Increase Your Athletic Performance with These Four Science Proven Tips
Studies confirm that modern-day athletes are becoming faster and stronger year by year. For example, in his TED Talk speech, David Epstein drew a comparison between Usain Bolt’s performance to the one of Jesse Owens in 1936. And while Jesse Owens did hold the world record for the 100-meter dash, if he competed at the same time as Usain Bolt, he would have been much behind him. Times have changed, and so have athletes.
The key to understanding this lies in understanding athletic performance. “Athletic performance is the ability to excel at the physical performance” notes Tor Ahman, a top athletic trainer, and diPulse collaborator. “If you are strong, you have good metabolic conditioning and flexibility. Human performance is strongly connected to the ability to adapt to any situation. No matter what the task is you can have the ability to perform it.”
Performance is the key to understanding why our workouts aren’t equally productive or perhaps equally fun. With recent innovations in technology and training methodology, improving athletic performance has never been easier. To understand this process it's key to remember that sports performance is measured by skill, strength, endurance, recovery, and the ability to quickly bounce back without injuries.
This mixture of biomechanical function, training preference, and psychological variation is what makes someone excel while performing a sport and it's more a process than a fixed state. Whatever your training goals might be, increasing your overall performance is the only way towards success; and here are some tips that can help you to improve:
Vary Your Workouts
It is a common belief that functional exercises are the way to go but this can't be further from the truth. As previously mentioned, improving athletic performance has less to do with dropping weight or building muscle and more about improving muscle strength and response over time. In that sense, sticking with the same workout routine may not be helping your body achieve maximum results. Scientists have found that the best approach is to vary your workouts, even changing them every three weeks to maximize your muscle capacity. Remember that many athletes need to focus on building the muscle groups necessary for their sport of choice. A Formula 1 driver needs to be in optimal fitness condition but doesn't have to develop the same group of muscles as a sprinter. The key is to focus on your specific needs, vary your workouts, and track your progress along the way.
Track Your Performance During Training
You have done everything right-but how would you know your workout schedule is working? Hard data is your best friend and an excellent motivator to help measure progress and celebrate both small and bigger wins, and modern technology has made it incredibly easy to measure your individual performance. Today’s fitness watches can record a variety of parameters in real time such as heart rate variability, exercise reps, running distance and so much more. You can keep track of your progress by uploading them to your computer and then analyze and set your next goals accordingly.
Tracking wearables are now an indispensable part of every serious athlete’s routine and coaches now encourage the wearing of tracking vests that can provide a detailed analysis of the muscle activity. The more data you have about how your body responds to working out, the better equipped you are to design your routine to achieve maximum performance.
Include Conditioning
Your sport of choice will have a specific set of movements you train yourself to perform, but make sure not to just focus on technique. Instead, invest in a solid conditioning plan for these routines that help you perform better, even when tired. “diPulse wearables are scientifically designed to allow your muscles to work to recover even during a resting state without injuries or added fatigue, thereby increasing the training and performance of the muscles. NMES technology enables a direct contraction of all the muscle fibers through stimulation to unconscious activation of even dormant muscle fibers. This also means the blood flow in the muscle is increased and your recovery is faster” notes Tor Ahman.
Train Your Brain
Sport isn’t just about muscle activation - your brain has to be equally trained. Most athletic endeavors rely heavily on mental ability as well as psychological balance. Team sports require very special cognitive awareness as split-time decisions can affect the game while other sports require a clear focus and psychological strength. This means that overall performance is also dependent on cognition and athletes need to further work on this in the same way, for example, by performing a series of lunges every day.
Nobody is immune to physiological distress so a good start would be to manage stress and anxiety whenever they occur. Negative thoughts can affect sleep and focus and deplete your overall energy levels. The key here is to develop a set of cognitive skills that will allow you to be in control of your thoughts and feelings while channeling your full energy toward your set of performance goals. Always remember to be positive - this may be one of the biggest performance skills you can develop!
