👋 Hey.
Welcome to issue #29 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter. Thanks for being here.
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (3.5 min read):
😠 The grit formula
Image via visualizevalue.com
Grit.
One of the most underrated character traits.
In fact, research in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology reckons it’s a bigger indicator of success than intelligence.
So while smarts and talent are helpful. Achieving hard goals will need a healthy dose of grit.
But what is it exactly?
The researchers defined it as:
Grit = Passion for long-term goals + Perseverance
Also commonly described as mental toughness.
So if you want the best chance of achieving a hard goal:
1. 🔥 Make it something that lights a fire in you
“If purpose is bigger than pain, then purpose wins”
– Michael Gervais
Which helps you to:
2. 🏃 Keep going (particularly through challenges). For as long as it takes (habits help here). Because you can’t fail if you never quit.
Something to keep in mind when it gets tough.
When the hard work feels pointless.
Find your grit.
🏃♀️ The [female] athlete project
The [Female] Athlete Project is the fastest growing women’s sport platform in the country.
Chloe Dalton is behind it. She’s an Aussie 7s Olympic Gold medalist and GWS AFLW player.
The athlete interviews podcast eps are a goer – learning from some of Australia’s best female athletes.
Check em out here.
🥬 Rocket your endurance performance with nitrate
Couple weeks back I talked about caffeine and creatine. Both helpful for our mental and physical performance.
And 2 of the only 5 supplements recommended by the International Olympic Committee.
The other 3 are:
- 🧂 Sodium bicarbonate
- 🧬 Beta-alanine
- 🥬 Nitrate
But we only get physical performance benefits from these 3. So they’re not really necessary for the everyday athlete’s day-to-day.
Sodium bicarbonate (your kitchen baking soda) and beta-alanine work in different ways to achieve the same goal. They help manage acid levels in working muscles.
Beneficial when we use our glycolytic system. Like a 400m sprint (or any short, high-intensity effort lasting about 15 seconds to 2 mins).
But we'll only get about a 2% increase in physical performance from each.
Relevant for pro athletes? 100%.
The everyday athlete? Maybe not.
Sodium bicarbonate can also help reduce delayed onset muscle soreness.
So if you’ve got baking soda lying around, can’t hurt to add it to a bath for some recovery benefits.
Nitrate on the other hand might be a goer.
Nitrate is an ion. It’s found in beets, celery and leafy greens like spinach.
It works by making nitric oxide more available in the body. Which:
- 💥 Allows the body to create and use energy more efficiently
- 🩸 Increases blood flow to the muscle
- 🦵 Improves the function of our fast twitch muscle fibres
Nitrate supplementation has been found to increase endurance performance by up to 25% 😮
Specifically, the research suggests benefits of:
- 🏃 4-25% for longer events over 40 minutes
- 🤽♀️ 3-5% for higher intensity activity lasting 12-40 minutes
The recommendation is about 400mg, 2 hours before performance.
This is a popular brand. Or just smash those foods above.
Something to think about if you wanna push it up in your next (half) marathon, ocean swim or triathlon.
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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