Too Much in Your Life?

It’s not unusual for an athlete to set a high goal for a season, one that stretches them to their limits but is achievable. And then not pull it off. It’s depressing. This can happen too often. If you have had such unaccomplished goals in past seasons, your failure is usually one of two things: either you set goals that were above your capabilities, or you have too much going on in your life and it gets in the way of training. From my experience with age group athletes at all levels, the latter is the more common reason. Most athletes are physically and mentally capable of achieving reasonably high goals – probably higher than they can even imagine –  but their lifestyles gets in the way.

When I run into a problem such as this with an athlete I ask questions. The most telling usually is, “How much sleep do you get at night?” Many athletes just don’t get enough – and they are actually proud of it. A very common comment I hear about snoozing is, “I can sleep when I’m dead.” It’s really amazing how many athletes see sleep that way – as nothing more than a nuisance that interferes with everything they want to get done in their daily lives. That’s a shame because it’s during sleep that you become more fit. That hard workout you did today doesn’t make you more fit. That won’t happen until the following night when you sleep. It’s during sleep that anabolic hormones such as growth hormone, testosterone, estrogen, insulin-like growth factor and many more are released. This happens throughout a night of sleep as we go through roughly 90-minute stages in which these “building” hormones are released in intermittent waves. That’s when you become more fit. If you reduce the number of waves by going to bed late and setting an alarm to wake you up early, you’ve simply given up some of the fitness potential you had created with that hard workout.

If I ask that question and the athlete tells me they sleep less than seven hours at night there’s a good chance that’s why they aren’t achieving goals. Even if they tell me that they make up for it on the weekends by sleeping in, the problem is still the same. Too little sleep and too much stress.

There could be many reasons for inadequate sleep, but the most common among hard-charging athletes is simply too much stuff in their lives. The second question I ask is, “What time do you go to bed?” The answer is often something like midnight. Me: “Why so late?” Athlete: “I have a lot of things to get done every day and also need to spend some time with my family, too.” And that’s the problem – too many things to try to get done. Spending time with one’s family is not the problem. The high-volume, high-goal athlete cannot also have so much in their life that cutting into sleep time is the only solution. Is this you? If so, let me tell you the quick solution – do less.

I know, you’ve got to get all of these things done. Then something has to change. Either you need to have less “things” in your life or have lower goals. You can’t have both. If the athlete hasn’t already walked away in frustration and is willing to talk about it, I talk them through my proposed solution. And that is they can only have three things in their life if they want to achieve a high goal. Those three things are #1 family, you aren’t going to desert them to achieve your goal; #2 your career, you aren’t going to quit your job; and #3 training. That’s it. Nothing else. Athlete: “But I want to volunteer for our Home Owners Association board.” Me: “Great! Let’s just wait until you’ve qualified for Ironman Hawaii.” Athlete: “But I want to take up golf.” Me: “Super! Do that right after you podium at Nationals.” The list of things athletes want to achieve in their lives can be overwhelming. They are remarkable people, but they aren’t Superman or Superwoman. There are limits for each of us.

I think you get the picture. If you try to cram too much into your daily life something has to give. It’s almost always sleep. That’s the worst thing you can do if you really want to achieve your athletic goal. It’s not an easy solution but it’s the only one.