The Need for a Performance Lifestyle

By Ian Jeffreys

Note: * Uniquely, the key pillars of a Performance Lifestyle approach can yield results in all walks of life and business,  not solely competitive sport.

In today’s rapidly changing world of competitive sport, athletes and coaches are constantly looking for competitive advantages. Today’s training programs are the most sophisticated ever, with athlete’s spending hours training in order to gain an advantage over their opponents. Yet , no matter how sophisticated an athlete’s training programme, it alone cannot guarantee success, and crucially a key area of advantage for athlete’s may actually lie away from the training environment. An athlete’s response to any training programme will be dictated not by the programme alone, but by their individual responses to each training stimulus. This response is not fixed, and will depend not only upon the stimulus itself, but crucially upon the given capacity of an athlete to cope with the training stress at any given time.  This capacity is constantly in flux, and depends upon the complex interaction of all elements of an athlete’s life, with all stresses having the capacity to affect energy positively and negatively. Maximising any training response requires creating an optimal internal environment whereby an athlete is able to respond appropriately to the training programme. This internal environment will only ever be optimised when an athlete is best able to balance all areas of their life, and make appropriate adjustments to balance stress with recovery and regeneration.

The Performance Lifestyle is a unique approach to maximising performance. Utilising this approach, an athlete is able to create an environment where they are able to optimise the optimal internal conditions required for maximal performance.  Its key is being multi-dimensional in nature, addressing all areas that have the capacity to impact upon performance, and not just those relating to the training environment. This multi-dimensional approach allows athlete’s to create an individualised approach to managing performance, which can directly address the precise factors affecting their own performance. Being lifestyle based, it allows athletes to make constant shifts and adjustments in relation to their situation at any given time, and creates an environment, both internal and external, that facilitates maximal performance in the short term, but also crucially, over the long term.

Uniquely, the key pillars of a Performance Lifestyle approach can yield results in all walks of life and business,  not solely competitive sport.