What is physical performance readiness?

Think about what happens at a time when you’re tired and hungry. It’s difficult to concentrate. You’re more likely to be irritable with other people. Interruptions can cause excessive frustration. Mistakes are more likely. Making the most of your skills is challenging. Getting things done takes longer. Even finding the right words becomes tough.

Being short on physical (and mental) energy can dramatically decrease your capacity to perform. Yes, you can still do things, but your productivity and efficiency can decrease dramatically.

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In order to be physically ready, here are some critical things to be considering:

  • Managing energy as well as time –think about the quality as well as the quantity of time given to tasks.
  • Being physically fit enough so there is capacity to cope with the demands of work – hours, travel, meetings – and have energy for outside of work.
  • Eating and drinking mindfully to fuel optimum brain and body functioning.
  • Knowing how to use rest and recovery so consistent and sustainable high performance is possible.

Health, fitness and wellness

Starting from a clear understanding of health, fitness and wellness enables you to identify what’s important to you and establish some goals for yourself in this area.

Health is a state of being bodily and mentally free from disease. Health enables you to turn up for work and is more about the absence of disease than being the best physical version of yourself that you can be.

Fitness is set of trainable attributes that can be developed to perform a specific activity, whether that be running a marathon or working a tough 50 hour week 48 weeks a year. These attributes can include strength, stamina, speed, agility, power or a combination of these. The specific activity is important here – fitness implies that there is a sense of purpose or direction.

Wellness is a conscious and deliberate approach to an advanced state of physical and psychological health. Wellness relates directly to our definition of high performance – it’s about making the choices that enable you to be the best version of yourself that you can be. You can choose to be as well as possible. Wellness is about you feeling great, having lots of energy and enjoying your life to the full. Wellness is not boring, or restrictive, or unpleasant. It is interesting, and rewarding, and engaging. Everyone can choose to be as well as they possibly can and they can start right now by having a glass of water, trying something different at their next meal, or going for a 10 minute walk when they next take a break.

10/10 wellness is a state where your brain and body are functioning at their optimal level; you feel great about yourself, have lots of energy and are physically capable of doing everything you want to do.

The energy equation

This equation is deceptively simple! Get fit enough to cope with the demands of your world, eat and drink the right things at the right times and respect your brain and body’s need for good rest and recovery. If one of these is uncontrollably compromised, be as good as you can be at the other two. Simple, but not easy.

Energy management strategy

Much of the success with this area of the performance pie is about being mindful of your energy levels and of how being active, eating well and respecting your rest and recovery needs contribute to enabling you to perform well. By applying your desire to improve to this area, you will practice some new skills and seek to learn about what works well for you. Our overall goal is to help you to perform better by achieving your picture of health, fitness and wellness success.

For many folks one aspect of the equation kick starts things and is a catalyst for change in the other areas. For example one customer, Martin, started by fuelling himself better, giving him the energy to be more active, with a positive impact on the quality and consistency of his sleep. Another customer, Sue, recognised that for her exercise was the place to start and when she trained regularly she reduced her alcohol intake, made better food choices and slept better.

Summary

Physical readiness is as important as any other part of the performance pie. It’s a whole lot of common sense, which is not always commonly applied. It has three main areas:

  1. what you eat and drink
  2. what exercise and activity you do
  3.  how well you rest and recover

Energy strategies can begin with one of these three or be a blend of all of them. Give it a go…