Is working out all it takes to be the strongest athlete you can be? No, if you don’t have a good sleep schedule, a strong nutrition plan, a healthy amount of water intake, and good rest days, then you are not going to be the best athlete you can be.
Working out is a very important part of being healthy and making an athlete’s body the strongest it can be, but it is not everything. Sleeping is extremely important! Especially from the ages 13-17 because they are still growing, and the athletes who are playing a sport in high school and travel sports really need to focus on their sleeping schedules. You are supposed to get 8-10 hours of sleep every night so you can replenish your brains and bodies for the next day.
If you don’t sleep, you won’t let your body recover properly, leading to not producing enough growth hormones, which is essential for repairing microscopic repairs created during workouts. This eventually creates persistent soreness and muscle breakdown, athletes will start to lose muscle instead of gaining any of it. This leads to fatigue and will make you as an athlete more exhausted, lowering your performance in your sport or work out. Reducing sleep also leads to illnesses and a higher risk of getting injured. While not sleeping leads to physical problems it also causes higher levels of stress and a loss of motivation due to burnout.
Athletes need rest! If you as an athlete have a good sleep schedule and good workouts, but not resting you will not be the best you can be. As athletes, you need to take rest days by not doing a big workout, but having light movement to help your body replenish such as taking a walk, going on a relaxing bike ride, swimming, stretching or doing yoga. Resting can also look like sleeping a little more than usual and still keeping up with your nutrition, resting is not eating a lot of non nutritious foods and sleeping all day. This will not benefit you in the way getting light movement will.
Athletes should be getting 1-2 rest days a week, but if you are playing a sport and working out for extra reps, you need to be generous and listen to what your body is trying to tell you. You need to be careful to not overwork your bodies and get burnt out. As athletes, you will not get better if you overwork yourselves. When you don’t rest, your body doesn’t have time to replenish all the muscle tissue getting broken down when you work out. You will start to get tired, creating chronic fatigue, having a decrease in your performance, and have a higher risk of getting injured. You need to prioritize rest days.
It is important to drink water! It is very important to be on top of your water intake. As athletes, you need to be drinking water every single day, water intake depends on how much you workout, so it is different for everyone, but try to drink around 3 liters a day. To drink more water you should have a water bottle with you at all times and fill it up consistently. Water is very important for your performances, it keeps you hydrated. When you are not hydrated your performance will drastically decrease, inhibit muscle recovery, and could lead to severe fatigue. With that you could experience dizziness, muscle cramping, increase of heat exhaustion, and headaches. You want to try your best to stay on top of your water and stay hydrated.
Nutrition is the most important factor to being the healthiest and strongest you can be. You can workout a lot, have a good sleep schedule, and rest days, but if you don’t eat well, you won’t see any improvements in your sports. Food is what gives you energy and strength, it’s supposed to fuel your body. What an athlete eats is extremely important for their energy levels, the way their body feels, their performances, lowering their risk of getting hurt, fighting injuries if they have any, and being the best of an athlete you can be. You also won’t see any difference in your workouts or games if you don’t eat the right foods to fuel your body.
Eating healthy is choosing the right food to make your body feel good and fuel you for your practices and workout. Some things you should look out for to make healthier choices are unprocessed foods, such as whole grains, beans, and legumes (Black beans, Pinto beans, Peas, ect.), this is a type of healthy carbs. Some other healthier choices are fruit, which is a good sugar and vegetables which are good carbs. Chicken, fish, nuts, and eggs are great proteins to be eating too. Carbs help give you sustained energy for a long time and help store energy in your muscles. Sugar does something similar for your body, by giving your body a quicker muscle recovery if you eat it after workouts and immediate energy. Proteins help build muscles, skin, organs, and hair. These are everything you as an athlete need to be eating. As athletes you should always try to have grains, dairy, fruits or vegetables, and protein on their plates when they eat. Each athlete will eat differently depending on their sex, weight, age, how much you are working, and what types of workouts you are doing. This is just an idea of what you should be eating and trying to find the best foods for you.
You don’t need to be cutting out every sugar or processed food, you need to eat everything in moderation, eating too much of anything is bad for you. There is no such thing as bad food either, always remember that food is meant to fuel you. You also need to be focused on how much you are eating, your portions are important. If you are eating too much for your body, it could hurt your metabolism and lower your energy levels. You need to focus on what is best for your body and your athletic journey. If you don’t focus on what you’re eating or how much you are eating your athletic performance will not be the best it can possibly be.
Mila Diaz, a freshman volleyball player at Pitman High School, “I play club volleyball and I don’t workout outside of that. I think everything including nutrition, water, and being healthy all the way around is important, instead of only being physically healthy, you need to be healthy mentally too. I think the most important part for an athlete to reach their best is having the right mindset and doing what it takes. Having a grit mindset, saying you can do this and I can reach my potential. I think an athlete should focus on nutrition the most, you can’t workout and be healthy without having a good nutrition plan. Working out and hydration does help you a lot too. I believe athletes struggle with nutrition the most because there are so many ways for athletes to not eat healthy. There are fast food restaurants, if you have a late practice and you’re hungry you might go get fast food, that can bring your health down.”
Justin Souza is a girls water polo and swim coach, and a computer science teacher at Pitman High School, he said, “I think the base level is going out there, joining a team, being part of the workouts and practices. The athletes that are going to be really successful are taking the whole experience seriously, the recovery, the nutrition, the water intake, and it is not just how good of a workout I can have, but how much better am I getting from all of it. I think the biggest things athletes need to focus on is taking their own interest and accountability in their sport and in their performance. Athletes that seem like you care more as a coach than they care how, it seems as a coach you are going hard on them and just keep pushing them. But when it is an athlete who cares, wants to perform well, and be successful in their sport, now as a coach I am supporting their goals instead of pushing them as a coach. Now it is flipping their practices by their mindsets holding them accountable and setting goals, now saying I actually want to achieve these. I think athletes need to focus on recovery. It is easy for people to show up and take a two hour practice seriously because everyone is there, everyone is doing it together, and coaches are yelling at you, so you are not going to mess around. But most athletes go home and don’t focus on their eating and sleeping because there is no one there to coach them. Focusing on your eating, sleeping, and recovery will only benefit an athlete.”
Athletes need to focus on nutrition, water intake, sleeping, and resting. Taking all these things seriously will only help your performance and your athletic journey into being the best they can. All these things will help you in the long run, don’t just focus on one thing, but all of it.