“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” – Vince Lombardi

Posted on 31st January 2017

Good morning , meditation done.

Quote for the Day:

“Fatigue makes cowards of us all.”

Vince Lombardi

As the month of January draws to a close I am finding that fatigue is hitting me harder each day particularly since the return from my recent trip to London.

I am noticing each morning I wake up feeling tired and it is harder to get up.

‘‘Fatigue’’ is a term used to describe a decrease in physical performance associated with an increase in the real/perceived difficulty of a task or exercise.

Fatigue is both a physical and a mental state, representing that point n when the body and mind demonstrates a reduced ability to work efficiently, with a feeling of weariness that cannot be mentally overcome. Fatigue can develop over a short period of time, but it may also slowly develop in you as a cumulative effect after weeks or months of intense physical and/or mental effort.

If you are training and working hard, you may not understand how important rest is to achieve your fitness and life goals. After all, it can be incredibly tempting to push yourself in an attempt to build bigger muscles, more endurance and skills, which are beyond compare. However, you may find that if you are short on sleep your performance will not only fail to improve, it may also go downhill more quickly than you could imagine.

Sleep does more than give us energy, although that is an important benefit. If you are fatigued, you will not be able to train or work as hard or as long and this can make you downright ineffective.

You will find that without energy you will be unable to keep up with your work and training load players.

This can lead to crucial and very costly mistakes.

It is common knowledge that most goals are scored in the last 5 minutes of the game and each half when fatigue sets in and defender’s make more mistakes.

But there is a lot to be said for getting consistent quality sleep as often as possible instead of simply before a game. Scientists have been researching the effects of chronic sleep deficit on the human body and they have come up with some alarming findings. Being short on sleep can lead to increased chances of illness since your immune system will eventually become run down and will stop being able to fight infection so easily.

It is truly is amazing how much lack of sleep can hamper your performance especially if the lack of sleep has been building for some time.

It is important for you to make sure you are getting a sufficient amount of quality sleep in order to keep yourself in top physical and mental condition.

The last thing you want to do is allow your fatigue to cost your team or company the victory they have been working so hard to achieve.

It is also very important to find time to relax and release stress so that you alleviate mental strain. In football you now hear more and more the importance of rest between games mentally to allow a player’s power of concentration to recover.

At the moment where I am going over the numbers of our detailed financial plans on a daily basis with my financial director, my fatigue is more mental than physical. This is being compounded by an inability to train as much as I would normally because of my injury. My training helps to boost my energy levels and reduce my stress levels, but my injury is having the opposite effect as the pain and inability to exercise has the opposite effect on my body and mind.

So now more than ever it is very important to ensure that I get enough sleep and take mini breaks after intense periods of concentration, which I do by going for a walk with the dogs, reading the sports section of the paper, watching a detective program or taking a bath, basically anything that allows me to switch off and forget about the main thing on my mind.

I am also making sure I take time to rehydrate properly with lots of water and refuel properly with the right food, making sure I have the right balance of carbohydrates, proteins and essential fats. Once I have rested enough I am back to fully focusing on the task at hand.

Yesterday I got all my personal and business goals and my vision out of the drawer and put them on the back of my bedroom door so I can see and read them all as soon as I wake up and go to the bathroom.

This vision is driving me everyday, I think of nothing else every minute of the day whether I am awake or sleeping and I will not stop until I have completed everything I need to do to make it happen. I have never been more focused in my entire life and I will not let fatigue make a coward of me.

Yoga has really helped develop this focus, replenish and rejuvenate my body and mind.

Practicing yoga everyday for 10 years has really helped me in all aspects of my own life.

The more I exercise and practice the stronger my breathing becomes and the more control of it I have of it and my mind.

The yoga poses and breathing teach me that if I control my breath I can control my mind. The pain and discomfort I feel in the awkward yoga poses, will go away if I breathe and stay calm. This mirrors situations in life which can seem impossible with no way out, but if you stay calm, focused and breathe then your head clears, the situation does not seem as bad as you first thought and you can see a way forward.

Yoga has taught me to focus my mind and not be distracted by outdoor forces and things that I cannot control.

I have also learnt that I cannot do all the poses or asana, but this is not failure, the point of yoga is not to be able to do all the poses, it is the daily process of trying to achieve them that is important. Because as soon as you have mastered a difficult pose, you will come across another one that you will feel is impossible, when you first start, but if you practice every day it will become a little bit easier as you improve every day.

This is the basis of my Elysium Way Training System.

The Elysium Way enhances and enriches lives allowing you to reach your full potential physically, mentally and spiritually.

And one of the main components of the Elysium Way is practicing yoga.

If you would like to improve your breathing and control your own mind by introducing yoga into your life or to strengthen your daily practice to help you focus, smile more and achieve your goals and live the life of your dreams?

Why not take your first step and come on my yoga retreat in Morocco from Saturday March 18th to 25th and join me at the Mazagan Beach & Golf Resort the new five-star luxury destination in El Jadida Morocco

Click Here to find out more

The location is amazing.

It is a truly unique coastal destination resort, less than an hour drive south of Casablanca and set in a region abounding in contrasts that has preserved all its authenticity.

Rooms and suites overlook the lagoon, the golf course, the swimming pool and the patio, plunging down to the sea from the terraces and offering a 180-degree view over the Atlantic Ocean.

The view will take your breath away.

So if you would like to learn more about yoga and join me for some fun in the sun at a beautiful, exotic location in Morocco, then Click Here

Have a tremendous Tuesday peeps make sure you kick fatigue into touch and may all your dreams come true.

Breathe, Believe and Achieve

Be Happy, Healthy and Wise

Namaste

steve-signature