Three Keys to Mental Health And Performance
When it comes to being a Fully Equipped Athlete, the majority of the work actually takes place before you even step on the field. In order for you to perform at your highest level, it’s key to master your training for both the physical and mental aspects of the game.
There are three things that you can control that will impact your physical and mental well being: diet, exercise, and sleep. In this blog post we’ll dive deeper into how certain actions you take impact your mental performance the most.
In a recent comprehensive study of health behaviors and mental health for young adults, these have been called “the big three”. This study dug into these three behaviors separately to understand how each of them were impacting mental performance and well being for young adults.
How we eat, move, and sleep are the fundamentals that make up our foundation and are critical to performing optimally, no matter what it is you do. If you want to see how tall a building will be, see how deep they dig the foundation.
While all three are incredibly important for anyone looking to improve their mindset, which one do you think was found to be the most important? Well, you’ll just have to read and find out! In this article we’ll talk about the ways that each of these “big three” impact young people and athletes in particular, as well as the big reveal at the end. In any event, it’s important to know that all three are very important, and the best case scenario is to develop and/or improve all of them in order to achieve maximum performance.
DIET
If you’re a young athlete, you might feel like you can “eat whatever you want” and not gain weight. For some of you, that might be true. However, it’s extremely important to realize there is much more about what you put into your body than how much you weigh. The food that you put into your body is also the main way that you deliver your body the nutrients it needs to function properly.
Let’s start with the basics, you’ve probably been told to eat more fruits and vegetables at least a thousand times. Most of the time though, there isn’t an explanation as to why you should eat more fruits and vegetables other than “they’re good for you”. While that is true of course, here are some specific things that eating fruits and vegetables regularly will improve.
First, there have been studies, including this one from 2013, that show that eating more fruits and vegetables actually improves mood and overall well being. Since we know that a positive mindset is absolutely critical for any athlete to achieve their full potential, eating foods that will help you stay sharp mentally are massively important!
On the flip side, eating habits that include large amounts of processed and fried foods, and high sugar intake are associated with higher levels of stress, depression, and overall poorer mental health outcomes.
So even if those extra trips to Taco Bell might not be impacting your waistline as a young athlete with high metabolism, eating a healthy diet gives you a mental edge by helping to ensure a positive mindset that you can use to achieve maximum performance.
exercise
How do you feel after you’ve had a nice long jog? Or maybe a good session in the weight room or a tough practice? Normally, your body might be feeling a bit sore, but you probably will have an overall feeling of being at ease, relaxed, and generally in a positive mood. This is no coincidence, as just like the food that you eat, exercising not only improves your body, but also your mind!
Moderate physical activity has been linked to higher levels of happiness and lower levels of depression, as well as improved mood and energy levels. Low levels of physical activity however, have been linked with poor mental well being.
While we won’t have time to get into how to optimize your physical routine today, it’s important to note that regular, moderate physical activity of any type on a regular basis provides these mental health benefits on top of what you’ll be gaining on the physical side. Two birds with one stone I believe is the technical term.
sleep
I never get tired of talking about how important sleep is for athletes! I wrote a blog post that details how a good night of sleep impacts athletes and gives an edge especially to young athletes who develop a healthy sleep routine. You can check it out here.
Additionally, I had a great Q&A session with sleep specialist Dr. Chris Winter over on the Fully Equipped Athlete Youtube channel. I highly recommend that you check these both out if you want further details on how important sleep is for athletes, and what you can do to optimize your sleep schedule.
For today though, it’s important to know that for young adults in particular, quality sleep is critical for improving mental well being, decreasing depression and anxiety, as well as improvements in physical health. Of the three behaviors, this should be the easiest to incorporate into your routine. While it isn’t quite as easy as “get more sleep”, it’s not that much more difficult than that.
A few quick tips (but please check out the blog post for more detail):
Get into bed before your scheduled “sleep” time so you have a buffer to wind down
Try not to eat, drink, watch tv or use a phone or computer before going to sleep
Create a sleeping space that is conducive to allowing you to sleep throughout the night, such as a noise machine and making your room as dark as possible
A healthy diet, regular exercise, and good sleep habits are critical to help you bridge the gap between performance and potential. So, which of these three has been proven to be the MOST important?......SLEEP!
According to a recent study, lack of sleep was the most highly correlated to depressive symptoms in young adults. More specifically, sleep quantity led the way, then sleep quality, followed by lack of physical activity. Those were the top three in predicting negative mental health outcomes. The study surprisingly found that positive or negative eating habits had only a negligible impact.
When it comes to positive outcomes, sleep quality has the highest correlation, followed by physical activity, then diet. You can check out the data for the study here.
final thoughts
Optimizing ALL aspects of your daily routine are important to achieving your goals as an athlete, and putting yourself in the right mindset is the foundation on which everything else rests. If you’re feeling tired, down on yourself, anxious, etc., you’re not going to be able to perform at your best when it comes to training, school work, and all aspects of your life.
Of course in life, especially as a young athlete, we all will have bad days and slip up from time to time. If you want to reach your peak though, the science is clear that if you build and follow a consistent routine around sleep, exercise, and good nutrition you’ll be able to perform at your peak most often, giving you that competitive advantage that will help you achieve greater success.
The best part is that getting to this point shouldn’t have to feel like moving mountains. In fact, many of the actions you can take to positively impact your mental game can be implemented by anyone, no matter how old you are or how much experience you have.
I hope this post sparks your interest in taking on these three important aspects of increasing your mental performance. If you want to take a deeper dive and learn how you can apply these principles to up your mental game, check out The Fully Equipped Playbook, or sign up for a free consultation to get you on the road to becoming a Fully Equipped Athlete.
