Lifestyle for Optimizing Performance

Health is all about lifestyle.

It's not how hard you train or how many calories you eat and burn in a day. It's about how you feel and reflecting on what works for YOU!

I tailor make performance systems for some of the World’s best athletes, but here is a little secret for you.

The most important 4 elements of every plan I make is the same! Eat clean, sleep like it's your job, train smart and reflect daily.

The rest of their plan is specific to their goals, current condition and their capacity to execute on these concepts.

Here is my recipe for success:

1. Sleep like its your job! Getting sleep and giving your body and mind a chance to recover and rejuvenate is critical. Your not 20 anymore. No more all nighters filled with boozing and womanizing followed by a 6am wake up for a full functioning day in the office. Getting more sleep isn’t about getting up earlier its about going to bed earlier! Turn off Sport Center and get your ZZzzzz. Make your bed a place of sleep not a horizontal internet cafe. No TV, no smart phones, no twitter, or checking up on your ex girlfriend on Facebook. Your bed is for sleeping only. This sounds silly but you need to have your bed be a trigger that says its time for sleep and rejuvenation. When we bring technology to the bedroom we create a trigger that says the bed is a place of “stimulus”. I know what your thinking and who’s kidding who. You fall asleep instantly after the other form of “stimulus” so my rule still applies.

2. Eat Clean! You get out of life what you put into it! Same can be said about your food. Have a nutrient dense breakfast, salad with protein for lunch then whatever you want for dinner. Make sure you are getting your nutritional needs met by supplementing a good quality multi vitamin and a probiotic to help digestion. You will quickly see the bloating reduce and energy increase.

3. Lift Heavy! Get out of the rut of long slow cardio and light weight lifting to tone and sculpt. You need to lift heavy and lift often. 15 minutes a day, 4 to 5 days a week will get you the results you are looking for. Now, if you are going to lift heavy you need to ensure your body is ready. If you don’t already lift you need to start with bodyweight and movement-based workouts for 3-6 weeks. Push-ups, planks, chin-ups or modified TRX chin-ups, bridging, bodyweight squats, lunges and light deadlifts to master your form. Do the prep and you will reap the rewards when the real weight gets dusted off. I like kettlebells as they are very versatile and can attack the body with minimal space or equipment needed. Buy a 12kg and a 24kg competition Kettlebell from Perform Better and a skipping rope and you just started your home gym! Here is my 15-minute KettleBell Workout (Dynamic Warm Up, 30 KB Swings [10 Two Hand KB Swings, 5 Left, 5 right and finish with 10 more Two Handed Swings] 1 minute Skipping, 5 KB Clean to Press Left, 5 KB Clean to Press Right, 5 KB Snatch Left, 5 KB Snatch Right, 12 Goblet Squat to Press, 30 seconds Statue of Liberty Walks/Arm, Side Plank 30 seconds/side, 1 min Front Plank, Skipping Freestyle 2 minutes, Breathing Practice and cool down)

4. Reflect, Meditate and listen to your body. You have to have a champion's mindset. All-day you are being pulled this way and that way and pounded with media bites and emails. All these distractions will pull you away from your goals. Spend 15 minutes a day quietly focussed on who you want to be, what you want to accomplish and envision the healthy, happy and successful person your daily routine is creating. Sometimes it's good to have a picture or an image that you will see each day that will inspire you by showing the end result. I use to have this picture of a guy passing a kettlebell overhead who looked like an athlete. Now I just look in the mirror! hahaha I think my new picture will be Shane Doan. Allstar, hall of famer, rich, healthy, successful, happy and winning it for the team. I like that!

I want you to do this program Monday to Friday and enjoy the weekend the way you normally would.

Treat your health like you treat your job. Get up, get after it and call it a day.

During the week you work and on the weekend let your hair down, loosen your tie and enjoy the good life!

The younger generation has a saying, "Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat" I think my generation should have the mantra "Sleep, Eat, Lift, Reflect and Repeat". Recipe for a healthier and happier you. Who doesn’t like the sound of that?

Here is my 2 part podcast on this topic! I know you will love it!