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Home > The FITSPRO Podcast > 044 | The 3 Biggest Health Factors
Podcast: The FITSPRO Podcast
Episode:

044 | The 3 Biggest Health Factors
Category: Health
Duration: 00:00:00
Publish Date: 2019-11-05 01:00:25
Description: THREE FACTORS HAVING THE LARGEST EFFECT ON YOUR HEALTH. I called this episode the 3 Biggest Health Factors because it could have been titled three factors affecting your health, affecting your training results, affecting your quality of life, your energy levels, your sleep, your hormones, or literally EVERY aspect of health and probably your LIFE. So, I decided on The 3 Biggest Health Factors. It’s a weird title but it’s also the truth. If you are measuring nothing in regards to your health now, or are only tracking your workouts, I am going to encourage you to start tracking at least one of these factors after this episode. You know I like to give you actionable takeaways. I am here for the improvement of humans. Not to talk into a microphone under a freaking blanket just to hear my own voice. Also, these are simple…you’ve likely heard them before. Please, do not dismiss them. Ask yourself how you are doing in each of these areas. It matters. And it makes a difference, like I said, all across all aspects of your health. Okay, number one (these aren't in a specific order by the way…) 1: Sleep Get your freaking sleep. You’ve heard you need 8-10 or 7-9 hours. Yes, science shows that generally, humans function optimally with somewhere between 7-10 hours of sleep. Science also shows that women typically require more sleep than men. Which I am all about because I LOVE sleep and definitely lean more towards that 10 hour mark. I am all about making my waking hours more efficient so I can get the sleep I enjoy having. BUT it’s not all about the duration of your sleep, rather your QUALITY of sleep. I am sure you have slept 8-10 hours before but you wake up five times during the night and feel restless. That is not the kind of 8-10 hours these sleep studies are suggesting. I loved the way a professor of mine in college worded this. If you are sleeping 8 hours a night but you miss one hour every night of the week, you miss 7 total hours of sleep that week, nearly a full night of sleep. And if you’re like me, YOU FEEL THAT. Can you function? Absolutely. But will you possibly catch a cold, or be tired when 2-4pm hits? 100%. This is also why I encourage you to track your sleep. Because reality is often different than our perception - when it comes to most things regarding our health. Now, I understand some people do not have the luxury of getting 8-10 hours per night. But that doesn’t mean the effort to improve sleep quality or consistency should stop. Really number two and and three affect your sleep as well. But we’ll get to that soon enough. Start by tracking your sleep. You can do this manually if you like in a notebook or chart. But if you can afford it, there are watches like FitBits and Polar heart rate watches that will track your sleep duration and quality for you. I am sure there are probably apps now that track your sleep without any gadgets as well. Maybe not, but worth researching. When you track things, you can improve them. What we measure we can manage, right? So track your sleep, and look for ways you can get more or higher quality. Since coming home from our world travels I have continued two things that we picked up while sleeping in establishments around the world: ear plugs and eye masks. I shared the ear plugs we use on IG but maybe I can add them to my Amazon page as well for you guys. They are softer than the ones you’d use for shooting ranges and things of that sort. They’re less aggressive but work just as well. What do ear plugs and eye masks do? Eliminate distractions for your body to be awakened by. Get you into a rhythm; into that deep sleep you want and need. But do what works for you. Just know - sleep is your body’s time to recover on ALL physiological levels. So if your sleep is shit, so is your recovery, and likely your hormone function, immune system, and all of the things. I will also say that some people really don’t require 7-10 hours...
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