Episode 260: Ten Key Habits to Build Performance in Health, Work and Life
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As a companion to last week’s Purple patch Podcast episode on training plans for time-starved endurance athletes, today’s episode broadens the perspective by focusing on performance in health, work, and life.
ironman master coach Matt Dixon outlines a list of ten principles you need to put into action to build a platform of health and sustainable high performance.
You don’t need to be a pro athlete or even an experienced fitness enthusiast to apply these principles and maximize your results at home, work, or in the gym.
Matt walks us through a simple and actionable roadmap that will help you make informed health choices and simplify your approach to training so you can thrive in all areas of life.
These core habits are part of a proven approach built around promoting sustainability and long-term success in your performance journey.
Train, don’t exercise
You don't need to be training for a specific event in order to adopt an athletic mindset and approach. 11:33
Embrace High Intensity
Embrace the Soul-Filling Decompression
Integrate Strength
What I'm talking about here is not cosmetic lifting. This ain't Gold's Gym. In fact, what we're talking about here is...an opportunity to challenge yourself to live life to the fullest...This is about functional living. 23:20
Dial in daily hydration
Post Workout fueling
Food for Fuel Mindset
When you get that right, then you're going to stabilize energy, have consistency of your exercise and training performance sessions. And you're going to have a better immune system, and better resilience throughout the course of the day. 30:19
Limit alcohol
Prioritize sleep
Do stuff with others
It becomes more fun. It drives better performance, better engagement, and ultimately, it delivers greater rewards. 40:23
Episode Timestamps
00:00 - 4:57 - Welcome and Episode Introduction
05:12 - 8:21 - Word of the Week
8:29 - 43:00 - The Meat and Potatoes - Episode 260: Ten Key Habits to Build Performance in Health, Work and Life
Episode 259 - Training for a 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 00:24
Hey guys, in today's show, we broaden our perspective from last week's show when we were talking about training plans for endurance athletes, and today we talk about life performance. Yes, showing up the best version of yourself that is possible. But in this very broad topic, there is a blizzard of distracting and confusing information. And where should you apply your focus to try and move the performance needle? It can be a real challenge. But one of the tools that we use is InsideTracker. By assessing your biometrics, and then combining that with the insights from the team of scientists and experts at InsideTracker, we get to apply focus around the elements that we know are going to help you. And it's one of the key aspects of our performance journey that we leverage at Purple Patch. But you don't even need to be a Purple Patch athlete to leverage InsideTracker. All you need to do is head to insidetracker.com/purplepatch. And we have a nice code here, Purple Patch pro 20, that's Purple Patch Pro two zero, and you get 20% off everything at the store. We're going to talk about performance today. But you might just think about leveraging a magical tool to help you in your performance journey. And with that, join me, hold hands. Let's get on with the show. It's a goodie, take care.
Matt Dixon 01:52
And welcome to the Purple Patch podcast, as ever, your host, Matt Dixon. And I want to start today telling you about a little cartoon that I saw the other day that made me smile a little bit. Because it was a cartoon where it was a dog owner crying for help. My dog is poorly behaved, please help. And then to the right side of the cartoon, there was a strong arm with a sword in hand, you might think of it as a tool of change. And the quote next to the sword said, okay, here is gradual change through daily habits. And the end of the cartoon was a response from the dog owner, oh no, no thank you. I was hoping for an immediate solution that doesn't involve me at all. And that's just about dog training. But guess what that cartoon could have been about many things in life. Ultimately, let's face it, even the journey of you feeling better, improving your health, establishing sustainable, high performance. So many people look for quick fixes. We are funny things aren't we're humans. And it's no surprise, just like that cartoon suggests that we are so susceptible to things like fad diets, detox promises, quick fixes to higher energy, including the cold plunge I might point it out, gadgets and gimmicks that promise you so so much, but deliver so little. And so today, what I'm gonna do is filter all of that out. And I'm gonna give you 10 actionable things, 10 principles, that what I suggest you do you put these principles into action. Because if you do that you're going to build a platform of health, you are going to be on a journey to achieve sustainable high performance.
Matt Dixon 03:38
Now all of today's show really emerges from last week's episode where we talked about training programs for time-starved endurance athletes. But we take the principles and this week we broaden our perspective, we think about performance across health, work, and life. And so in other words, it's a much bigger net, because today, we're not just focusing on the endurance athlete we're focusing on Well, everyone, and I think that's pretty cool. The good news is, I'm not going to try and blanket you with confusing concepts. Instead, I'm gonna try and drive complexity into simple and actionable. But bear in mind, just because I tried to deliver things in a simple and accessible way -- everything I talked about today is valid is proven, it works -- so it's really meaningful. So I really encourage you to take these principles on board, apply them, and I promise you, you're gonna be on the journey to better performance. Now, before we get going, I do want to point out that this week, we have been flooded with mail, and the theme of the mail has been pretty consistent. And that is that you guys absolutely loved having Barry back on the boards, singing, playing the guitar. And so I thought we'd do it again. Here we go, guys. It is Yes, indeed. Word of the Week.
Matt Dixon 05:12
Yes. Word of the Week, ladies and gentlemen, and this week it's a goodie, it is a phrase: Freedom to Fail. Freedom to Fail? Yes, that is a common saying that we used to hold strong at the Purple Patch pro squad. And before you go, What? Freedom to Fail? Failure, what? Is Matt saying failure is okay? I thought this was about high performance. I get it. Because when I first introduced this concept to the pro athletes, they were maybe a little slow to let it mesh in and marinate. Once it did actually get on board, it became liberating. To appreciate what I mean by this, I want to highlight two truths in sport. And in fact, I would say two truths in life as well. Number one, sport provides no guarantees. In other words, you can do everything in your control, you can prepare great, you can feel great. But that doesn't mean you're owed excellent performance. In fact, a part of the magic of sport is the jeopardy of it. The second component is that failure, that word failure, is not linked to a bad performance. In other words, just because you have a rough day, it doesn't necessarily mean you failed. The way that I see failure is, it's about you not doing your best in the elements that you actually have control over. And that's a really different thing. So freedom to fail, that embraces these key concepts. In other words, what I'm aiming to do with the pro athletes there is help them develop an internal locus of control. So focus on the elements and control the elements that you can actually have under your license or control, execute those to the very best of your ability and then be unshackled and go give it the best shot that you possibly can. And when you do that, what you actually have is the very best opportunity for a great outcome. And that's really liberating. It actually shifts the relationship of that big nasty thing a race. And then if, and just if, things don't go well. If you have a bit of a rough day, we're going to be there to support you to help you learn and put forth the lessons into future growth and better performance. And that's what they call a what is it? The journey? That's right. And so it's no wonder by taking on this mindset, we managed to create such sustainable, very, very good results across the pro squad. And so as we think about this today, and athletes that have upcoming looming races, embrace this perspective a little bit. Take on a big challenge. The Word of the Week this week is, Freedom to Fail. It's a winning mindset. Talking of winners, we're back to Barry Barry, let's do it. It's a cracker today. It is time for The Meat and Potatoes.
Matt Dixon 08:22
Yes, folks, it is The Meat and Potatoes. Last week we talked about training plans for the time-starved endurance athlete, I encourage you if you're an athlete to go back and listen to that episode, it was very good. This week, we frame out a roadmap through principles once again to develop a platform of health and performance across work and life. Now as I started off The Meat and Potatoes last week, I'll say it again, we are here for you. In fact, we coach a whole bunch of very serious athletes. But a lot of the Purple Patch athletes are not event-driven at all. They're not actually chasing performance in sport, they are looking to actually amplify what we're talking about today, both in the center in San Francisco, tying in remotely to that center, as well as individual coaching, and our squad programs. And so if you would like to get involved with Purple Patch, if I inspire you today, we are here to have a conversation, simply reach out info@purplepatchfitness.com. Let the folks on the other end of that email thread -- let them know that you heard about this via the Purple Patch podcast and we will set up a complimentary call with you. But our main focus today is education. And so we are thinking about mapping a path to your best self. And I think that sounds quite inspiring, doesn't it? Last week, I talked about five deeper principles around training plan. Today I'm going to double it. I'm going to talk about the 10 core habits that I believe are non-negotiable. And if you dial these in, all ten of them, I think that you will be well ahead in the game of your performance journey. Now, while it's all 10, it sounds like a lot, I promise you that when you get this right, it's going to be liberating. These 10 principles are really pretty simple. And if you can dial these in, they will become your framework of how you operate. And so you're no longer going to be distracted by the quick fix promises across diets and other components. You will no longer need to feel the pull to integrate a whole host of funky practices. You will be free from falling into the trap of so much of the fake marketing out there on stuff that may you're more likely not actually help you. And so we're talking about habit creation here. 10 key habits that ultimately will simplify your life. And guess what, then you can get on by living your life and actually maximizing it. And so let's do it. Let's hold hands 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, bang, bam, good to go. Let's do it. Here we go.
Matt Dixon 11:05
Principle number one without further ado, Barry, principle number one is very simple. And it's important. I want you to train and don't exercise. That phrase is really important. Like last week, when I did a whole episode on building training plans, it's very simple for training athletes that are event-driven to actually think about a structured training program. But you don't need to be training for a specific event in order to adopt an athletic mindset and approach. In other words, it's very simple. If you do something in a random and scattered way, it's most likely that you're going to get some pretty random and scattered results. And so why don't you put a little bit of method behind the madness, so that you can actually get the best return on investment, you don't need to identify as an athlete to actually train. That's why we'd like to say at Purple Patch that everyone is an athlete, all you need to actually simply have is a passion about improving your health, heightening your energy, and of course your performance across your life. One of the biggest mistakes or issues that I have with group fitness globally, is the ala carte concept of it. It's the antithesis of what we think about with the Purple Patch Performance Center. And that's for very good reason. It's two words, that goes through all of the training we do, whether it's in this place where I'm sitting right now, or whether it's one of our remote coaching programs, and that is structured and progressive. It is really important that you train at the right level for you. And that can be vastly different for different folks because some people are just getting going, other people are trying to win World Championships. So train at the right level for you and then, here's the word, progress your load and stimulus in a structured or sensible manner. If you get these things right, you're going to reduce the risk of plateau, you're going to heighten your opportunity to stay healthy, in other words, eradicate or at least lower your risk of injury and illness, and on top of it, you're going to amplify the adaptations and the results that you get from your hard work that you put in. And that's really compelling. On top of it, you enjoy it more, because you're actually training in a way that's progressive building victories rather than just scattered and getting random results. In any weekly recipe, you Yes, you. Yes, you. In any given week, you need four key elements of training. So you want to think about these four elements or four legs of a chair or a stool. They're really important. Number one, you need strength and conditioning. Okay, that's really important, we all need to lift heavy things. Number two, you need to do a host of what I call it soul-filling, lower-intensity training. On the flip side number three, you need to do at least twice a week some high-intensity intervals. High intensity is very stressful. An intensity or an effort in which your heart rate is high, your breathing is very labored. And number four, you need to do a host of core works stability and synchronization. We'll bucket that all into one little leg of the stool. And when you integrate those four elements in a structured and progressive way, you are training, you're not exercising, I will say and yes that is why a coach has a really important role to play. Many folks think about coaching and just think oh goodness me coaching. I'm not good enough for that. I don't need a coach or I'm not training for anything specifically right now, I haven't entered a marathon. So I don't need a coach. But that's not true because a coach can actually help you appreciate where you're at, build up your training recipe, provide perspective, and also help you course correct when things go off track. And things always do get off track because it's the performance journey. And so principle number one is train don't exercise.
Matt Dixon 15:26
So let's dig in a little bit. On principle number two, I need you to under that banner of principle number one, training, embrace high-intensity exercise. It's really, really important for anyone that cares about their health and performance. Now, this is a part of the training recipe. But the truth is, you need to hit it hard, Sally. Just low intensity, mundane, I go out for a jog, I do a walk -- it's not going to hit it, it's not going to be enough. Now for a training athlete that's getting ready for a triathlon or a marathon or a 5k, this is pretty intuitive. And most athletes understand when I say high intensity, they think, Hmm, that's not gonna be very comfortable. And it's true, it's not. But if you're not a training competing athlete, let me define what I mean by high intensity. High-intensity exercise is basically where it's really challenging to speak while you're doing the activity. And that's because your heart rate is high and your breathing is labored. This type of effort level is not sustainable for long periods. At most, it's probably sustainable for one to three minutes at a time. And quite often, the intervals, as we like to call them are even shorter than that. Now, I should preface this, of course, of course, with clearance from your medical specialists first, assuming that you have clearance, I would highly recommend high-intensity interval training. Why? Well, there are countless reasons is the truth. But I'm going to give you just a few quick hits today. Number one, it gives you a huge performance yield, it is a really good training stimulus that you are going to get stronger, faster, and feel better, in a much quicker, accelerated manner. Boom, bingo.
Matt Dixon 17:20
I get a reward for it really, really good. But there's more than that. Number two, the hormonal reaction that occurs, I'm sure that you felt really good endorphin hits of dopamine and other hormones. And that high-intensity training that you do, well, it gives you the buzzer, man, it gives you the buzz. It's a stimulating and emotionally rewarding activity that energizes your mind and actually amplifies your cognitive function. And that's all peer-reviewed. And so high intensity training is a good tool to use if you want to amplify your cognitive function in the day. But what about broader health? Well, yeah, there's that as well. Recent research suggests that it has a protective mechanism against some cancers. Other research highlights the protective mechanism that occurs in the aging of skin cells, cells. So ladies and gentlemen, yes, it is the fountain of youth. And there's a host of other benefits as well. But once again, under the clearance of your doctor, I highly recommend again, but twice a week, it's important that you hit high-intensity training. Now, if you feel lost, and you're just not sure how to start, I'll give you a kick up the backside, I'll give you a little get-going sort of piece of advice. This might include for you 20 minutes worth of intervals. And it might be something as simple as six or seven or eight up to 10 intervals, where you go one minute at a very strong effort, one minute, easy, and you go back and forth to the amount of times that you can up to about 10 minutes at a time. Over the course of those rounds. Very simple. Now this can be through different modalities. It might be walking in power walking, it might be walking and running for the minute it might be sitting on a rowing ergometer and going hard and easy. But a simple kickstart a framework is one minute hard, one minute easy, really, really simple. That's very different for you guys that are competing athletes that say, Oh, I know all about intervals. What are you talking about? But that's a really key. Principle number two that all of us need to embrace. So meet yourself where you're at, but embrace high-intensity training.
Matt Dixon 19:24
Principle number three, we go to the other end of the equation. And we're going to label this soul-filling exercise and training. Let me dispel a myth. Not all of the exercise and training that you do needs to be challenging. In fact, it can be let me shout it down the hallways. It can be enjoyable. If you embrace some strength training and you integrate a couple of high-intensity training sessions each week, most of the remainder of the sessions can be social, enjoyable, and actually have a really important role in you decompressing from the stresses of the other factors of life. A whole bunch of your training is really valuable, even when not creating deep fatigue. So many people associate exercise and training as just being hard. And think that the only way that it benefits is if you finish it with hands on knees thinking, goodness me bring me the bucket, but it's a myth. By keeping intensity very, very low, you actually improve your utilization of fat as fuel, you get a detoxing issue with stress hormones, we call it the dishwasher effect where circulating blood helps us eradicate or lower our stress hormones. That's very soothing Ladies and gentlemen, and it also improves your health parameters around cardiovascular health, cholesterol and many other factors. And guess what, if you get it right, as well, it can improve your posture, your overall bodily function. And I absolutely love it when I see someone that is struggling to exercise but starts to integrate high-intensity training, and then realizes that that tough training can be balanced with really, really low stress, enjoyable stuff, and starting to yield the rewards from that. Where they actually get to connect with the outdoors, have a little bit of fun, enjoy maybe a little free play. And I know it sounds like a paradox, but giving away a little bit of the specificity and making a good amount of your training, structured, progressive, but low intensity, you're adding a toll in your life detox component, because you can look forward to it and it actually de-stresses. It is a decompression tool that is also valuable for your health and ultimately your long-term performance.
Matt Dixon 19:33
Principle number four sees his finish off the whole schedule of work or focus in our first four principles around training. And you guessed it principle number four is integrating functional strength. This is the final piece of the puzzle under the banner of training. Now let's talk about what is under that big umbrella of functional strength. So this includes heavier load strength training and resistance work. We are designed ladies and gentlemen to lift heavy things. It also includes core work and stability work. And that's there to help you function to improve your posture. We want to focus and integrate some mobility work around the joints. People often think about that as flexibility. But it's your freedom of movement around the joints in a passive motion. And then you also want to become just more generally athletic, improve your synchronization of movement patterns, your coordination. And finally on top of it, get a little bit of explosion through leaps, bounds, jumps, plyometrics, those are really, really valuable. And when you put those all together, we can label it functional strength. And so what I'm talking about here is not cosmetic lifting. This ain't Gold's Gym. In fact, what we're talking about here is by integrating functional strength, we're about reducing pain. Equipping yourself to go and play, to hike as long as you want, to go and improve, enjoy skiing the whole day out on the mountain, to get an opportunity to challenge yourself to live life to the full. This is about counteracting the corrosive elements of sitting hours at a desk. It's about being able to lift up your grandkids grabbing groceries out of the back of a car. This is about functional living. Functional strength is also about delaying the impact of performance loss that can occur with aging and also countering the imprint of changes that can occur with aspects such as perimenopause, and much, much more. This starts to paint that picture of training around your platform of health. Four principles. Just because you adhere to this training concept, you buy in, I'm going to get structured around it. I'm going to integrate some high intensity, I'm going to do a lot of soul-filling work, I'm going to embrace functional strength training -- great. It doesn't automatically mean that you're thriving. Even that you're healthy. It certainly doesn't guarantee you that you're a high performer. And so now we need to expand our reach a little bit. Principles number 5-6-7-8-9 and 10.
Matt Dixon 24:49
Number five: dialing in your nutrition on a daily basis. With eating habits what you do on a daily basis accumulates and it has a serious positive or negative imprint on your daily performance. Now we're gonna get dialed in and go into a few little rabbit holes under each of these principles. But here are a few broad tips around nutrition globally. Number one, it's not just about what you do. Nutrition is as much about what you avoid doing, what you should skip, what you shouldn't integrate into it. I really encourage you avoid the quick fixes. Skip the vast -- no, not the vast majority, ALL of the fad diets. Don't worry about the Voodoo practices. Don't listen to some shock-jock radio guy who tells you something that he does that has changed his life. Skip all of the noise. Build your approach on a few fundamentals. Number one, very simply build most of your diet around Whole Foods. Really encourage you to limit processed foods and eat foods with as few ingredients as possible. In each of your meals principle number two here, in each of your meals, you want to include all three macronutrients in every single meal, those three macronutrients fat, protein, and carbohydrates. Number three around this, eat three meals a day, you shouldn't be skipping meals, eat three meals a day. This is your starting point, but I promise you this is a really valuable smart grounding element to approach your nutrition and your daily habits. Three meals a day, all three macronutrients, limit processed foods, foods with as few ingredients as possible, wholesome nutrition, your body needs a ton of protein, your brain requires carbohydrates for fuel, your system benefits from fat. I know that's a little bit of a butchering, and maybe little coarse, but it's memorable. And so embrace it.
Matt Dixon 27:01
Principle number six, under the banner of nutrition as well, but really important, post-workout fueling. Build this out. This is a critical component that I want you to add in as a habit. And it's it's a non-negotiable. At Purple Patch this is an absolute non-negotiable. Post Workout fueling is consuming calories within 30 minutes of finishing your training. Every time you train, whether it's soul-filling, as we talked about strength training, high intensity, it doesn't matter what it is consume calories quickly afterwards. Now the two big building blocks of those types of calories that consume number one protein, it's really important to build up muscle adaptations and improve your tissue health. And therefore the results from the hard work you're putting in. It also lowers cortisol and stress hormones. And that helps you not carry those stress hormones and acts that are associated with it into the rest of your day's activities. You want to be calm, clear, focused. The other big macronutrient that we want to build it around is carbohydrate. And the reason that we consume carbohydrates following a session. Well, you wanna restock your energy, your muscle cells, your muscle glycogen, as they call it so that you can perform in your subsequent training. But you also want to fuel your brain for improved cognitive function. And ultimately, on top of it all by consuming carbohydrates afterwards is going to elicit some control for you. And that control is over your future eating in the rest of the day. Because it's going to help you avoid what we call athletic starvation. And that is starvation related to poor portion or eating choices later in the day because you're starving. It's really easy to consume calories right after training and make smart choices when you're not desperate to food in which you're craving those low nutrient-dense foods that bubble up when you haven't refueled. So in other words, that post-workout fueling is an important habit. And that's the recipe for dialing in, pardon the pun, so that you can actually yield the most from your training, but also get from it the best energy stability in the day. It's an important one. And suddenly, ladies and gentlemen, we're over halfway. So I think you're with me still. Let's march on.
Matt Dixon 29:26
Let's go to number seven. Embrace food globally, as a fuel mindset. So a food for fuel mindset. This is really important. Because way too many of us out there, look at our daily eating habits through the mindset of dieting. In other words, we always feel compelled to embrace high restriction. I can't eat that that's a bad food. I'm going to avoid my favorite food. I'm going to cut out elements of eating. I encourage you to shift the mindset. Come at from the other side. The first step is fuel your body. And that really embraces three things. I'm consuming calories to fuel my body for my training session, so they can be good. I'm fueling my body for the demands of the day, and I fueling my body to build up a platform of health. And when you get that right, then you're going to stabilize energy, have consistency of your exercise and training performance sessions. And you're going to have better immune system, better resilience throughout the course of the day. And it is from there, that then you can refine a little bit. And hopefully, those refinements are coming under the guidance of an expert. At Purple Patch, most Purple Patch athletes tend to leverage the services of FuelIn, one of our partners, and they're fantastic. And they are experts, not just at working with athletes but working with all people that are looking to amplify their performance in life. They're a great team of world-leading experts in the Nutrition Sciences, and we have a good partnership with them so it's highly recommended. We'll leave the link in the show notes, but go and check them out, I highly recommend FuelIn, a great resource for education, as well as helping you dial in your nutritional needs. And with that, number eight, we are almost there, we need to start to spread it out and link it out a little bit.
Matt Dixon 31:23
Principle number eight. And this one pains me a little bit, ladies and gentlemen because I'm English. And I really like my beers. I do like my beers, I have to say, but it's true. Principle number eight, you should limit your alcohol. I love my beer. But the truth is that alcohol is a neurotoxin. And it has a direct imprint, a negative imprint on your health and your daily performance. But let me pause here -- I am not suggesting that you should quit. Because I also appreciate that alcohol can play an important part in many of our lives. Our social lives and enjoyment, the ritual of it, the taste of it. I just really love the ritual and the taste of beer. And for transparency to you all, I still drink. I enjoy drinking beer, I occasionally enjoy wine. Very rarely do I have cocktails, but that's just because it's kind of not my thing too much, but I enjoy it, it's good. I also realized that it can have a negative imprint, in fact, it will have a negative imprint on the quality of my sleep, how I recover, my cognitive function in the rest of the day. And so I've evolved habits. I used to really enjoy having a beer, maybe too, sometimes, most nights with dinner. But I've completely removed that as a habit. And it's really lucky because there are some fantastic non-alcoholic replacements that allow me to have the ritual, but without the alcohol. And that becomes really beneficial for me. So throughout the week, I just effectively never consume alcohol. And the imprint of that has been much better quality sleep, and showing up with better cognitive function, and stability of energy in the day. And the vast majority of the athletes that I work with take on that same approach. On the weekend, open it up a little bit if you'd like but realize that just a few drinks will have a negative imprint, not just in the next day, but in the following days. And so I really try and limit alcohol now. And I think you realize out of this show that I'm not a preacher. I do it so, therefore, you should do it. But it is worth understanding that alcohol as a neurotoxin has a huge negative performance imprint on us. And so my advice with no judgment, no guilt, just pure performance advice, I would encourage you to radically reduce your weekly alcohol intake. And if you do so, you will feel immeasurably better and it does have a positive impact on your health. You do with that information what you will.
Matt Dixon 34:06
All right, number nine, there are two to go. You knew it was coming. We have to talk about sleep and principle number nine is prioritizing sleep. So what does this mean in practical science? Well, as much as you can, knowing that many people that enjoy the show have to cross time zones have kids sporting events have different commitments in the day, but as much as you can dial in the habit with these few things. Number one, try to go to bed at a similar time. Every night. Make it a regular habit that you structure, bedtime at a similar time within about half an hour of each other. When you are sleeping, sleep in a cool and dark environment. So lower temperature 65 degrees or so or less. And a really dark environment has an imprint on the effectiveness As in the quality of your sleep. To help you with your quality of sleep, avoid screens 30 minutes prior to your sleep. In fact, I encourage you when you first get into bed, if you are someone that likes to read, and I think many of you guys know on the show, I'm a bit of a Scandinavian crime thriller man myself, but read from a paperback if not a Kindle, something that doesn't eject a lot of blue light. A couple more tips around sleep that are important is firstly napping, and secondly, an understanding of when we're getting our deep rejuvenation in sleep. So let's start with deep rejuvenation first. Here's the truth -- the majority of your deep sleep, most folks know that let's not go through all of the factors, but most folks have heard of REM sleep, and light sleep and deeper sleep. Deep Sleep is where a lot of the deep rejuvenation occurs. And that tends to occur, whether you're a night owl or a morning lark, it doesn't matter, your deep sleep is going to occur between 10 pm and 2 am. So if you go to bed at midnight or after, you are radically reducing your opportunity for your body to get deep sleep. And so I'm afraid the advice is try to get in bed at 10 pm or earlier. That's going to maximize not just the quality of your sleep, but also the amount of deep sleep that you get. And then the final component that we want to mention is napping. So many people don't like to nap because they're worried about compromising the quality of their sleep at night. But in fact, a lot of the research states the reverse. If you take a 10 to 15-minute downtime, let's call it that, quiet, no screens light down, hopefully, a dark environment in the middle of the day, somewhere between 12 and the latest 2 pm, where you allow your body to restore, you get a big kick of growth hormone, it improves your productivity over the course of the next three, four hours, so you're more effective in the afternoon, and it's shown to actually improve your nighttime sleep quality. And so therefore, that downtime that hopefully starts to become infused in our culture, as organizations as individuals, just that 10 to 15-minute nap and to get the benefits, you don't actually have to fall asleep. So you can de-stress on that. Just lying there quietly rejuvenating, it's going to amplify and get the impact that you're looking for. And so with those key tips, you can try and prioritize both sleep quality and quantity. And it has a huge impact on your overall performance. Now, I would say one more thing around sleep as well. I encourage you to get really strategic around shifting time zones. And there are some travel protocols that we actually have to help folks travel from east to west or west to east it's slightly different in both scenarios to try and lower the stress and amplify your performance depending on whether you want to get onto timezone or stay on original timezone. Now we integrate this with the athletes that we coach, but I'm going to hold that back for today. I'm going to keep that as a little bit of a Purple Patch secret. Look, I can't give away everything can I.
Matt Dixon 38:12
And with that, ladies and gentlemen, we arrive at number 10. The final principle for you to amplify your health, your life, and your work performance is TEAM. Do stuff with others. Now last week, I talked about the Purple Patch squad and how at any one time I wouldn't be coaching 10 to 12 individual pros, but I coached a team, a squad of pros, that were connected under a way of doing that ultimately, I believed ended up amplifying our consistency as well as our results. I also talked about some of our group training that we do at Purple Patch, in the swimming program particularly, and how each individual contributed to the overall performance levels in a supporting and accountability type of manner. Well, every Tuesday, Thursday, currently, I lead a bike session live in San Francisco, 20 people in the room, but also many more than that connected via video remotely all over the world. We have Denmark, we have South America, we have England we have Australia, connected in live with me and the 20 folks. Two-way video from across the world. Now, these are athletes that are connected as a part of a unified experience. And we have folks that are in their 70s. We have young adults that are just kicking off their athletic journey. We have pros, we have amateurs, and we have folks just like you. And I mean it. You, folks just like you, joining live and just trying to improve themselves. And in that session, I'm providing feedback, I'm coaching the session, and I'm encouraging you to try your best. But you ultimately bring something to the group, whether you're remote or whether in person, YOU becomes WE. And the results of this is not trying to identify who's the best, who's the strongest. But we create a collective experience where each one of us is trying our best and we're all trying to improve. But it becomes more fun. It drives better performance, better engagement, and ultimately, it delivers greater rewards. I had a saying in the swim program: everybody looks the same when they're stripped down to their Speedos. And that's the real point here. I don't care janitors, nurses, CEOs, mothers, tech founders, musicians, just show up, contribute, and do something together. And that concept amplifies. It amplifies accountability, a sense of belonging, and it is performance-enhancing. Just like this show, performance enhancing. You, me, us, everyone, all united by a desire to improve. And so take these principles and amplify your performance. Improve your life. 10 tips. I hope it helps. Onward and upward. Gang, see you next time. Take care.
Matt Dixon 41:28
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 of YouTube. And you will find it there. And you could subscribe. Of course, I'd like to ask you, if you will subscribe also share it with your friends. And it's really helpful if you leave a nice positive review in the comments. Now any questions that 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 info@purplepatchfitness.com or leave it in the comments of the show at the Purple Patch page and we will get you dialed in. We'd 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
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