiest one to make smallchanges that have a huge return.
Right, so sleep is a massiveone.
Sleep is probably a healthychunk here, yep, so sleep fuel.

(21:30):
What else?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, dealing withthe garbage, right, like having
a hard conversation, actuallydoing stuff.
So that's like effort, effortinto social stuff.
Okay, I also consider this,though, like journaling therapy.

(21:51):
Like mama, like people in yourlife who are not dramatic but
you need to talk to you.
Like venting sessions, bestfriends, you need like a
sounding board.
You can just like throw up yourproblems on cover once in a
while, right, like.
So these are like.
I just call them vent sessions,right, just to get it off your
chest.
Right, cause there's adifference between talking to
somebody who's causing yoursocial drama and somebody who
you can sit and have coffee with, right, and like actually air

(22:13):
it out a little bit.
Um, another one for the Yalefriends.
Come on, we got this.
It's not all about studying.
It's time, free time, doingthings you love watching TV,
re-watching Grey's Anatomy forthe 13th time, right.
So personal time and the reasonI put this is because all of

(22:33):
these typically involve otherpeople, minus that.
But personal time, right, thesocial battery drama, recharging
your social battery.
For many people it can be withpeople and that's cool.
Going for a hike, watching TVtogether, that's all vibe.
But sometimes you just need tobe by yourself, man, just like
shut the door.
Maybe you're not studying, butjust like watching Netflix,
whatever, whatever makes youhappy.
Some people that's knitting,some people that's watching TV,
some people are doing whateverelse, but that every day is

(22:55):
restoring right the battery.
And so every single day, everysingle week, I would say.
And then, on a bigger scale,like month to month, you have
these cycles that happenthroughout the season, which is
like you're draining yourbattery, right, and then you're
restoring your battery.
So in the day-to-day, that iskind of what we talked about,
which is like sleeping versusworking out, you know, studying
versus giving your brain a breakwith personal lifetime, right,

(23:16):
that is one part of it.
But if you zoom out a littlebit and you think about week
after week, right, these weekskind of go in cycles of like
preseason right, leading intoinner squads, leading into your
biggest meets.
That is kind of one big loopright Like preseason.
It's like summer and preseasonYou're intentionally trying to
get like beat up a bit to getstronger and get ready for
season and then, like you kindof take a break and get ready
for inner squads.
Year and the holidays come andyou kind of take a break and

(23:41):
then you kind of go back up.
That is kind of the big picturegoal as well.
So this, this equation of thehuman bank account is, is is
super helpful.
So one thing to mention here um, again, these uh came from
actually Yale studies 2016 and18 is uh they took there's two
parts of the study.
So one is they did it withstudents actually and they took
these people and they like hadthem index how stressful their
life is on a global survey solike family life, personal life,

(24:05):
um, academics, sports and theyranked these people on how
stressful their life was, fromthe person who more or less
doesn't have that much stress intheir life to the person who's
like miserable all the time.
And they take these peoplebefore they survey them and it's
a pretty uh hilarious study.
But they had these people do amax effort leg presses for as
many reps as they can tointentionally cause soreness.

(24:25):
So they were on a leg press Ithink it was like 80% of their
body weight and they didsomething that made their quads
like incredibly sore, right Onpurpose, and they measured how
many days it took them to be notsore after.
Okay, so they said howstressful is your life?
Do a lot of leg presses andthen come back when you're not
sore and we'll measure every dayafter.
Right, and the reason they dothis study is they're looking at
more or less mental andemotional stressors impact on

(24:48):
physical exercise, right, whichis normally the opposite.
We look at, like, how well canwe like ice bath and do that
kind of stuff and foam roll?
Will that make us less sore?
But this was saying how longwould it take you to recover
from exercise if you have lifestress?
And the people that were higheron the life stress scale had a
full extra day of recoveryneeded, so they were more sore

(25:09):
than the people who didn't havelife stressors.
Okay, so that's one study.
They did a follow-up study twoyears later with rats to try to
figure out, like, what themechanism was, and they
essentially found that thechemical that causes your
adrenaline to then deal with themuscle soreness is the same
chemical that causes lifestressor adrenaline.
So I'm not going to go moredeeper in the weeds than that.
But they put these little ratsin uh heel leg press machines

(25:32):
and they had them do heel calfraises and they measured how
sore the calf was by how theylimped around the cage.
So when they stopped limpingthey didn't have any quad
soreness anymore.
Cutest little rats doing calfraises, right.
But there's a grim end to thatstudy.
When the rats pass away, theyautopsied their brain.
They look at the things.
So, yeah, bless you man.
But that was an interestingstudy because they showed here

(25:52):
at Yale that more life stressequals longer to recover from
physical exercise.
And the reason I'm explainingthis very long and dorky study
explanation is that by changingthings in your life maybe not
changing like the people in yourlife who are stressful, but
spending maybe less time withthem, right.
Or like not trying to overhaulyour sleep schedule to never
stay up late and study, becausethat's just not going to happen.

(26:13):
But there are tricks that youcan use to sleep, fall asleep
better and wake up easier, likethat kind of small hacking stuff
is what might possibly lead toa better performance in the gym
with, like, I'm not as sore so Ican do more routines that can
train harder for season, right?
They kind of intertwine there.
So yeah, um, I think that's it.
Any questions on this?
All right, cool, so now we'regoing to chat about I'm going to

(26:36):
leave that one up there causewe're going to go through some
stuff here so sleep has aninteresting link to sunlight.
So with sleep there's somereally interesting things that
I've learned from the Hubermanpodcast about how speaking that
was kind of creepy that I saidsleep and the lights turned off.
But sleeping more or less is howyour body determines how rested

(26:59):
you feel, but also like youroverall energy reset.
A lot of that happens fromsleep because it's your
circadian rhythm, right.
So like when you go to bed,when you wake up, it sets your
kind of like rhythm for the day.
So if you don't sleep enough,right, obviously, as you all
know, you feel tired.
But there is a very tightcorrelation between sleep and
injury risk around testing timein college athletes and there's

(27:21):
also a very direct, close linkbetween sleep quality and
performance.
So it's almost like notdirectly one-to-one, but it's
very close that the less yousleep on average across multiple
months and the more your sleepschedule swings back and forth.
So like 11 one night, two onenight, 10 the next night, one
the next night right, aka myentire high school career.
That also is not good for yourbody to catch a rhythm and a

(27:43):
glide right.
So one of the most helpfulthings is seeing morning
sunlight is actually super,duper helpful.
So this is probably way toodorky for some people.
You have receptors in your eyesthat are linked to your
circadian rhythm, so when youlook up at the sun in the
morning, when the sun is comingup, the angle of sun sets your
circadian rhythm.
So you're more inclined to wakeup faster and stay awake

(28:05):
throughout the day and not feellike you need a Celsius when you
see morning sunlight.
So I know that's hard sometimesif you guys wake up really
early for class and it's darkout, especially in the winter.
But if you can't physically seesunlight, like just like
literally the sun lamps in frontof your room in the winter.
I have one on my computer.
When I get up in the morningI'm doing stuff.
I put the sunlight lamp becauseit gives you UV into your eyes

(28:27):
and it tricks your body intothinking that the sun is up and
so it gives you a circadianrhythm.
So morning and evening sunlight.
The same receptors have adifferent angle at night that
when it sees the sun on thehorizon it makes you sleepy.
So it starts to prep you forsleep mode because it says, oh,
the sun's going down.
The sun angle is horizontalwith my eyes versus up here.
It must be nighttime, so yourbody naturally wakes up and

(28:48):
falls asleep when you havemorning and evening sunlight.
So that is like arguably a threeminute change that if you did
it consistently your body wouldcatch a rhythm a lot faster when
you start to get into a schoolmode and out of all the things
I've studied I've triedeverything I'll tell you about
this one actually worked for me.
There's some stuff that I didand I was like there's no way
this is working.
I don't feel any different.
That actually worked for me.
If I get up in the morning, uh,hop in the shower real quick

(29:16):
and then walk around my blockfor five minutes and just weeks
into it I can do it.
So some days easier than others, but that is very, very helpful
as like a quick thing you cando.
The other thing is I alluded tois, um, the time in which you go
to bed, okay.
So people would sometimes thinkthat the number of hours you
sleep is the bigger factor.
So, like 10 to four, right Issix, but also 12 to six is the

(29:41):
same thing, right.
They would think the number onpaper matters more, but it's the
time in which you go to bed andyou wake up is more important.
So again, circadian rhythmright.
So if you're a late nightgrinder, right, and you have to
stay up late because that's whenyou study best and that's when
you get your work done, try tomake it always 1130 to 530 or

(30:04):
1130 to 630 whenever you get upfor class, instead of like 930,
then one, then 10, then two,right, try to.
If you bounce the time you goto bed all the way around.
That's super problematicbecause your body can't figure
out when it's actually supposedto get up and go to sleep.
So those two things alone.
We're not telling you to stopstudying late, we're not telling
you to, you know, overhaul yourlife too much, but just a
couple things can catch a rhythma lot faster and you'll feel
like you wake up and go to bedeasier.
So that's two, okay, the stuffthat's a little bit harder here.

(30:27):
Obviously, blue light.
You guys have probably heardabout that.
Blue light is not sunlight, soyour brain thinks you're awake.
Studies show that if you lookat your phone I look at your
laptop fall asleep, your braindoesn't actually shut off for an
hour.
So you're laying there, you'reactually asleep, you're
unconscious, but your parts ofyour brain are still going right
for an hour.
So the only thing,realistically, that works for
college athletes, though, is doyour computer work first when

(30:48):
you get home.
So you get out of practice, youget home and you have like a
bunch of paperwork to do forstudying, but you also have like
typing work to do.
Try to knock out your desk workon a computer first and then
finish with paperwork, right,that's the happy medium between
these two things.
Yes, do blue light boxes helpwith that?
Okay, so interestingly-ish, butnot really Okay, yeah, yeah,
that's the summary.
Some companies will tell youthat they will, but I don't

(31:09):
think there's definitive proofthat they definitely work, so
it's probably the other way towork on this.
So this comes from studies I'veread, but also one of our level
nines.
We had her wear a heart ratemonitor for a whole week because
we were testing a bunch ofstuff and we tracked her chronic
stress throughout a weekleading up to a meet.
She completely bombed her meetlike the worst ever.
We had no idea why.
She slept super well all night,like had done all the right

(31:29):
things Right, but she wasstaying up on.
She was like I go to bed at 11every night, like I'm doing the
things you say, but it was allher computer work very, very
late at night.
So she would literally finishwith computer work and then she
would go to bed.
She shut her laptop and try togo to bed and she would be
really not asleep till like 12,31, the heart rate monitor
showed and so she literally justswitched those two things and
it helped out a ton.
She would just come home and dobook work, uh, after computer

(31:51):
work.
So yeah, I think obviously, ifyou can not stare at your
computer a lot and stay up late,that's ideal.
But the real, the reality isthat's probably not going to
happen as much.
So sleep's a big one.
Blue light morning, 68 degreesFahrenheit is recommended for
ideal sleep temperature.
Your body falls asleep fasterwith that.
Got a little roomies in here.

(32:15):
You guys are all looking at me.
He literally just flexed on you.
You guys didn't see it, but sheliterally flexed on you.
It's tough when you have aroommate who despises the cold.
But 68 is not that cold, allright.
68 is chilly.
That's what mine is set to too,but it's not like you're dying.
But sometimes the airconditioning also is white noise
, which some people actuallyhelps them fall asleep faster.
So, yeah, that's a part of it.

(32:39):
Okay, fuel is a big one.
Okay.
So everything on the restorebucket comes from food, right
Food, water, electrolytes,electrolytes in particular.
Fueling yourself well isobviously part of it.
But I think the bigger issuepeople have a problem with
academically and in college thatI see from people is like big
meal, class food Right beforepractice, big meal lots of

(32:59):
workout, big meal before bed.
So like constantly, like alittle bit, a little bit is
generally a little bit easier.
So the real way to do this, Itell people, is to be a snack
queen or king, whatever floatsyour boat.
But the analogy we use thislike a car is that cars run off
gas and if you were to wait forthe gas tank to go full, empty,

(33:21):
full empty, full empty threetimes a day, it's like very
stressful on the car.
It's like running on nothing.
I feel like I'm going to die,right, like your stomach's so
full.
Running on nothing, I feel likeI'm going to fall.
So, um, everyone has theirdifferent approaches with
breakfast.
I'm an overnight uh, overnightoats person.
Like that is the way that Ioperate.
Um, I'm a big fan of trying tomeal prep as many things you can

(33:41):
that are dry and just stuffthem in your bag and eat them
throughout the day, right,allergies aside.
But I remember in college wehad a kitchen and stuff like
that, but my dining hall wastrash in terms of, like, what I
could get fast and that wasdecent for me and I didn't feel
like I was going to die.
At practice, we'd have to waitlike eight years to get healthy
food because the footballplayers would all be waiting in
line right to get 13 pieces ofchicken.
But I think that when I foundsophomore year, I had a meal

(34:05):
plan and I could get the mainstuff there and then hide a
bunch of stuff at DepoWare andbring it back to my dorm room.
But, yeah, like all the bars,like all the things that are
easy to make, trail mix, like,if you can prep some stuff
before the more dry things youhave on handy to just snack all
day.
Your body loves just hanging outin the middle, right, right in
the middle, because when youhave that curve and you go like

(34:27):
that and you come back out right, right, here is where
everything happens, right, whenyou are asleep and you have fuel
and water in you and you're notstressed out, that is like
optimal recovery.
That's when your body and braingets the most out of sleeping,
right?
So when you work out reallyhard, you do pull-ups, you study
really hard, none of that isactually when you get stronger,
you learn more, you get likemore fitness, right.

(34:49):
That doesn't happen when you'redoing the thing.
It happens when you do thething and then you fuel up,
drink a bunch of water, dosomething that relaxes your
brain and then go to bed at thesame time.
That like little bucket there,that six to eight hour bucket,
is where all the good stuffhappens.
That's when your body recovers,muscle recovers, bone recovers.
That's when you learn a lot,when your brain processes all
the information you studiedreally hard at.

(35:09):
So it's actually not happeningduring when you're doing the
thing, like when you're sittingthere studying.
Of course you're like oh yeah,that makes sense, oh, I get that
now.
But like it solidifies nightafter night when you sleep.
So getting things in you all daylong, sipping on a water all
the time, I think salt's a bigone.
People oftentimes are a littlelike you're sweating so much
through practice and stuff isthat people aren't having like
coconut water, liquid IVs, allthat kind of stuff.

(35:30):
Some are too salty, Some arebrutal, like there's one company
, what is it?
Element?
Oh my God, brother, that's likea salt cube.
There's no way.
So if you're running outdoorsfor cycling or marathoning,
maybe an element no, shout outto element.
But um, yeah, coconut water ispretty solid.
For those that aren't into theliquid IV, sugar kind of our
salt situation, yes, I love thatGood IV.

(35:50):
Sponsor me please.
Um, yeah, I love, yeah, sameYale domestic sponsor us.
Um, I think that liquid IV isthe medium of like.
So liquid IV has like a goodamount of salt, but not like
bear you salt, like warheadstyle, um, but it's also like
very easy and it tastes good.
So I'm usually like half andhalf half.
A liquid IV kind of guy isusually my two.
I'm not training four hours aday and sweating profusely.

(36:10):
So if you are, it might be goodto have one of those.
But my friend so if you want thebest information on gymnastics
nutrition, christina Andersonand Carrie Blair on Instagram
are probably the best ones.
They work with all the elitesand the college girls.
They have multiple clients, um,and they're obviously female,
so they're much more equipped tohandle specific questions.
But, yeah, I take most of mystuff from them and they're a
big fan of like what you likeand what fuels you well, and

(36:31):
that isn't going to feel heavythroughout the day consistently.
And then you know all the extrastuff around there.
But, yeah, all the floorroutines, all the bar routines,
beam routines, lifting the fuelthat academically, makes your
brain work.
Your whole nervous system isbased on fats, right, so, like
avocado, healthy omegas thatstuff is literally what coats
your nerves with myelin sheath.
So like healthy fats and allthat kind of stuff is where a

(36:55):
lot of this stuff happens.
If you work really hard and thensleep well with fuel in you and
you hopefully have something inyour life that is not
gymnastics, not academic, that'snot stressful, that you can do
to kind of like turn your brainoff, right, and we didn't really
go into it, but there's likethe sympathetic drive mode and
the parasympathetic chill, right.
That's why you need the thingthat you enjoy, because it
shifts your body into a chillstate, like a relaxed state.
Everyone's different with whatthat is for them, but, yeah,

(37:16):
christina and Carrie are bigfans of eating things that are
good for you.
Often throughout the day mealprepping a ton when you're busy.
Coconut water for those thatare a fan, I force myself.
I'm not a huge fan of coconutwater, but that's definitely a
good electrolyte, kind of likebalancing if you're not into the
packets.
Yeah, yes, the gymnastnutritionist is one of them.

(37:41):
I'm sorry, christina isChristina's.
And then, yeah, gymnast RD isthat?
Yeah, there's a lot of verygood resources online.
Yes, yeah, so that's a goodpoint.
Yeah, Carrie and Christina aremedical board certified
nutrition people for femaleathletes in high level sports.

(38:01):
Right, no shade to anybody whois not.
There's definitely amazingnutritionists out there.
A couple of my friends are, but,like, medical doctors and RDs
are the people who you shouldtake your information from,
because of very high levelmedical issues oftentimes get
wrapped up with academics andathletes and stuff like that.
Everyone has their own past,injuries, past medical history.
You know everyone's hormonesare different.
Everybody has their own flairof things.

(38:22):
Some people have food allergies, which is a huge reason why you
should kind of follow theiradvice more so.
But, and they're like superaccessible I've done five
podcasts with different eitherthem or somebody else just
asking all these questions andthey're like super duper helpful
.
If you need some more tips onthat, because I mean, I mean,
they're females, right, they'refemales and they went through it
.
They did college and master'scareer, went to Rutgers, so I
totally get it.

(38:43):
Um, yeah, so sleep, fuel, waterwe've kind of gotten there too
as well, right.
And then I think the, the stresskind of things that you enjoy
is pretty self-explanatory,right.
The hardest thing for,definitely freshmen at schools,
um, but just in general, I wouldsay university students, but
definitely, like the academicpeeps of Yale, it's very hard to

(39:05):
force yourself to do things youenjoy that don't have anything
to do with gymnastics or sports,right, like, people think that
that is bad for them, but it'sthe opposite, it's very good,
right.
And I said this in the top ofthe outline gymnastics will
teach you and will tell you whenyou're younger that the way you
get progress in gymnastics orschool is work plus work plus
work until you can't take it andthen hopefully you recover,

(39:26):
right?
That's not at all how ourbodies work.
Our bodies work with the properdosage of stress and then the
proper dosage of recovery Right,that is what makes that swing
happen in the positive direction.
Work plus work plus work pluswork equals burnout, equals
overuse injuries Right, equalsburnout, equals overuse injuries
right, and we'll talk.
We'll finish with this in someof our studies.
But all the studies that we seeon like the workload spikes are

(39:47):
doing too much too fast.
You never feel problems duringthe moment, right?
You never feel my back hurtsnow, or I'm a little bit burnt
out, or I'm like getting alittle anxious, or whatever.
It's almost always the weeksfollowing.
So, like it happens thatsomebody spikes their workload,
they come back to practice.
They're not really ready forfloor, they go super hard.
Two weeks later, they get shinsplints, right.
Two weeks later, they startdeveloping some like

(40:08):
irritability or some problems,right, so it's never happening
in the moment.
75% of the injuries ingymnastics are overuse, so
they're always a slow burn thathappens down the road, which is
why it's so important to thinkabout in the moment what am I
doing now to hopefully stayahead of that down the road?
Yeah, questions on that SleepFuel.
Yeah, I know there's like a lotof questions that people have

(40:29):
in their mind.
Please ask them.
Quick sleep question.
Yeah, you're laying in bed andyou can't fall asleep.
Yes, melatonin.
Oh, I'm so glad you asked that.
Okay, so, no, right, and thisis not from me, this is from
Andrew.
Melatonin does not naturallyhelp your body catch a rhythm,
right?
So, melatonin there's a couplemore reasons for this, but I'm
not an endocrinologist so Idon't want to say it More or

(40:52):
less.
No, because melatonin is fakingit, right, not faking it is
sunlight at the same time andtrying to get off devices, right
, you want to try your best tomake your body naturally wake up
and go to bed, and I think Ipersonally found that the
morning light in the sametime-ish, within 30 minutes,
like really helped me, like Iwas ready to go to bed, like I
was like 1030.
I was like, damn, I'm tired,right, and then I would.

(41:24):
I was waking up before my alarm, like 15 or 20 minutes.
It wasn't like I was pryingmyself out of bed, right, I
didn't put it up here.
Everyone's their own thing, butcold showers in the morning has
also got some some solid adviceto it.
Yeah, I think eight is the.
Eight is the is like therecommended for college athletes
that are like going hard, moreis better, right?
Eight to nine, I think, isprobably the upper limit of
where people would like to sit.
Okay, yes, this is good.
So naps are not a bad thing,right, naps are not a bad thing.

(41:45):
I think the key with a nap ismaking sure the time interval is
good, right, so like 20 to 30minutes is a nice little like
middle ground, but that becomeslike a one plus hour.
You start to get sleep inertia,which your body starts to think
it's going to bed, and so youever like take a nap that you
miss your alarm or it goes toolong.
You wake up you feel more tiredthan you did before.
That's like you're catching thestart of a REM cycle.

(42:12):
Your body thinks that 90 minutecycle of a REM cycle starting
at like an hour, so it's like,oh, we're going to bed, and so
it starts to, you know, turnthings down and you lot.
Caffeine is not bad, right,caffeine is definitely okay.
I drink coffee a lot, right,easy, easy way for it.
There's another shoe to drophere, okay.
So caffeine is not bad.
Caffeine is definitely helpfulon the right dosages for

(42:33):
academic performance or studiesthat show it definitely helps
with studying, it definitelyhelps with fitness and working
out, all that kind of stuffRight.
But the time in which you havecaffeine is very important,
right?
What's the half-life ofcaffeine?
Do you guys know what ahalf-life is Bio people?
Okay, what is the half-life ofcaffeine?
Does anyone know what's up?
Come on now, I'm putting theprices right.

(42:56):
Right now it's 10 to 12.
Yeah, so if you have a cup ofcoffee at 10 AM, right, or 6 AM,
it takes until 6 PM or 10 PM toget out of your system fully to
fall asleep.
So the three 30 Celsius I'm notsure anybody Okay, good, right,
three 30 Celsius.
One is four cups of coffee, orthree cups of coffee, right.
It's not going to get out ofyour system until three in the

(43:18):
morning, right.
And it's synthetic caffeine,right.
So kind of gross.
But the caffeine used inCelsius and bang and energy
drinks is more or less the extraground up junk from the coffee
shop, smushed into a liquid formand synthetically put into a
caffeine like drink.
And Alison Brager works for thearmy and she's like a sleep

(43:40):
specialist, she's aneuroscientist, a doctor, and
she's like synthetic caffeine.
Celsius is like the worst thingyou can possibly have, because
your body like is not a fan ofthat type of caffeine.
Black coffee or like whatevercoffee you want to have.
Matcha, um, yerba Mate isreally great because Yerba Mate
is a very slow releasing type ofcaffeine buzz.
It's not like you get ramped uplike a Starbucks.
Yeah, black tea, green tea,yeah, all that kind of stuff's

(44:02):
fair game, right, I'm a huge fanof that kind of stuff.
I drink an ungodly amount ofcaffeine, right, like I think I
had two and a half coffees today.
So like I'm a fan, but I hadblack coffee in the morning and
then I had a cold brew, uh,driving down here.
It's black, right.
So I love coffee, caffeine, I'mcool with it, but I think the

(44:25):
time in which you have it, right, and then also the uh, what's
the word?
The vessel in which you areconsuming it, is really
important.
Um, okay, got that timer.
Sleep, all that kind of stuff,yeah.
What else?
On food, yeah, okay, yeah,great question here.
So, chris, and most of thiscomes from Christinaina, so if,
if, there's something to becorrected, I'll definitely hear
from her and we'll get it right.
But, um, around practice andinterpractice, it's hard to get

(44:48):
something in you that's not likefast acting.
Uh good, healthy sugar, so likefruits and stuff like that get
absorbed really quick.
So grapes, watermelon, all thatkind of stuff, that type of
like fast intake carb, is verygood for you because it's like
water based, it gets absorbedreally fast and your body can
pick it up really well.
Right, but things that are likemore bread based, like if you
have like a sandwich or whatever, it takes a long time to digest

(45:09):
that and absorb that because oflike the fiber and the other
pieces of that.
So, generally speaking,throughout the day you want to
try to have things that aren'tas like a quicker acting fruits
or whatever, but thing fruits orwhatever, but a lot of things.
Uh, grapes, like watermelon,packed fruit it's a little bit
harder, but like fruit bars,things that are dried fruit are
very good because they they getabsorbed very fast.

(45:31):
So, yeah, I think um, my buddy,josh the nutritionist and he
was his daughter when she wasdoing gymnastics was like um
peanut butter banana sandwichbefore practice a couple hours,
like on the way to gym and shesaid that like helped her out a
ton to have enough and thenduring practice she would like
pop a few grapes in or like graba bar real quick or dried fruit
or something like betweenevents and then she would lift
after and then she would alsoget you know something quick as
well.
Yeah, so good question.

(45:51):
But the faster acting absorbthings typically fruit and stuff
like that is what gets absorbedthe fastest, and then that's
also why, like liquid IVs orcoconut waters are good, because
it helps with electrolytes aswell too.
Yes, that's a good question.
So Christina, I think, says thatsomewhere like halfway through
practice you tend to be sweatedout, so you're starting to sweat
off more than you're taking inin salt, because you're probably

(46:13):
not having a salty thing beforeyou come to practice.
Like peanuts obviously are onething people have for that.
It's like obviously a prettyhealthy protein source, but also
salty, um.
But I think she recommendshalfway through practice you
would switch to something else.
So if you want to have, likewater, half diluted Gatorade,
half diluted Gatorade is prettygood.
Gatorade is made for, likefootball players in the sun in
Florida that's where it comesfrom, so I found that it was

(46:34):
like a little bit too much forme.
But, like in that situation,the sugar in there is good, to
your point, because that's whythey put the sugar in the
Gatorade, because these peopleare doing four-hour summer
practices and they're completelydepleted of glycogen.
They have no muscle storage.
So the sugar from a Gatoradewhen you're in an intense
workout is helpful because itgets absorbed right away and
then obviously it haselectrolytes in it, but I

(47:04):
personally find it's just alittle bit too much.
So half is pretty good.
If you want to split with afriend and dilute it with water,
I find it's a bit morepalatable.
Some people just put pinches ofsalt in their water, like
Himalayan salt, because theydon't like the taste of Gatorade
.
It's too sugary.
Liquid IB noon, all that stuff,yeah, but halfway through
practice, I think, is when you Iwould say so yeah, snack break,
yeah, so that's good.

(47:31):
So the uh, I want to say anhour and a half to two hours
before bed is like ideal interms of how much time your body
needs to absorb and you're not,like you know, sloshing water
or food around your stomachtrying to go to bed.
Um, I personally find that postat the end of the day is when
you want to try to have more oflike your I would say your
biggest meal, or like yourdensest meal, is probably a good
thing.
So, like the pasta, the protein, the veggies, the salad, like
all that in one plate is like,bro, I was dead after practice.
I was, I didn't want to eat.

(47:52):
But I know that if I didn't eatat 11 o'clock when I laid down,
I'd be like starving.
So I would typically come home,shower and try to like get
something in me like within thehour of getting home, and then
that gave me two hours where Iwas going to be studying or
staying up pretty late where Ididn't feel like my stomach was
churning.
So, yeah, I think, uh, yeah,all those things like whole
wheat, pasta, chicken, all thatstuff, fruits, veggies, all that
stuff's fair game, um, it'shonestly more about what you

(48:14):
like.
I think that's personally itRight.
So like I can't, I can't eatafter I work out hard.
I feel like I'm going to throwup.
I don't know why.
Just the way my stomach works,like if I do a really hard
cardio workout or a run and Itry to eat something really fast
, I literally feel like I'mgoing to throw up.
So smoothies are the only thingthat I can tolerate after.
And to you guys, smoothies arelike the best thing if you can
possibly get somehow mealprepping them, getting overnight

(48:36):
oats and smoothies is like halfyour morning's worth of food,
right.
You can have overnight oats onthe way to class, put your thing
in your bag and then, if youcome back between class, get a
smoothie real quick.
That's pretty solid and you canput anything you want in your
smoothies.
And there's a lot of reallygood ways to get extra stuff in
smoothies, whether it's um,peanut butters, banana, granola,
chia seed.
Make it taste good, but likeit's a very good dense thing to
have.
So, personally, if a lot ofheavy food and the actual act of

(48:59):
eating that much food at night,smoothie at night might be a
solid option for you, I justneed them in the morning,
because I work out in themorning and after I work out I
literally want to throw up.
So not for me.
Yeah, good question.
Anybody else?
Those are good questions.
I'm so proud of you.
Okay, so I'm also rambling.
So if we run out of time, letme know.

(49:20):
Last thing I just want to sharethis is actually a fun new one
from.
We just submitted this researchstudy last year and it's
getting approved right now.
So we essentially found a wayto measure how hard gymnastics
training is, and the way we didit is how much time you were on
an event multiplied by how hardyou think the event is zero to
10.
So zero is like that was a joke, 10 is like I just died on four

(49:42):
floor routines.
So we would take 45 minutes.
Multiply it by a seven out of a10.
And then we developed aweighting factor system for how
hard it was based on, like whatwe know about gymnastics.
So one was basics, two is umskills, three was half routines
and four was competing or fourroutines.
So that gives us a numberthat's specific to gymnastics
for how hard bars is for youversus bars is for you versus

(50:02):
beam is for you, right?
We all know that some people'sbar routines are ridiculous and
way harder than maybe the onethat I would do, and some people
are, like, more stressed outmentally by beam and not by
floor, right?
So the studies that haveworkload science from Tim are
very much like soccer playersyou just slap a GPS on them and
you measure how fast and how farthey run.
It's very easy.
That's not how gymnastics works.
So the last eight years wedeveloped the system that

(50:24):
started with optionals at my gymand then eventually now became
last year or two years ago.
Yeah, we had four schools,every athlete on their team.
They would measure those thingson every event, every day.
So how hard was bars, beamfloor, vault, physical prep,
warmup, and how long were you onthem?
And then we would also tracktheir sleep, their mood, their

(50:45):
soreness levels, like all thatkind of stuff.
So we tracked all that andessentially what we found from
that research is one thatgymnastics is hard.
Season is very, very hard, thatas you go through the season,
everybody was like slowly justgoing down, tanking right, even
if they were taking care ofthemselves, like season is
brutal on your body, and thereason we know that now is
because of how dense it is.
It's like week after week afterweek after week In club you

(51:07):
compete twice a month, maybe,once a month maybe, and then end
of the year a couple times.
But NCAA is week after weekafter week right, like academics
as well.
So that's the first thing wefound is that season is very
hard.
The other thing that was reallyinteresting is that preseason
and championship season is whenpeople had the most stress, so
the most workload, the moststress.

(51:29):
The most demanding part is whenyou're coming back to school uh,
september and October andyou're ramping up to get ready
for your first inner squad orwhatever.
And then, when things matterthe most right, you know IVs or
whatever D ones for those peopleUm, those things are the most
stressful and even though fitlike, preseason is physically
stressful but not as mentallystressful, end of season is
mentally very stressful, buttypically not as physically
stressful.
You've backed off your physicalpreparation, you've backed off

(51:50):
the number of routines.
You're just like trying to hitroutines, but, as we said, you
know the stress is treated thesame way.
So, even though those thingswere both stressful in different
ways, people's wellness scoreswould tank around those times
because they're pushingthemselves appropriately.
Right, that's, it's okay topush yourself.
But the reason we bring that upis because that's when you
should try to like, maximize thestuff we talked about, like,

(52:11):
can I sleep a little bit?
Can I pack my food for schoolthroughout the week?
I just sound like a fifthgrader when I said that.
Did I bring my inhaler?
Yeah, so you should be tryingit all the time.
But it's much easier to takecare of that stuff around the
holidays when you have extratime on your hands or you're not
as buried with finals.
Right In the next six weeks, asyou guys know, it's going to

(52:32):
escalate very quickly in howmuch you have to do and all the
things on your plate.
And so if you can try to getahead of those things by the
sleeping things or you know whatI want to cook, what I want to
pack you know, learn the hardway that yogurt doesn't go well
on a paper baggie or whatever inyour bag, like all that kind of
stuff you can work the kinksout.
Now, before you know, octobercomes September and October is
probably the hardest in Novemberarea.
So that's it.

(52:52):
And then towards the end of theyear you know more or less you
have that stuff figured out.
But there's a lot of researchthat's just really interesting
around how challenging finalsare on your body and like injury
rates higher a little bitaround finals.
So we want to be careful withthat.
Um.
Try to intentionally plan moretime for stuff you enjoy around.
The hardest parts of school,you know, like during finals is
when you should intentionallyplan an hour to watch Grey's

(53:14):
Anatomy and not talk to anybodyyou know, which is like
impossible to think about,because you're like, no, I need
to, I need more bio, I need moreoral chem, you know, but that
is when you need the most.
So, um, yeah, and then in inthe other pieces too, is that
lifting is very good forgymnasts.
That was another big thing.
What we we have found over thelast five to 10 years is that we
measure at our facility inBoston with force plates how

(53:35):
high someone jumps, how fastthey run, um, and then also
measure their injuries and likeall that kind of stuff.
All of the college girls thatwe've had come to us who started
lifting with us when they werelike junior seniors.
We've tracked them for fiveyears and every single one of
them has gotten stronger andfitter and had less injuries
over the course of their career.
So the superstar I'm not sure ifanybody knows her, but Kylie
Gorgiani.

(53:56):
She went to UNH, um, shestarted lifting less when she
was 17.
I treated her for her wholeentire high school career.
She was like barely hanging onfor dear life.
For junior senior year went toUNH and every summer also to her
coaching too.
I don't want to say it's justus, but she lifted every summer
with us and like did a lot ofthis kind of stuff.
She went from like barelyhanging on with like a middle
kind of the road score she washappy with like she got a one

(54:17):
and a half senior year on vaultlike she competed a one and a
half after all the years of cluband almost breaking her back
when she was little because ofhow hard she was training.
So she got like a way betterbar score, a way better, um, she
vaulted a one and a half.
She made regionals and allaround her senior year.
Yeah, she's a savage.
So but she she not I credits alot of what she longevity wise
got.

(54:37):
She did a fifth, fifth year ortwo as well.
Um, because she started doingnot only gymnastics but also
adding the proper dosage oflifting and like the right
amount, the right types oflifting, which is a whole nother
ball of wax.
Right, that's a lot of ourfacility it does is teach
strength coaches who don't knowgymnastics how to work with
people who are in gymnastics.
But um, when I was learning howto coach, that was like not
only not used, it was activelydiscouraged like, especially for

(54:59):
female athletes, are likeyou're going to lose your
flexibility, you're going to getbulky, you're going to lose all
your skills, you know it'sgoing to be useful or useless
and uh, yeah, that is just nottrue in any shape or form.
So happy to answer morequestions on that, but that is
also what we found the last 10years of.
That is that in the off seasonand pre-season, uh, cross
training and lifting is probablyone of the best things that
gymnasts can do because they'vemaximized the gymnastics bucket.

(55:19):
You've done a lot of backhandspring layouts, step ups in
your life, but you know, gettingyour legs stronger to handle
hard landings is something youprobably haven't done.
A lot of jump squats in yourlife, but not any goblet squats.
So, yeah, that's what I gotthere.
Talk a little fast.
I'm sorry, but they don't haveany questions, anything at all

(55:46):
Not related to this.
You can ask any question youwant.
Yeah, yeah, good question.
So for the future, when youthink about next uh, was that
may, april, you guys get done inmay.
So every team from, I would say, october until may is doing the
same thing.
You're all training forroutines you all have in your
squad Everyone's kind of doinglifting.
Now Everyone is more or lessdoing that uh, up until May,
right.
Where everybody splits and theteams that have a really

(56:07):
successful following year iswhat happens in the end of May,
June and July, more or lessRight.
So there's a very big varietyin what people do over the
summer with their time, and someof this I'm not going to be,
you know, critical is that likethey just can't get to the gym.
They have a job, they have afamily, like they just can't

(56:27):
access the things.
I totally get that.
But beach versus weighttraining twice a week is a
choice, right.
So those types of thingsactually are what differentiate
the people who have a very happy, successful following season or
not.
Because, um, we talked aboutthat kind of like chronic
workload.
So Tim has a really coolanalogy called the floor and the
ceiling.
So the floor is where you startpreseason at, so say, it's like

(56:50):
here, ceiling is where you wantto be the start of your season.
So when inner squads happen,right, this ramp up in time,
like your preseason, you onlyhave so much time here, right,
and you can only go so fastbefore you start crushing people
, right.
So the problem is that if youdon't do anything over the
summer and you kind of don'treally train, don't really get

(57:11):
in a cross training situation,you enter preseason and what Tim
calls the basement, right, andit also goes to people who are
injured.
So somebody who, like, has abad injury and has to rehab and
is on the medical side with me,like that's also not like
someone's slacking off, but nowthis jump, this escalation is so
much that there's a huge riskof something going wrong, of
somebody getting re-injuredagain or, you know, burning out

(57:33):
or just not being able totraining uh, training the way
they want.
So if you are too low from notdoing things in the summer or
you were injured, that ramp upis so aggressive that it's
problematic, right?
So when someone's injured, whatdo we do with people?
Right, we just give themanother month.
I say, like you know, sorry, Iknow you want to be ready for
vault first meet, but like it'sjust not going to happen, we
need another four weeks.
In medical situations we cantotally extend out the time, and

(57:56):
that's what a lot of people dois they do a four month return
to sport program.
But not everybody can handlethat ramp up and you set
yourself up for a disastermentally and physically If you
do nothing or don't do anything.
That's like gymnastics orcross-drain and you expect to
come back.
That's when you get shinsplints right when you ramp up
super hard.
So May and June and July, in myopinion, when I talk with
programs, the differentiatorsand who makes it to the next

(58:18):
year well, happens more or lessin those three months, because
that's when some people are notreally concerned with gymnastics
, they just want to go chill.
And the reason being is thatthe higher we can start, you
right Tim calls this thepenthouse when you train well
over the summer that you enterat a higher baseline level.
So, these three months beforeyou did a couple of days a week

(58:38):
in the gym, did a couple ofweeks weight training, you, you
know, took care of yourself.
Of course, you still had fun,you did your thing, but you're
starting season at a higherbaseline level.
So you can reach a higherstarting season level.
Right, you can handle moretraining load.
You can handle more be readyfor routines.
So, yeah, that answer yourquestion.
Yeah, that three month period iswhere a lot of people, uh,

(59:04):
either get up and go to the gymor don't, or you know, it's not
even about like always workinghard, but the same sleep stuff,
the same all that kind of stuffapplies in the off season too as
well.
Because realistically, back inthat whole big picture thing,
the only time you can getsignificantly stronger and
significantly like better atskills is in the summer.
Right, like as soon as what?
November comes, you're just inroutine mode.
You can't like learn a Deltafor, like you know, get a new
series in the middle of season.
Um, so, and if you want to do adouble pike and not a double

(59:25):
back, your legs have to besubstantially stronger.
It takes eight weeks to getstronger legs and hamstrings and
that's not going to happen inthe middle of season, when
you're studying a lot and you'resuper tired.
You're doing a bunch ofroutines.
Um, the only time you can trulyget stronger is in the off
season, from that like may tomaybe august time period,
because in august we have tostart getting you ready for the
hard landings in pre-season.
So we're doing a lot more likepower work, but when everyone

(59:47):
comes home in boston, they seeme first for medical stuff for a
couple weeks, make sure it'sall sorted, and they just go
strength train for eight weeksout of the year, because the
lifting type stuff is what wecan focus on now.
We we're not doing hardlandings.
We can afford for your legs tobe a little sore.
So, yeah, next year that's themost important thing you guys to
do is try to figure out a wayto do that.
Whether they write you aprogram, you go to Planet
Fitness or something elsehappens.

(01:00:08):
Mm-hmm, yes, what strategies doyou use for your friends and
anticipatory anxiety?
Ooh, so good, okay, good.
So there's the academic side ofthis, and then there's the life
experience I can give you fromother people.
So the academic people arewhere it comes down to
journaling and or talking withpeople like therapists or
whatever is trying to vocalizeand get out what is your biggest

(01:00:30):
fear.
So a lot of my understanding I'mnot a therapist or a
psychologist, but the people whoI've talked to tell me is that
because it's inside and buriedwithin you, it stirs the pot way
worse and you go through a loopwhere you think about it, you
ruminate on it, it gets worseand it ratchets you up like
crazy.
So everyone has a differentmedium in which they have to try
to get that out.
Some people like talking to apiece of paper, some people are

(01:00:51):
friends, some people are theirparents, some people it's like a
pastor or somebody religioussomebody.
It's like a therapy sessionformally, but getting something
out on paper or out in the openis a big way to diffuse the bomb
initially.
So, um, whoever that person is,you know I'll just use me as an
example I was scared shitlessof letting my team down right
More or less for myself.
I was like, yeah, if I bomb, youknow, in club, if I bombed in

(01:01:12):
club, I was like all right,that's a bummer, but like a hub
of meat.
When I was first on floor and Iwas the first anchor to go and
they needed my score, my anxietywas through the roof.
Man, for some reason I'm justmore wired for team-based things
than that.
So I would get horrendousanxiety the night before
practice or the night before ameet, when I was picked for
lineup the next day.
And so if it was an inner squador a regular practice, you know

(01:01:32):
I didn't.
I really was totally fine.
Um, but for some reason, theteam-based thing.
So in college, when I was incollege, you know, as a guy,
mental health was not a thing wedealt with, but I wish I had
somebody back in the day to belike dude, I'm terrified right
now, like I'm terrified to goand I just I need to like,
figure out and they can give youcoping and regulation
strategies.
Some people it's breathing,some people it's meditation
exercises, some people it's likewriting down the worst case

(01:01:55):
scenario and what happens.
That's like more in therapyrealm, but getting it out and
then having coping strategiesfor the anxiety, like the palm
sweaty, the stomach thing, um,there's a lot of different
coping mechanisms or things toregulate your anxiety.
Um, but that's that's thebiggest.
First thing is findingsomewhere to get it out and then
finding ways to cope with thediscomfort of that.
So this is not from the medicalworld, but I've worked with a

(01:02:17):
lot of elite athletes andOlympians and gymnastics and
whoever else and they tell methat those things do help.
But reframing your discomfortis a big thing for them.
So, like, instead of goingthrough the loop of my stomach
hurts, my palms are sweating.
Oh my God, I'm so anxious.
This is a bad thing.
It's going to make myperformance go down.
Um, they reframe it as oh, thisis what I need.

(01:02:38):
Like this is actually rampingmy body up to hit a routine,
right, this is like me gettinginto game mode, like this is
what I need to kind of hit underthe lights Because, again,
stress is a good thing in theproper dosage, right.
Like when something isstressful, you kind of like wake
up and you focus, right, that'show you do well.
So they find, anecdotally, thatreframing what is happening
inside their body helps themkind of tell themselves a

(01:02:59):
different story, right?
So I think those two things aregood.
Personally, for me and this wasafter college, when I got more
into my professional life is, uh, tim Ferriss has an exercise
called fear setting, which isyou write out the absolute worst
case scenario, right, youliterally write out what the
worst case scenario is of whathappens pending injury and like
something you know really,really bad.
I'm not talking about somebodydying, like that's too much,

(01:03:19):
right.
But if, if the situation you'reworried about is a test that
you're studying for or a routineyou're going to try to hit,
what is the absolute worst casescenario of that?
Right, I completely eat shit, Ifall, everyone's mad at me,
they scream at me, they kick meoff the team, I never see my
friends at Yale again, right,and you reverse engineer, like
okay, is that really going tohappen?
Like, like realistically, likeyou start talking back to that

(01:03:41):
negative voice.
It's like this is the end ofyour career If you fall on beam,
right, they're never going toput me in lineup again.
I'm a failure.
My parents hate me, everyonebooze me.
Like the things that you sayout loud.
Now you're like that'sridiculous, but in your head it
seems pretty real, right?
You actually think those thingsactually write out the worst
case scenario and start tofactually disarm how logical
they are and or how accuratethey are.

(01:04:02):
You start to kind of like pokeholes in the argument they say
the other thing that helped me alot too was what's called the
double standard technique.
So imagine your problem and aclone friend of yours who has
the exact same situation as you.
So my best friend, tim, is 35,same age as me, did gymnastics
together.
I've read out my entire problemof what I'm dealing with
anxiety-wise.
I have this business deadlineto do and if I don't do this,

(01:04:25):
we're not going to launch acourse well and I'm a failure as
a business person and I'm nevergoing to do well in business
again and I'm going to get firedfrom my job and I'm going to
lose all the money I saved.
That goes through my headsometimes as a business person
and sometimes as a businessperson.
And if Tim came to me with theexact same thing, what would?
What would I tell Tim?
Right, if you told her theexact same problem?
What would I tell Tim when hecomes to me and says that
laundry list of stuff that'sgoing to happen?
Like, bro, you're full of shit.

(01:04:45):
Like there's no way that'sgoing to happen.
Like you get fired from yourjob for not doing well in one
thing.
Like there's no way that thatcould happen.
But like, if that does happen,there's a lot of other things
you can get through.
Like it's not the end of theworld.
There's like more stuff.
You're kind of blowing this outof proportion and then trying

(01:05:06):
to do that to yourself is veryhelpful.
So that is a therapy techniquethat I learned for myself after
grad school, which is answer towhoever said that I'm so sorry.
Yeah, should.
So, yeah, yeah, I had one morething.
That was really.
I had one more thing I wasgonna say about that, but I

(01:05:26):
totally forget Nothing, nothing,oh, I got it.
I think telling friends and orcoaches in the team about what
your biggest fear is is a goodexercise, not in a group setting
, but maybe with someone who youcare the most about and like a
side kind of coffee situation.
You're like I just got to getthis off my chest, I'm going to
be in lineup and this is whatI'm worried about, right, and so
if the people who are closestto you know that that's like the
most sensitive nerve, they'renot going to poke it, right, and

(01:05:49):
they're gonna be aware of it.
And I'm sure everybody else hastheir own set of things that
are problematic.
That was specific.
I got it.
It's context specific.
The thing about anxiety is am Igoing too long?
Okay, the things that arecontext specific about anxiety
is that one thing's problem, oneperson's problem, is not even
on the radar of somebody else.
Okay, so I personally can talkto 3000 people right now and

(01:06:13):
have zero problem.
I could, I could cold Turkey alecture right now and fumble my
through it and say, oh, it wasan Oz and swear and whatever.
It just doesn't bother meanymore, like it never really
bothered me from like myupbringing.
I was like always in front ofpeople with, like my family, so
it doesn't bother me at all.
If I have a one-on-one hardconversation with my brother or
my mom or my dad of somethingthat's like a really hot topic

(01:06:38):
in our family, of like you knowthe couch, and have a
conversation with my mom, Icould literally walk out this
door and talk to whateverlecture hall you want and make
shit up for two hours and betotally fine.
But one person is fine in theother situation.
Somebody else would be totallyfine with their family but would
melt if they had to give alecture in front of people for a
class, right?
So it's context specific ofwhat triggers your anxiety

(01:06:58):
public speaking, personalrelationships, like the fear of
like a team-based failure, likeI had right, like everyone has
different things and I think youdo yourself a favor if you
spend some time digging on likewhat is the context specific
triggers for you and find waysto deal with that.
So yeah, that was my last thingon that.
Yep, any more questions?
Okay, sweet.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Season Advice To NCAA/Club Gymnasts: Sleep, Fuel, Stress Management

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On Purpose with Jay Shetty

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Season Advice To NCAA/Club Gymnasts: Sleep, Fuel, Stress Management

Stuff You Should Know