👋 Hey. Welcome to issue #74 of The Everyday Athlete Newsletter.
Been working on something cool I'll share with you next week – keep an eye out ✌️
Here are my 3 favourite ideas, learns and resources to help you improve your performance this week (4.5 min read):
✔️ The Sticky Habit System
1 of the 2 biggest problems most face trying to improve our health and performance is finding the support and motivation to do what we say we're going to.
So I've pulled together:
- 🔎 all of the latest & best research on habits
- 🧙♂️ insights from wizards like James Clear and Andrew Huberman
- 👍 plus all the stuff that’s worked for me
It's called the Sticky Habit System. It's the 10-step process for building habits that stick.
Whether it's training, nutrition, sleep, recovery, steps, breathing, sunlight, stress (or any other) habit. This will help you make it real.
Here it is for ya...
Access the Sticky Habit System
It pairs well with the habit cards from last week's newsletter (print or I can send you some).
If you have any questions, reach out. I'd love to help 🤙
🧘♂️ Insight timer
Great free app with guided sleep, breathwork, mood check-ins and built-in streaks (great for seeing habit progress).
Particularly this 10-min breathing session.
My partner Issy has been doing it every day for the last week. Her verdict...
“I feel like I’ve been better at my job.”
See, anything like breathwork, exercise or even just movement like walking or stretching gets oxygen and energy circulating through the body.
It goes to all our tissues and organs – including the brain.
And waking the body up like this in the morning (for even 5 minutes) is a domino of energy, mood and focus throughout the day.
So if you’re rolling into work or opening the laptop still half asleep, see what this 10-min session can do for your day.
😴 Are chronotypes BS?
In 2022 I wrote about sleep chronotypes.
How your genes determine whether you’re an early bird or a night owl.
And how you can schedule your day to match where you feel your energy and alertness.
But I may have been wrong…
See, new research suggests that chronotypes might be more of a personal preference and lifestyle choice than something in our DNA.
There’s a study that put a bunch of folks in different environments.
The first week was a pretty normal setup – with artificial light to mimic most of our normal environments.
The second week was out camping in the Colorado mountains – with no exposure to artificial light.
And in that second week of camping, they found everyone’s sleep/wake times synced up (closer to sunset).
The researchers pinned it to them getting more sun throughout the day + none after sunset.
The jury’s still out. But if you’re a night owl and wanna go to bed earlier, maybe it is something you can change.
Because there's research suggesting the hours before midnight are super important for sleep.
Think about what light you get and when you get it. Are you getting early morning sunlight to set your circadian rhythm? Bit of sun throughout the day? Using as little light as possible at home at night?
That’s not to say pull out the head torches when you’re cooking dinner in winter. But maybe get some dimmers and dull light lamps. Get off the blue-lit phone an hour before bed. See what happens.
Also dunno how you get to participate in those studies. But getting paid for a week camping sounds pretty good. If you know hmu 😂
That's it!
Have a great weekend 🤙
Matt
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The Everyday Athlete Newsletter is not a licensed health service and is not a substitute for professional health advice, treatment or assessment. The information given in this email is general in nature, written for a specific audience. If you’re struggling, please see a healthcare professional.
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