10 Performance Tips for the Weekend Warrior Athlete
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Weekend warriors often live busy lives. What is a weekend warrior?
This term refers to a person who participates in an athletic activity in their weekend spare time. With the weekend warrior always on the go, it is important for them to raise their performance at peak condition in order to stay healthy.
10 Weekend Warrior Tips
Whether you focus mainly on one sport or you take on any athletic challenge you come across, improving your performance will keep you from getting injured while keeping you in the best shape possible. Read on to learn 10 performance tips for warrior athletes.
1. Eat Healthily
Nutrition will greatly impact your performance as well as your overall health. Make sure you meet your requirements for caloric and nutrient intake.
Make 45-65% of your diet come from good carbs. This means avoiding processed sugars and choosing fruit, sweet potatoes, quinoa, oats, and other whole grains. Avoid fad diets that skimp on carbs, as your body needs them for energy.
Your diet should consist of 10-30% protein. Choose foods like eggs, peas, lentils, beans, seeds, tree nuts, fish, and chicken.
Fats should make up 25-35% of your total caloric intake. Opt for olive oil, avocados, and oily fish.
Your caloric needs will change with your activity levels, and sometimes, we battle cravings or other unhealthy urges. Seek nutrition counseling to get your dietary needs on track.
2. Properly Hydrate
ake sure that you take in enough water all the time, and increase your intake during weekend fitness. Dehydration will hurt both your performance and health. Remember, once you feel thirsty, dehydration already started.
Electrolytes help to maintain the body's fluid balance. Rather than reaching for sugary sports drinks, opt for coconut water to replenish these minerals.
3. Sleep Well
Poor sleep habits will keep your performance sub-par. Plus, it increases your risk of injury and affects your health.
It will affect your performance by making concentration and focus difficult, and making your body feel sluggish. A lack of sleep also throws off your balance and coordination, raises your blood pressure, and can lead to weight gain.
Not sleeping enough will also deter muscle recovery. Your body needs sleep to heal.
Your immune system takes a hit when you do not sleep properly, which can put a damper on your weekend activities as well. As a weekend warrior, try to sleep for 7-9 hours each night.
4. Stretch
To prevent overuse injuries, stretch both before and after your workout. But, do not stretch cold.
After a 5-10 minute warmup, stretch your muscles at 30-second intervals. Cool down after your activity by stretching the same way.
Make sure you stretch head to toe. Often you use muscles that you do not even think about until they hurt.
5. Exercise During the Week
A busy schedule can make fitting in exercise tough. But, you should try to fit it in wherever you can, even if it means turning daily activities into a workout.
Regular exercise will keep you on top of your performance. It will help you build your strength, endurance, and agility. Strengthening muscles will also help you prevent injuries during your weekend athletics.
Some awesome weekend warrior workouts to try during the week include:
Short jogs
Planks between chores
pushups
Walking the stairs as much as possible
Squats
None of these require special equipment, so you can do them from wherever you are. Taking any opportunity to exercise will help keep you in shape for the weekend.
6. Watch Your Posture and Form
You should watch your posture and form all the time to properly align your bones and joints to keep your muscles working efficiently. This will boost your athletic performance and prevent you from sustaining injuries.
Get conscious about your posture during the workday. Try to sit and stand with your spine straight and your head in proper alignment.
During workouts, make sure your form looks perfect. If you do not know the proper form, ask!
7. Focus on Recovery
After a hard weekend, give yourself enough time for muscle recovery. The Marc Pro muscle recovery tool will stimulate healthy blood flow to nourish your tissues and remove waste products. This will reduce your recovery time!
8. Take Supplements
Your body needs 13 vitamins and 16 minerals to function properly. When eating on the go for your busy work week, do you always meet your nutritional requirements?
If not, supplements, like daily multivitamins may help. Some other natural supplementation may help as well.
Mushroom supplements, like lion's mane, may also improve athletic performance. These fungi reduced fatigue, promotes new cell proliferation, removes damaging free radicals, increases muscle energy storage, and boosts overall athletic performance in doing so.
Taking the branched-chain amino acids, valine, leucine, and isoleucine, in supplement form may also help. These compounds work to reduce muscle soreness, build muscle, and decrease muscle fatigue.
9. See Your Chiropractor
Even with your best efforts to do everything right, athletic activity can move things out of whack, causing inflammation and pain. This will hurt your performance.
Your chiropractor will put your hard tissues back into proper alignment and help your joints move freely. This will help you with everything you do.
10. Invest in Good Shoes
Do not underestimate the power of a good sneaker! Your feet do a lot of work and their condition can alter your performance level.
Wearing the proper shoe for your athletic activity will boost your agility and performance while preventing common injuries associated with your sport. Proper footwear will also lessen the impacts of your step to protect your knees.
How do you choose the best shoes?
Look for footwear meant for your activity. Try them on to make sure they fit properly, as this will make a big difference. Using orthotics, insoles, and running socks can also help when necessary.
Perform Like a True Warrior
Turning yourself into a top performance weekend warrior means focusing on your wellness every single day. Listen to your body when it comes to food, rest, hydration, and activity.
Also, know the right time to seek extra help for your exercise recovery. Schedule an appointment with us when you're ready!