The Most Effective Supplement

BY DAN MCCARTHY//HIGH PERFORMANCE CONSULTANT of usaswimming.org

Cheri Mah’s unexpected discovery during her initial research in 2002 at Stanford has taken root in professional and collegiate sports, forcing coaches and administrators to rethink their approach to helping their athlete’s recover. What athlete would not benefit from being sharper, having a more positive mood and possessing quicker reaction times? When she narrowed her study to find specific responses, she turned to the Stanford Men’s Basketball Team for a three-year study. Her published work suggests that when supplementing for five to seven weeks, the player’s specific skills improved as well. They ran faster, their three-point shooting improved by 9%, as did their free-throw shooting.

Did I mention it is free, organic, non-GMO and available to everyone? The supplement in question? More Sleep!

1. How will sleep affect your hormones

It decreases cortisol and increases IGF-1. Cortisol has a catabolic (muscle breakdown) effect on tissue and is associated with a decrease in anabolic (muscle growth) hormones like IGF-1 and GH. Thus reducing levels of cortisol is ideal for an athlete to achieve tissue growth and positive adaptations to exercise training. Playing many different roles in the body, cortisol can have a negative impact on sleep, mood, bone health, ligament health, cardiovascular health and athletic performance, potentially causing fatigue and inflammation. Its primary functions are to increase protein breakdown, inhibit glucose uptake and increase lipolysis (the breakdown of fats).

2. Sleep affects your respiratory exchange ratio (RER)

Low RER = Body Burns more fat (good) vs. increased RER = Body burns more carbohydrates & proteins (bad). The ratio between the amount of CO₂ produced and O₂ consumed in one breath (determined from comparing exhaled gasses to room air) is the respiratory exchange ratio (RER). In one breath, humans normally breathe in more molecules of oxygen (O₂) than they breathe out molecules of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Measuring this ratio can be used for estimating the respiratory quotient (RQ), an indicator of which fuel (carbohydrate or fat) is being metabolized to supply the body with energy.

3. Psychological Effects

• Brain works more efficiently
• Improves focus & attention
• Improves short terms memory
• Improves long term memory
• Improves decision making and planning skills
• Improves habit forming abilities and makes it easier to pick up new skills
• Improves ability to make better choices

More specifically, Mah’s study examined the concept of Sleep Extension. The players in the basketball study got their normal amount of sleep for two to four weeks. For the next five to seven weeks they added naps to their schedule and tried to get 10 hours of sleep each night. Scientists are now researching exactly why extra sleep seems to produce such improvements. Some interesting and useful investigations have turned up great insight for all athletes, including swimmers.

• The neural pathways of activities from the day’s practice are reinforced at night during sleep, but it seems as if the big benefits don’t begin occurring until seven hours of sleep.
• Teen athletes that regularly get eight or more hours of sleep each night are 68% less likely to get injured than those that regularly slept less than eight hours.
• Eliminating certain practices helps athletes get a better night sleep. On the list? Bright lights, iPads and lattes, to name a few. Dim the lights for a ½-hour before going to sleep to help create a more restful atmosphere; no blue-light emitting electronics in bed (the blue light tricks the brain into thinking it is daytime); and no caffeine or other stimulants after 4:00 PM.

The USOC, the NBA and the US Army have all invested money in sleep research and either changed or proposed changes to the way they do things, not only to help athletes and soldiers get quality rest, but to improve their performance when it counts.

TAKE SLEEP SERIOUSLY

IT INCREASES	IT DECREASES
Concentration	Mood changes
Attention	Stress
Decision Making	Anger
Creativity	Impulsiveness
Social Skills	Tendency to take drugs
Health