Episode 240: The Winter Action Plan - Five Non-Negotiables for Every Time-Starved Athlete
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Like most time-starved athletes, it’s the time of year when you reflect on the season and look forward to a well-deserved break.
While the winter months offer a welcome shift of focus to other areas of life, your commitment to longer-term goals and your performance journey looms large. The threat of losing momentum in your athletic performance conflicts with the need to disconnect.
Today IRONMAN Master Coach Matt Dixon lays out a few strategies for developing your winter action plan, to help you find the mental relief you seek while setting up a strong performance for next year.
Matt shares his 5 non-negotiable basics that every athlete or fitness enthusiast can do this winter to stay on pace for an optimal long-term outcome.
Retain Structure and Amplify Focus on Life
(24:07) "A training structure is actually the very framework that allows organization. And that becomes really important because having some structure in your life is the very key that unlocks effectiveness in work, in giving time to family and friends."
Commit to Strength
(36:19) "If you do strength and conditioning appropriately, you should experience improved motor patterns. So better synchronization, better coordination. In other words, you get to be more athletic, that's really good. We get to improve our posture, our stability, and our balance. So, therefore, better athletic awareness, a better platform to go and launch into any type of endurance activity that we might do."
Go Play
(42:57) "Beyond the framework of specificity that we have, there is capacity to add play into this...activities that can foster mental rejuvenation, freshness, but at the same time cross-pollinate to an effective training outcome."
Evolve Your Fueling and Eating Habits
(50:13) "It is the time when training stress is lower, that you really have mental capacity to apply the lessons...and then when training ramps up, you've got the habit creation, you've got the strategies, and you can parallel your nutritional demands with increasing demands of training. And that becomes a winning proposition."
Lay Your Performance Foundation
(51:26) "The truth is that if you want to make something really special happen for yourself, you need to go out and make it happen. There's no sugarcoating here. You do the work, you work your tail off within the lighter structure, with less hours and you will, as a non-negotiable, lay your performance foundation."
This episode aims to help you turn your back on the sport this winter without turning your back on your overall performance journey.
Episode Timestamps
00:00 - 05:37 - Welcome and Episode Introduction
05:44 - 10:49 - Matt's News-ings
10:50 - 100:29 - Meat and Potatoes - Episode 240: The Winter Action Plan - Five Non-Negotiables for Every Time-Starved Athlete
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Full Transcript
Matt Dixon 00:00
I'm Matt Dixon, and welcome to the Purple Patch podcast. The mission of Purple Patch is to empower and educate every human being to reach their athletic potential. Through the lens of athletic potential, you reach your human potential. The purpose of this podcast is to help time-starved people everywhere, integrate sport into life.
Matt Dixon 00:21
All right, guys, just before we get going with the show, today is all about the five things that you need to do over the course of these looming dark, cold winter months. Well, at least if you're in the northern hemisphere, and it would have been so easy for me just to slide in a big promotion for InsideTracker. This is a wonderful time to get an assessment of your health, and your biometrics, and gain the advice of the experts and the scientists at InsideTracker. So that you can get very precise on the habits that you need to create around your nutrition, training, stress reduction, and any supplements that might be necessary so that you can build a platform of health. It would have been so easy for me to do that because authentically, it is a wonderful time to actually take action, go and get a little assessment of your biometrics, align it with the advice from the experts, and all of the research that the team InsideTracker have, and then take action of it. But I didn't do it. And the reason that I didn't do it is that I get to do it now. All you have to do is head to insidetracker.com/purplepatch. And you can use this code Purple Patch Pro 20, that's Purple Patch Pro two zero. And guess what? That'll give you everything you need and 20% of everything at the store. Now if you really want to amplify it, then give us an email info@purplepatchfitness.com, and you can work with one of our coaches or myself to filter through the information so that we can create a winter action plan for you. There is no better time to take an assessment of your health so that you can get precise than leveraging InsideTracker. It is now guys and so I highly encourage it. But if you want to find out the other five things I talk about the magic things that every athlete and fitness enthusiast should take on board over the course of the winter months, what we used to call the offseason, and then you're going to have to listen to the show. I hope you enjoy it.
Matt Dixon 02:28
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast as ever, your host, Matt Dixon. And we are at this time of the year, aren't we? Yep, where so many time-starved athletes are having a very similar emotions. Goodness me, I need a break. It's been a long season, I want to spend more time with my family. You know what my job requires and deserves more attention. I want to go and play and try different things. I'd love to stay active. But I don't feel like I need the shackles of a training plan right now. All very common and understandable sentiments, I want to add, but on the other side, you've got this little bird in your ear. It's coaches like me, who see examples of great success, and pitch and promote the fact that staying on a plan, and retaining structure, is the very recipe so that you can break through plateaus, you can avoid injury, and not fall down the cavern of failure, instead set up a wonderful year of performance next year. And from this platform coaches like me preach consistency is king, a great year begins right now, don't lose the framework, have a plan, and going random is the worst thing for you. Goodness me. And in fact, if we just go back to recent podcasts, I promoted just that. It focused all around this. So you might understandably right now feel really torn, feel like you're getting dragged in two directions, your family, your work, and your mental health is asking you for a break, go rogue go random. On the flip side, you're investing in performance. And when you cast your lens further afield, you know that there is some action that you should take right now. And so what I thought we would do today is remove some of the guilt, evaporate the concern and instead allow you to have the best of both worlds. I'm not going to try and convert you today. Instead, what I'm going to do is boil it down to five very actionable steps, some non-negotiable basics that every single athlete and fitness enthusiast must do if they want to have an optimal outcome long term. Five things. This is the non-negotiable, the very basics. And the good news is that as a coach, I always promote ‘nail the basics.’ And so how do you gain that capacity, that mental relief at the same time, and it's not paradoxical, set yourself up for a huge performance year in the season ahead? It comes down to five things. That's all you have to do over the coming months. And today, we're going to outline it. It's a list, of the five things that every athlete and fitness enthusiast must do this winter. I try and keep it simple. And most importantly, I make it actionable. And so you're ready to dig in? Let's do it. But first of all, I do want to investigate a little bit. Let's do Matt's News-ings.
Matt Dixon 05:44
Yes, it's Matt's News-ings guys. And well, I'm still shaking off a little bit of one of the cloudy heads. We had the center launch party, we had a wonderful crew here. It was quite an event. And now I can declare this week, the Purple Patch Performance Center in San Francisco is open. We are excited, we are filling the classes, and the services are live. And there is now, for the first time in two and a half years that we've been sitting in this exquisite, vacuous cavern with very little activity, suddenly there's vibrancy. There are people coming in and out, enjoying the coffees and everything else that comes along with the performance center. You notice that I mentioned coffees there. And so if you are in the Bay Area, or if you are visiting the Bay Area, don't let it bypass you. We are in the Mission District of San Francisco. The address - 268 Alabama Street. Lots of fun ahead of us. We have a revolutionary new bike class, great coaching from the strength sessions, treadmill and strength circuits, and coming soon an outdoor strength circuit. It's going to be fantastically enjoyable, a great community experience, and the joy of all is we don't care who is fastest, strongest, or fittest. We care about you doing your very best. And so if you'd like to hear or see more information, you can either ping us at info@purplepatchfitness.com. Or, of course, you can head to the website, purplepatchfitness.com. And we have all of the information there. Alright, good stuff.
Matt Dixon 07:17
Now, talking of the center, the second piece of the puzzle that I want to talk about, and that is, you becoming a better cyclist. Guess what, we're going to give you the opportunity to get a whole lot better. Because since 2019, we have led video-based cycling coaching sessions. We got a little bit unlucky with the pandemic, but we also got lucky. It was always our vision to amplify the remote coaching experience. And we built this space that I'm in right now, to actually provide an opportunity for us to deliver content and video coaching to you at home wherever you are around the world. Of course, the pandemic forced us to accelerate in a really good way. And over the last two years, we've learned a lot about remote video coaching. And we've evolved and improved and tinkered and we've got a thriving community right now. But on November 15th, we're just about to launch our next evolution. And it is up to you, for you to join us from your trainer at home. Now, those that are watching this show today via YouTube, you can actually enjoy the little bit of a clip that I'm going to show right now, for the rest of us, I'm going to explain to our audience. We are launching a brand new platform that enables the very same type of bike coaching that you might experience if you and I were going on a bike ride together in person. We are having two-way video where I can see you and what you're doing and give you real coaching. We have the opportunity via this platform to simulate real Terrain Management, and not just riding at specific intensity, but hold you to account to actually navigate the terrain and learn how to become a better bike rider. It's all wrapped up in our structured and progressive training sessions that are designed specifically for time-starved athletes. And there's even a little gamification. Goodness me how I hate that word. But a little gamification in here, where we have a leaderboard relative to whenever you do the session, whether you're live or On Demand, in which we can stagger and rank people not to who is the strongest and who produces the most power, but who actually executes this session, as close as intended as possible. If you nail it 100% You're going to be on top of the leaderboard. If you fluff it - so far as your power or cadence, going too hard, too easy, it's too slow, too fast -
Matt Dixon 09:45
And then of course you plummet down the leaderboard. That makes it a lot of fun and enables everyone to thrive. Is it bike school? Yeah, a little bit. Is it in-person coaching? Yeah, there's an element of that. Is it the most effective training that you can possibly get for the Hour of Power that we're in there? It's all of the above. I promise you, you will become a better bike rider. And that's the outcome that we want. And that is our promise to you. This is going to be the backbone of all Purple Patch coaching, whether you're a single one-to-one athlete, whether you're a part of any of our squad programs. And on top of it all, it's going to be fun, you can join us from anywhere on-demand or live. If you want to find out more information, just drop us a note info@purplepatchfitness.com, we'll even send you a little link to give you a little bit of an insight into what it's like. And with that. It's coming on November 15. But Barry, it is time we've got a lot to talk about. And it is the five non-negotiables. Barry, let's do this. Let's hold hands. It is the Meat and Potatoes.
Matt Dixon 10:50
Yes, it is the meat and potatoes, and you might be listening today feeling similar to many other athletes and fitness enthusiasts. You might be committed to long-term goals in your overall performance journey. But you might also at the same time be feeling like you need to take a break, and perhaps invest your energy in other parts of life. Look, ultimately, the holidays loom. Work and family commitments never go away. And perhaps it's been a really long season of racing for you just feel like taking a step back a little bit. It's that time of year and so we want to talk in terms of the middle of the bell curve here. We realize that the vast majority of our listeners are starting to venture into some shorter, darker, and colder days ahead. And the distractions are high. Holidays, work, maybe a lack of racing, your mind naturally drifts to the other components of life. And so it's really understandable that around this time of the year, many, many athletes think you know what I'm going to pull the ripcord a little bit, I'm going to pull the parachute. And I'm going to remove all training structure. I'm just going to go invest my energy, my focus into the other parts of life.
Matt Dixon 12:05
So I'm not going to spend today going through and laying out my case of why you should take a different path If you are thinking of taking a break. I'm not going to highlight everything that's wrong with just going rogue and random. I've already done that in recent shows. Instead, we're going to get action focus today, we are going to lay out a plan for five things that you have to do if you really care about your future performance, five very simple things. So as a coach, the reason I want to do this is I realized at the same time that I'm just not going to get it my own way all the time. I realized especially with time-starved athletes that have got so many competing demands, I've got to have a little bit of compromise on my end as well. I aim to optimize within any situation. And so what I did after laying out my case, last week around the postseason, or offseason, and declaring the offseason as we know it is dead. And I put my stall and said it is so critical that you retain some framework and structure. I decided to take a little pause myself and I asked myself a simple question. Whether someone is an obsessive triathlete, a fitness enthusiast, an aspiring professional, or someone that's just kicking off their journey to performance. If I look forward over the coming two to three months, my question was this - What are the absolutes, the non-negotiables? In fact, I gave myself an opportunity to only outline five. Now it's quite greedy because I could have made it three. But I decided, You know what, I want to give my capacity to actually really gain some leverage, what are the five non-negotiables that every single person, that's performance-focused that cares about their health, their fitness, their performance, whether they're aspiring to qualify to the Hawaii Ironman or the Boston Marathon or simply looking to energize their life, what are the five things, as we venture into the winter months, that they should do, that they have to do in many ways? What are the five things that if you do it, at this time next year, you should be in a place where you can pause, look back and say, goodness, me, I cannot believe what I have become in an athletic sense? And those five things, I'm only allowed five no more. Those five things I'm excited to tell you after much thought are the things that are actionable for you. And that's what I want to go through today.
Matt Dixon 14:38
Okay, five things that you must do, everyone must do. The good news is that it's the same five things for everyone. There's no change. It doesn't matter who you are, or what your goals are. It's the same five things and that creates unity. It's so much easier when we do things together. And so these are the components that we can create maybe a whole bunch of accountability, don't you think, if we all commit to five simple things? It's really good. It's everything and is simple and actionable. And how about this? How about a give you a little bit of a promise, I promise that if you can commit to these five things, and this is a Purple Patch promise here, if you commit to these five things, and nail them over the coming three months, and then you will be in a superposition, to have a banner year of performance next year. That's pretty simple, yeah? Five things to do over three months, and you will position yourself to have a huge breakthrough next year. That is a Purple Patch, promise for you. Okay, so without further ado, I think we should get going. Five things. Let's get ready to go.
Matt Dixon 15:54
So before I dive into number one, a little bit of a note. You might listen today, and you might hear my five chosen non-negotiables and think, Oh, the injustice, he's missed one, how did he not say X, Y, and Z? How dare he? How rude of him. This is an outrage. And it's okay. If you feel like that, let me know, I want to hear from you. You can email me at info at purplepatchfitness.com. Or just ping us on social media. And I will listen, have reviewed, and perhaps if I agree with you that I was misplaced in my thinking with my top five, maybe I did make a glaring omission. And then we'll bring it to everyone's attention next week. If not, well, I'll explain why I think it's not that important. So with that in mind, before we just say, Okay, number one, let's get going, I think that we first need to align on success, because that becomes important.
Matt Dixon 16:49
The winter months, the majority of us listening are going into the winter months, notice that I didn't label it as the offseason because I declared that dead as we know it last week, but what is success for the course of the coming three months, when for most athletes, it's dark, it's cold, it's shorter days, and on top of it isn't a heavy emphasis on getting what we might label race ready for the competing athletes? What do we want to achieve over these three months? Well, actually, there are a lot of things. So let's align on those. And then we can dive into our five things. Very, very simple.
Matt Dixon 17:25
Number one, probably the most important thing over the coming three months, we want to refresh, rejuvenate, we want to gain huge mental and physical rejuvenation. And that's so that we can get going and emerge into spring really excited, highly motivated, and ready to be recharging and charging towards our goals. So that's the first thing that we want to get done. And that's very simple. We also secondly, want to have the opportunity to indeed invest in other parts of life over the course of the coming two or three months. I think is appropriate and important that we want to give back, place a little emphasis, and shine the light of focus on our work on our family and friends, other components of life. So those two things hold true, it's very, very important. Any structure that we do have, must be focused on that. Number three, we want to have a chance to play, we want to go and explore other things and do other activities, and we don't want to stay narrow in focus. When I talk about the development of a child athlete, we always talk about being multi-sport trying different things. And it's really healthy that we retain that play mindset when we are adults as well. And so in the coming two or three months, you want to get to go and do other things. You don't want to stay narrow in focus or field. Good. That's really important. I think that also, it presents while achieving those two, or three freedom components, we want to start to establish some really important habits and a sense of control over our life structure and our calendar. This is a great time to actually establish really good habits of how we do things in our performance life. So as we emerge into spring, we feel stable, we feel like we're in control. And we're in a place of familiarity so that then we can turn back our focus to some heavier training becomes really, really important. Is there anything else that we want to get done? Well, it turns out there is I think this is a great opportunity to establish some really good supporting habits. While we have less of a focus and laser focus on heavy training, we can establish really good habits around eating, sleeping, and fueling daily hydration. We also want to try and enhance our daily energy and get really healthy we want to improve our muscular-skeletal system so that we can eradicate pain, become more resilient, improve our posture, and ultimately when we launch into the spring, we want to be in a place where we've got a firm foundation and base, that when we turn training up again, the body is situated in a place where we can absorb the training when we amp the training up, the body can adapt to it so that it can get fitter, stronger and more powerful. So that means that we've got two almost polarising focuses. Freedom, investing in the other components of life, while setting the body up, to be prepared to train really hard and yield great adaptations that are going to provide performance results. Those are the things the two big pillars that we want to try and create. And that's what, whatever you want to label it, we call it postseason. Some people call it the offseason.I don't really like any of those phrases, I would call it a phase of healthy preparation, if anything, but these coming winter months. That's what we're looking to do. That is what we're seeking. Now, it's not actually that much. And it's really important. As I talked about, in recent weeks, I would label this as the most important thing as a predictor of success that you can possibly get. And yet is the component that the vast majority of amateur athletes, miss, bypass, kind of mess up in lack of another way. And so we're looking to do three things. We're looking to rest, we're looking to play, and we're looking to set up. That's a very simple way of thinking at recharge and rest, get the chance to go play, but also set ourselves up. Sounds really compelling. You can write that on your arm because I don't want you to forget that that is our winter mission for us. And so under that banner, what do you need to do? Well, five things, Barry with great fanfare. Give me number one.
Matt Dixon 22:01
Yes, number one, the non-negotiable. If you want to be successful, remember a banner, rest and recharge, play, and then set yourself up. The first thing that you must do is to retain some training structure while amplifying your focus on the rest of life. That is a non-negotiable. I think it all collapses if you just go random and go rogue. If you turn your back on the training structure and just say I'm going to stay in shape, you will fail. I hate to tell you that. But it's simply a non-negotiable part of the journey. Go random turn your back. And I can't promise you any major performance gains over the course of the coming year. That's how strongly I feel. Now interestingly, recently, I built a whole blog around race build plans, that's the part of the year that 12 to 16, up to 20 weeks that where people lead into their races. I'm going to post this blog in the show notes. And I really encourage you to go and have a read of it. Because it's going to in many ways, focusing on the race build, the last weeks into a race, help actually highlight why this part of life, these winter months are so important to retain some structure. In the piece, I outline why it's such a common approach of athletes to have hyper-focus over those 16 to 20 weeks leading into a race and why it's actually followed. Especially if you are a time-starved athlete. In other words, you're looking to optimize a reduced amount of training hours relative to what a professional athlete or someone that has no time restrictions in their life might have. It becomes really important and I encourage you to read this because one of the main points that I make in this blog is the wholesale benefits of training structure throughout life. If we actually retain training structure in life, it creates - beyond consistency of training, where you're building muscular resilience, cardiovascular conditioning, etc. - A training structure is actually the very framework that allows organization. And that becomes really important because having some structure in your life is the very key that unlocks effectiveness in work, in giving time to family and friends. There is a real value proposition to having a training structure and the accountability that that brings, then it amplifies focus in other components of life. There is a greater tendency when you have some structure around it for then to have a knock-on effect of maintaining or even improving some of the supporting habits. People tend to sleep better, tend to eat better, and tend to think about hydration, some of the components that are going to promote health, promote better energy throughout the day, and of course yield the adaptations and results that you want from any training you do. And so what I'm really asking you in point number one is to do two things at once. I want you to get refreshed, and deliver invested energy to work and family and friends, etc. At the same time, I want you to stay structured.
Matt Dixon 25:23
And so the answer to the question is really, how, how do you do this? Well, let me make up a case study for you. Okay, this is just a mythical case study. But it's compelling because it's very, very typical. Let's imagine we've got a guy called Johnny. Now, Johnny's wonderful and he tends to train about 10 to 12 hours a week in the middle of his season. That's a lot of exercise for a very busy time-starved executive with a family. But Johnny is committed. And when he's in the heart of his training, 10 to 12 hours a week, that week, requires a lot of planning. In fact, there are always some negotiations and compromises that are happening with the other commitments in both life and work and family and friends. There's very little wiggle room in the week-to-week and day-to-day for Johnny. It's a highly structured existence, where he can prepare for the events, at the same time, yield the health and energy benefits that come from being a trained and athletic, focused individual. And so that's the structured life that he lives. Now, Johnny is highly effective, but rightfully, at the end of his season, as he ventures into the winter months, he wants more capacity of life. At the same time, I've been very successful in saying Johnny, don't go rogue on me. And so the way that we would build it out, is radically first radically reduced the amount of training hours. So he can shift from 10 to 12 hours a week, down to about 5 to 7 hours. Straight away that's great, greatly more capacity, almost 50% more capacity on his training time each week, and he can invest those leftover hours to life, work, family, etc. Now, under those 5 to 7 hours a week, John is going to retain 3 key sessions a week, non-negotiables. Those sessions are really important, and highly specific. They might be run-specific, they might be an amplified focus on strength. They might be some low cadence work on the bike, also working on form and posture, but three key sessions in any given week that are highly structured. And then, with the remaining hours, the other 2, 3, 4 or five hours a week that he might have, we're gonna amplify Johnny's focus on what we might call soul-filling training, really fun free workouts. Now they're still high value, they still have a greater capacity for flexibility. It's an opportunity for Johnny to even try new things and introduce other associated elements, they actually don't even require anywhere near the same presence and focus, which may be much of his other training debts, but they are still contributing towards the journey. And so what we've done straight away is reduce John’s focus time on highly specific training down to 2 or 3 hours a week. The rest of the time, we're going to retain some structure with greatly more flex. It's really a mental recharge, fun, free different, whether it's hiking, going for a gravel bike ride, whether it's maybe cross country skiing, or whatever Johnny really likes. And still, he has on the back end, more hours in the week to go and apply focus to the other components of life. He's retaining structure, but he has the capacity for the rest of life. And that's a winning competition. But let's go one step further. And let's help Johnny even more. Because for the coming couple of months, as he ventures in, I'm also going to encourage him to dial back the obsession. And so I don't want him over the course of the coming couple of months to feel that extra capacity that he has those 4,5, 6 extra training hours that he's not spending training now. I don't want him obsessing over next season. In fact, over the course of the training, he doesn't need to overly obsess around heart rate power files are the components of the quantified self. Instead, we released the shackles, he has a much greater degree of flexibility. Indeed, if Johnny wants to, remember our mission of the coming two to three months, if he wants to enter into spring, mentally recharged and really excited, as much mental as it is physical. And then he wants to retain that specificity and we get that in the three key sessions. But he must increase his capacity to place focus elsewhere, but also step away from the mental challenge and the cognitive load of being hyper-focused. So in other words, when you build all of that out, it comes to something very, very simple for Johnny. And I want you to remember this - effectively, what I want Johnny to do, and what I want you to do is turn your back on the sports without turning your back on your performance journey. Let me say that, again, it's important because this isn't black or white, but this is the magic elixir here on non-negotiable number one. If you want to arrive recovered, mentally and physically, but also equipped to charge in the spring. And then you must effectively turn your back on the sport, but not turn your back on your global performance journey. That's the secret. And if you do it, right, you can embrace the holidays without making your training the epicenter of any trip or relaxation, you can actually go and enjoy some holiday occasions, and you can remove some of the inner drive and the commitment that you feel. But you can still progress, you can still move forward. Because to move forward right now, actually isn't about making huge fitness gains. Instead, it's more about preparing you to achieve fitness gains when we dial up training load come the spring. And that is a huge and important difference. So think about that you're turning your back on the sport without turning your back on the performance journey. And you're doing highly specific work that is preparing you but isn't seeking to achieve the performance needle driving, boost in power, boost in fitness, boost in speed, etc. We're not even chasing that right now. We're setting up the body so that it has the capacity to absorb the hard training that is coming. And you want to yield it in the future months. It's a huge thing. Your litmus of success. right now, for Johnny and for you? If your friends, your non-competitive, non-sporting friends are asking you if you quit. Did you stop doing marathons triathlons, whatever it might be? Have you quit your sport? If you're getting that question, guess what? You're probably doing it right. At the same time, like James Bond, you're doing some very stealth training to prepare the body for the future. That is the non-negotiable. And I'm only half joking about that, folks. And so I encourage you to invest in other things, and fill your life with things outside of the sporting passion, but at the same time, you want to prepare. That is our number one non-negotiable. If you remember nothing else from today's show. That is what I want you to achieve. Are you in? I'm in. Barry's in. My brothers are sure to be in. That's the start of a tribe, isn't it? Shall we get going? All right, let's retain the structure.
Matt Dixon 33:20
And with that, we can go on to number two. Number two. All right, that is a commitment to strength training. Yes, a commitment to strength and conditioning, is critically important. Now, whenever I talk about strength, we have a lot of athletes that well maybe think that I'm different talking to different populations. Is it really important for me? You know, I'm a triathlete and so I'm focused on some bike and run and that's what it takes. And so what I thought we would do today, first, is outline whose strength training is appropriate for because if I'm going to make a non-negotiable commitment over the course of the coming two to three months, we need to understand who we're talking to. So this is who will benefit from this commitment, actually taking on strength as a priority in your overall performance recipe. I think it's critically important for females over the age of 40 years of age. Okay, so females over 40. Number one, it's also critical for females that are teenage years up to the age of 40. Okay, that sounds pretty all-encompassing. It's very important for males over 40. And I would also say that it's critically important for males that are teenagers, up to about 40. All right, so that's pretty all-encompassing as well. Anyone else? Yes. Transgender and non-binary folks, teens to 40 important for you folks. And finally, transgender and non-binary folks over 40 years of age. In other words, it is important for everyone, elites, amateurs, folks that are into manual labor, people that do desk jobs, parents, busy executives, teachers, nurses, everybody, even dictators. That's how important - my list can go on forever. Did I miss anyone? You, in the back? Put your hand up? If so, no, I didn't miss you. Yes, folks, strength training is beneficial for YOU. It is beneficial for you. And it wants to be structured. It wants to be progressive. And it wants to be focusing on strength and conditioning. And this is the perfect time, much as I talked about InsideTracker earlier a great time to assess your health and your biometrics, this is the perfect time to shine the light on strength and conditioning. Endurance athletes, this is the great time to actually commence or amplify your focus on strength and conditioning, particularly as you have a lower emphasis on the demands around your endurance activities. So it becomes really, really important.
Matt Dixon 36:11
Now I always get the question, what are the components of an effective strength and conditioning program? Well, if you do strength and conditioning appropriately, you should experience improved motor patterns. So better synchronization, better coordination. In other words, you get to be more athletic, that's really good. We get to improve our posture, our stability, and our balance. So, therefore, better athletic awareness, a better platform to go and launch into any type of endurance activity that we might do, we should improve joint mobility, get a better range of motion around our joints, good for tissue health, and that becomes important. An appropriate strength and conditioning plan should also foster improvements in bone, muscle, and connective tissue health. And on top of it all, as an outcome of all of that, you should get stronger, and lay a platform that you can improve your power on - your resilience, and your muscular endurance. And you can see how that dovetails into some really fascinating results. Because it is, as an associated supporting element, a future reduction of injury risk. That's obviously the thing that people talk about a lot. But it goes beyond that, you're also going to have a bedrock of the opportunity for performance gains in really any endurance activity. You're going to have a pathway to improving your body composition - that's really healthy and good, and actually, it's proven to amplify your energy and your focus. And on top of it all, for you folks that spent a lot of time doing what I'm doing right now, with very poor posture, sitting at a desk and feeling my low back and my neck, it actually can help you retain and improve your posture and reduce some of the many pain points that are associated with an inactive lifestyle. And so if you want to be the best version of yourself, and you want to improve how you feel, how you perform, and how you manage your health and energy, strength is at the center of it all. It is the bedrock that we build out from. And it begins now. And that's why it is our second commitment.
Matt Dixon 38:32
Our third commitment is a little bit more free than that. Because our third non-negotiable this winter is I would encourage you to go play. Remember that I'm calling for retaining structure. I'm asking you to keep progression. We're laying the bedrock so that you can be prepared to amplify and accelerate when the spring comes. But at the same time, our third non-negotiable is I want you to have plenty of opportunity this winter to go play, especially if going to play is in activities that actually complement progression in your main sport or passion. Let me give you a case study. Let me talk about the Purple Patch Performance Center. At this center here many of our San Francisco-based triathletes are wholly focused on driving their performance gains - swim, bike, run, swim, bike run - very specific training. Over the course of the winter months, a lot of them are going to lean into some really fun and different activities. In fact, we're already seeing a whole bunch of folks that are like, Oh, what's that? A treadmill and circuit class? That sounds quite interesting. And it is treadmill intervals, form-focused, a little bit of strength-based, and a little bit of speed combined with some strength and conditioning, mixing it all up into an hour of fun circuit training, heavily coached. I'm going to have a little bit of that. And it's great because it is parallel and associated. And while it isn't central to their plan, it still fits under the umbrella of the overall progression. And so they get to do stuff that sets them up and progresses them at the same time. It's not laser specific to a traditional triathlon plan. Now, as they move into the summer months, and they start priming for their races, they'll probably let that fade away. But over the course of these winter months, is community-driven, they're still going to have the opportunity to improve their running form and biomechanics because they're in a small group coaching session. They're integrating some strength and conditioning. And it's just really fun. And so that's an opportunity that you can leverage.
Matt Dixon 40:43
But perhaps you're not in San Francisco. So what else do we mean? Well, I really encourage you to think outside of the box on this. The world is your sort of oyster. There are a few ideas for you -- cyclists, get off the time trial bike, maybe even get off the road bike, and go play on different bicycles. Perhaps you live in Minneapolis, go and get a fat tire bike, go riding in the snow, go and play out there. Perhaps you live in Colorado, get on the gravel bikes, and go and play on mountain bikes. If the weather allows, and you live in Arizona, go and explore new roads on a road bike, go and have fun. Don't obsess about the power meter or your heart rate. Go and explore. Keep it fun, keep it mixed, and don't obsess about the metrics. But beyond this, there are loads of other sports that are really addictive, additive, and really fun. There's cross-country skiing, this downhill skiing, it's fine and great to do that. Just please keep it sane and stay safe. Hiking, snowshoeing, trail running. Indoor folks in New York City, ergo-ing really, really beneficial. And on top of that, oh, you can actually remove yourself from the center of the equation and give to other people. If you're a parent, or you've got a buddy that's looking to get into the performance journey, don't think about faster, faster, faster. Take a friend out who's slower than you, who's maybe just getting into the sport, and be a mentor. Help them ignite their passion. Whatever sport they're doing, whether it's going for an easy run or a walk, run, or maybe it's learning a bicycle, whatever it might be, go with them and help them. Don't worry about going too slow, it's going to be beneficial. And if you've got kids, get them outside, take them hiking, riding, swimming. Play, don't train, play. Stay active, but not obsessive. Remember, you've got key two or three workouts that you're doing outside of that you've got freedom. Remember the mantra, you want to effectively turn your back on the sport without turning your back on the performance journey. And so beyond the framework of specificity that we have, there is a capacity to add play into this. And it’s activities that can foster mental rejuvenation and freshness, but at the same time cross-pollinate to an effective training outcome.
Matt Dixon 43:14
Well, Barry, the vice is starting to tighten. I've gotten through three non-negotiables. And that means I've only got two more opportunities. So far, we've talked about the opportunity or the need to refresh but at the same time retain structure. The second thing I talked about is a commitment to strength. I then unshackled ourselves and said, Go play people, we can do it. And so let's dive into the last two.
Matt Dixon 43:40
Last two, this is important. Number four. I encourage you this winter, to revisit, evolve, and improve your habits around fueling and eating. It's really component, I pull my hair out every year, the little hair that I've got left. I pull it out every year when I hear athletes tell me, all right, I've got to get ready for my race but now is the time for me to drive towards race weight. We're two months out. And we're trying to do two different things. We're trying to prepare physically with the training to get you healthy, fit and race-ready. And at the same time, the athlete wants to go on a diet and it is two trains going in the polar opposite direction. In fact, it is always a losing combination to try and radically and deliberately drop weight while seeking to fuel the training that is required to perform at the level that you want to do in your events. It isn't that body composition and weight won't actually improve as you're shining and priming for those races. But it can't be a focus is too risky to make it a drive towards it while you're looking to train. There is a better way and that better way is now. It is a wonderful time, when our training focus is less, for you to actually build habits and make really positive body composition changes. And if you're an athlete, even develop an enhanced ability to utilize fat, which is a big energy store, as your predominant fuel source. So what I can't do today is I can't be overly prescriptive. I can't say on this show, great, here is a nutrition and fueling plan for you and every athlete, and this is how I want you to do it. I'm gonna leave that to the experts, our friends at fuelIN. But I will give you some tools that you have available that you could consider injecting into your own program. So the first component that I always like athletes to do at this time of the year, is really developing the habit and the understanding of how to fuel post workouts. I think that's the most important habit, then athletes can nail down following a workout, ensuring that they understand carb and protein, that they are recharging and refueling to facilitate adaptations to limit the stress that we don't need to carry around for the rest of the day. And to energize the activities that we're going to have over the course of any workday.
Matt Dixon 46:18
It begins here. It's really important. And so this is a time to develop that habit. So post-workout fueling. Also, if body composition or weight is something that you want or need to improve, then this is the time of year that you can strategically and hopefully, under expert guidance, you can create a very light caloric deficit relative to your training and energy demands over the course of any different day. You still want to eat well, you still want to fuel the key training sessions, and you always want to fuel post-training. But this is an opportunity that over the course of any given day, any given week, you can create a slight energy deficit, because ultimately, that's going to be the thing that is going to yield changes in weight and body composition. Now, this is not about going on some radical diet. It's not about voodoo eating styles, I'm not calling you to make this a punishment on yourself. I'm not looking for you to seek highly self-afflicting caloric restriction. Instead, it is a crafted plan to improve body composition. And if that is a focus for you, over the course of the coming year, now is the time to shine the light on it. And again, I would much prefer that you do it in collaboration with a real expert that understands nutrition, but most importantly, nutrition for yourself, your profile of who you are, and also someone that understands athletics.
Matt Dixon 47:58
I myself love the team from fueling, we know that you can of course, get a hold of them through the Purple Patch website. But most importantly, don't go on that journey alone. A third component that you can do under the course of the banner of nutrition and fueling is for the athletes a little bit of what we might label periodization of carbohydrates. Now, this relates to actually some of your low training sessions, some of your low-intensity training sessions, you can actually participate or execute those under lower carbohydrate conditions. We can actually look to reduce some of the fuelling demands during training. Certainly don't be the first one to put out the gels and the Gatorade. Remove those from your equation when training stress is low. And instead, try and restrict or reduce the dependency on carbohydrates. In fact, some athletes might benefit from a few fat utilization sessions. I prefer this under the care of a professional coach or nutritionist. But this is the time of the year that if we do want to improve our dependency on fuel, as fat as a fuel source, this is the time of the year we can do it. Training stress is lower, and therefore we have the opportunity to have much fewer risks to do it. Over the course of that, the final thing I'll say under the banner of nutrition and fueling is of course either maintain or improve your daily habits of hydration, because that has a knock-on effect on your daily energy and life. And so I'll say this, that if you plan over the course of the coming year to think you know what I might actually really have a focus on nutrition this year, I really want to dial in my fueling, my hydration, my body composition, whatever it might be. This is the time to actually get on board with your nutritionist of choice. It's not in the last two to three months before a race, this is the time. Because this is where they can set up strategies and habits and empower you, and in fact educate you, to make the best decisions around this. And it is the time when training stress is lower, that you really have the mental capacity to apply the lessons and put the habits in bases. And then when training ramps up, you've got the habit creation, you've got the strategies, and you can parallel your nutritional demands with increasing demands of training. And that becomes a winning proposition. And that's why I chose number four, a focus on your daily eating habits as a non-negotiable this winter, it is the golden opportunity to lay the groundwork. And that means that you have one more non-negotiable left.
Matt Dixon 50:56
The final one, we talked about strength, we talked about taking a break and recovery, we talked about nutrition, and body composition. We even talked about going out and having a little bit of playtime. So what is the final non-negotiable for you to unlock next year's performance? Remember my promise if you get them all right, then you will have a great year next year. I promise that, didn't I? Well, they say that nothing is free in this world. That's true. Nothing is free. The truth is that if you want to make something really special happen for yourself, you need to go out and make it happen. There's no sugarcoating here. You do the work, you work your tail off within the lighter structure, with fewer hours and you will, as a non-negotiable, lay your performance foundation. That is number five, let's talk about the specific training that you need to do. In order for you to show up in the spring and be ready to charge. We have to talk about training, we talked about taking a break. Just returning to a little bit of structure. We talk about recovery, we talk about nutrition, we talk about strength, we talk about going out to play, what's the training that you need to do. Here's what your specific training needs to encompass. It is a wonderful time of year to improve your technique. And so any of the training that you do that you are focused on and present, we’ll label it those three or four key sessions a week, where you're going to be present, those training sessions must be with a heavy focus on improved posture and technique. It's skill-building. That's number one. Number two,
Matt Dixon 52:43
if you are a cyclist or a runner, this is a wonderful chance to start to lay the bedrock of what we call strength endurance, Hill base work, hiking, running treadmills low cadence on the bike strength endurance work that begins right now. Because those two elements in biking and running are going to improve your posture and your form. But also strengthen the connective tissue around your knees, your hips, and your ankles, so that when we charge up training later, your body from a tissue standpoint, muscular skeletal standpoint, is ready to absorb without getting injured. And so there is a strength component not just in the gym, strength, and conditioning, but also on the bike and the run. So we've got a heavy technical focus, we've got a strength focus in our endurance training that we do, of course, mountain biking, uphill, cross country skiing, all of that component is really valuable as well. I would add to that, that a lot of the playtime activity and some of the lower stress training that you do going out on very easy running, going out on hiking, going on some easy bike riding, whether it's on the trainer or outside, is a wonderful opportunity for you to improve your efficiency, your dependency on fat as a fuel source. And that means that a good amount of your training, we label it soul-filling, needs to be effectively low intensity, conversational. We've got some high-intensity work, we've got some strength base work, we've got some short hard intervals, but the rest of it can be really easy. In fact, you can smoke a pack of cigarettes with every longer bike ride that you go on. And while you're doing that, you can under-fuel. Any fuel that you do consume can be real food trail mix peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But as much as possible, try and avoid sugary foods. Because we want to reduce the hourly caloric support and try and make you more effectively efficient at drawing on fat as a fuel source. And so a lot of your training, unstructured as it might be, can be low low intensity, conversational, easy. We call it smoking jackets. Very calm and very light. And finally, the final component that we have around your training is to set up your muscular-skeletal system to be ready to adapt and absorb to very hard work that's coming. And that means that you can retain structure on the specific sessions, but be very, very frequent and consistent on a whole bunch of easy training. And if you run most days, easy, light, low structure, you're going to improve your tendons, your muscles, your ligaments, and you're not getting fitter, faster, stronger, you're just building up the system so that you can absorb training coming up. And that's the value of the power of going easy, but keeping consistency in there, that tissue resilience, that is the catalyst to reduce injuries. And if you reduce injuries, it means that it's going to remove those forced pauses in structure training, when it really counts. And that's why when you put all of that together, if we do that, right, if over this winter, on radically reduced training hours, and much less emphasis and obsession around the structure, you get the freedom, but you lay your performance bedrock, your foundation. And that is the thing that is the catalyst to greatness. It doesn't take much. But it's important.
Matt Dixon 56:38
And so overall, guys, rather than viewing these winter months as daunting periods, in which you just can't put a foot wrong, you've got to stay obsessed, because you're committed as an athlete and retaining structure means that you're not getting any freedom in this. Instead, the approach here with the what we label an optimization mindset. This winter, you don't need to radically improve your fitness, you don't need to get faster, you don't need to be race ready, all you simply need to do is to set yourself up where you are in a position to be ready to boost fitness, to be primed to get faster, and in the months ahead, start to progress towards being race ready. It's about preparing yourself to prepare effectively. And that is a hugely different thing. What do they say? Failure to prepare is preparing to fail. That's not what we want. And so this is us this winter. This is what we're looking to do. With the time that you are focused and structured, remove the stressors of I've got to go fast, I've got to get more power, I've got to check that I'm boosting my FTP, all of that, remove it, turn your back on the sport. Be effective and focused in a little bit of your training. And then be free, go play focus on other things. And if you do that, right - I don't know about you, Barry, but it's liberating. It's exciting. It's empowering. It's energizing. I get to play, I get to have a few beers. I get to enjoy broader life, but also retain a little bit of structure and framework. And that's going to be a catalyst for huge breakthroughs in the coming year. For me, what that means is I can have it all, and guess what you can too. I'll see you next week. Remember, if you think I missed one, or if you feel it's an outrage, then just ping me on social media. Instagram is @purplepatchfitness, my Twitter is @purplepatch, or of course all of the other social networks that we're on, or simply email us at info@Purple Patch fitness.com. But if you think I nailed them all, well go start implementing, have fun, reach out if you need our help and of course, let's get ready to rock and roll, because next year is just around the corner. Let's wrap up warm. Let's have a whiskey by the fire. Take care guys. We'll see you next week, cheers.
Matt Dixon 59:11
Guys. Thanks so much for joining. And thank you for listening. I hope that you enjoyed the new format. You can never miss an episode by simply subscribing, head to the Purple Patch channel on YouTube, and you will find it there and you could subscribe. Of course, I'd like to ask you, if you will subscribe, and also share it with your friends. And it's really helpful if you leave a nice positive review in the comments. Now any questions you have, let me know. Feel free to add a comment and I will try my best to respond and support you on your performance journey. And in fact, as we commence this video podcast experience. if you have any feedback at all, as mentioned earlier in the show, we would love your help in helping us to improve. Simply, email us at info@purplepatchfitness.com or leave it in the comments of the show on the Purple Patch page, and we will get you dialed in. We love constructive feedback. We are in a growth mindset as we like to call it. And so feel free to share with your friends, but as I said, let's build this together. Let's make it something special. It's really fun. We're really trying hard to make it a special experience. And we want to welcome you into the Purple Patch community. With that, I hope you have a great week. Stay healthy, have fun, keep smiling, doing whatever you do. Take care.
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
training, athletes, improve, important, non-negotiable, life, structure, focus, components, retain, performance, winter months, strength, fueling, patch, johnny, week, habits, a little bit, months