Imagine if I came to you with a magic pill. 

Something that would guarantee that you got stronger faster than ever before.

Something that meant you had more energy than ever before. 

Something that made you sharper, more focused and even improved your skills..

Would you take it? 

(Trick question, I know you would)

What if I told you that there is something that is guaranteed to make you stronger faster, something that is guaranteed to give you more energy and improve your focus, learning and skills? 

What is it?… Sleep

I know you’re probably rolling your eyes now, and that’s fine. But you’re also most likely overlooking the easiest way to get better results. If you’re not prioritising your sleep you’re quite literally leaving results on the table, and you’ll never come close to reaching your potential as an athlete. 

Sounds harsh I know, but it’s true. 

Michael Phelps is one of the best athletes ever… He won 23 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 2 bronze medals. 

What did he do differently to everyone else? 

Sure, he trained hard. But everyone trains hard at the Olympics right? And he ate well, and he was disciplined and all that. 

But maybe you train hard, and maybe you eat well. If you’re not doing these things, probably fix that too champ, but let’s assume you are!

Michael Phelps slept a minimum of 8 hours a night, every night. And he took a 3 hour nap every single day. That’s 11 hours of sleep every day. 

Why did he sleep so much? Because that’s what he needed to do to be the best. Because that’s how important sleep is. 

Now I’m not saying you need to sleep 11 hours every night, and nap every day, that’s not always realistic. But you do need to be getting at least 8 hours of quality sleep a night if you’re serious about making progress and being the best. You’ll build muscle faster, you’ll improve your fitness and even improve your skill level. 

On the other hand, if you’re not sleeping enough you’ll always struggle to recover between training sessions, your body won’t build muscle as fast and you’ll take longer to improve your skills. 

So what can you do right now to see faster results?

1. Set a consistent bedtime. Sounds boring, sometimes being the best is boring. 
2. Get off your phone. Don’t lie in bed scrolling through TikTok, have a rule, no phone in bed. The blue light will impact the quality of your sleep, it’s not worth it. 
3. Have a pre-bed routine. Be consistent with this so when you get into bed, you fall asleep. Brush your teeth, read a book, visualise yourself kicking a goal, and then go to bed. 

Hope you enjoyed this blog article – we believe every athlete deserves the attention and accessibility of high quality proven information to help unlock their athletic potential.

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