At ISNation, we believe that holistic wellness for an athlete is a combination of both physical health and mental fitness.
Getting Enough Sleep
Sleep is very important in maintaining both your physical and mental health.
Adhering to a regular sleep pattern, with a beneficial bedtime routine such as limited amounts of caffeine, phone screen time, and napping in the afternoon, can help improve the quality of your sleep and wellness. Viewing sleep as a vital part of your training routine as a performance enhancer can help you attain your sporting goals.
Preventing Burnout
Likewise, ensuring you strike the right balance between your sport and social life is equally important. It may be counterintuitive, but taking proper breaks from your sport and training can actually help you come back stronger. Knowing when to take a day off for recovery amidst a busy training schedule is necessary to prevent burnout and a decline in mental health.
Visiting your friends and family, accomplishing other activities, and enjoying hobbies you love will contribute to a well-rounded and balanced life.
Nutrition
Without a healthy body, it’s difficult (if not impossible) to have a healthy mind, and nutrition is one of the key aspects to maintaining both.
Understanding your nutritional needs with a balanced diet consisting of healthy carbohydrates and fats, lean proteins, and plenty of fruit and vegetables is paramount to nutritional wellness.
A split of 20% fats, 20% protein, and 60% carbohydrates in a day-to-day diet is considered balanced for athletes. Ensure you prioritize strength training in the gym and have a proper post-workout recovery routine to maximize positive mental health outcomes.
Nutrition Resources for Athletes
Various nutritional resources are available online for athletes. The United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) is a great starting point for young athletes to learn more about nutrition and what they eat.
USOPC offers eating guidelines for athletes, which are classified based on the difficulty of a training day. The site also provides nutritional factsheets for food, covering the basics behind key dietary topics such as how to fuel for competition, hydration, and injury resources.
Aside from USOPC, the American Sports and Performance Dietitians Association (ASPDA) also provides leading educational tools for athletes on nutrition, using a range of infographics to make understanding the basics of nutrition for an athlete easy to understand. Athletes of all skill levels can use ASPDA’s infographics to enhance their nutrition.
For a more basic, high-level overview of nutrition, Nutrition.gov outlines the basics of athlete nourishment, including the fundamentals behind whey protein and creatine and how to maintain performance. Using these websites alongside educational apps such as MyFitnessPal can provide a great basis for athlete nutrition and education.
Emotional Regulation & Resilience
Managing emotion as an athlete in the face of hardship, especially in challenging sporting situations, requires resilience. If not effectively managed, emotions may get in the way of athletic performance and life, leading to subpar performance.
Athletes must build resilience and manage their emotions when competing. Practicing self-care, such as mindfulness and meditation, for relaxation can take the edge off of challenging emotional moments, helping them better regulate emotions and build resilience.
Positive self-talk can also tackle negative thinking patterns. By replacing negative thoughts with positive ones and recognizing emotions, athletes can better understand what is causing them. By practicing these techniques, athletes can build emotional regulation and resilience.
ISNation offers a range of mindfulness resources for athletes targeted at building resilience and regulating emotions. From meditation practices to courses on self-talk, ISNation is a leading resource for athletes in building mental resilience.