👋 Hey.
Welcome to issue #16 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter. Thanks for being here!
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Anyway, here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (3.5 min read):
🪑 Protecting our performance at work
After 30 minutes of sitting, our metabolism slows by 90%.
We get bad cholesterol (LDL or low-density lipoproteins) building up in the arteries (among other things).
After 2 hours of sitting, good cholesterol (HDL or high-density lipoproteins) drops by 20%.
Good cholesterol helps clear out the bad stuff. So less of the good accelerates the build-up of the bad.
Now, the good news. Getting up and moving/walking around for 5 minutes is the tripwire to reverse it.
Here’s the thing…
Heaps of everyday athletes are desk workers. And we want our metabolisms mowing. The alternative comes with an endless list of health and performance risks (decreased energy, mood, focus, weight gain, stress, chronic disease…).
So if you have a desk job, picking up one or both of these habits could be a game changer:
- ⏰ Set a timer to have a short break and get on your feet every 30-60 mins
- 🧍 Get a stand-up desk (10 mins of standing every hour is equivalent to running 4 marathons a year!). I use one similar to this.
And if you’re organising your spine to sit properly (newsletter #11), this break will be a great way to reset it.
This stuff sounds so simple it’s stupid – an easy way to maximise your performance.
🎥 Short video: Lagging vs leading indicators
Lagging indicators are the outcomes of our goals. E.g. We finished the marathon.
Leading indicators are the behaviours that deliver the outcome. E.g. We did every training session in the program.
Graham Weaver reckons focusing on lagging indicators is unhelpful. They’re delayed (success/failure is only known after) and unproductive (don’t help us progress at all).
But focusing on leading indicators puts us in the driver's seat (we’re in complete control of our behaviours). Plus they allow us to see constant progress. Day to day. Week to week.
We’ve got more control over doing every session than if we finish the race.
It’s another way of saying focus on the process, not the outcome. But that's easier said than done... So I like that this actually gives us a practical way to do it.
What are the habits that will get me to my goal? And if we do all those habits, that’s success. Even if the outcome isn’t what we hoped.
Timely with New Years' resolutions around the corner.
🍻 Surviving silly season
Hangovers are a jackhammer in our performance.
And there’s no magic pill for a thousand schooners. But anything that can hold back the hang a little has my attention.
A friend just launched Seoul Tonic. It's a satchel of Korean pair juice + oriental raisins that you drink before drinking.
It helps:
- 🍸 Break down alcohol
- 🛡 Protect the liver
- 💪 Antiviral and antioxidant benefits
I'd also add:
- 🫧 Drink 2x electrolyte tablets in 1L of water
Cheers 🍻
That's it!
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Have a great weekend 
Matt
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