How to Improve Your Sports Performance

Do you want to take your sporting performance to the next level? Instead of spending more time hitting the slopes or riding the waves, you might simply need to increase your agility, build muscle and boost your speed. Find out how to improve your sports performance.

Myofascial Release

Sports can result in painful muscle knots that can impact your flexibility and ability. Myofascial release might be the ideal solution to your muscle problems, as it can deactivate those troublesome knots to provide suppleness to your body. You simply need to roll a lacrosse ball, foam roller, softball, golf ball or massage stick over an area. Once you feel a knot or tightness in a muscle, continue to roll it out using the device, as it can relax the area; otherwise, you might struggle to bend, jump or squat.

Wear the Right Clothing

Wearing the wrong clothing can significantly impact your performance. Whatever your chosen sport, you must ensure you wear clothing that will increase your comfort, flexibility and agility. For example, you’ll need to stay warm from start to finish on the ski slopes, so you can focus solely on your performance. You must therefore turn to a reputable clothing provider for winter gear, such as Monsta Clothing Co.

A Good Night’s Sleep

Sleeping allows your body to enter an anabolic state, which encourages your muscles to grow at an optimum rate. If you want to enjoy greater strength in your chosen sport, you must enjoy a good night’s sleep, which should be between seven to nine hours per night. If you have an active day ahead of you, ensure you experience a minimum of seven hours sleep or you could hinder your performance.

Start Jumping

Do you want to become a force to reckoned with in a sport? You will need to perform exercises that will make your body’s movements much more explosive, which is why you should start jumping. This exercise can transfer into almost any sport that requires vertical movements. By practicing your jumping and landings, you can maximize your time on the ski slopes, surf board, snowboard or when playing basketball or volleyball. Mix up your jumping exercises by performing a combination of box jumps, squat jumps and vertical jumps, which can transform you into a pro athlete.

Drink More H2O

Ensure your muscles function optimally by drinking enough water during a sport or exercise. Dehydration can seriously impact your performance, which is why you should always have a bottle of water nearby. To ensure you are drinking enough water, multiply your body weight times 0.6, which will provide the total number of ounces you should drink every day to stay hydrated.

Train with Others

A little competition could help you become the best of the best in a sport, as you will work a little bit harder to outdo your sporting rivals. For this reason, it might be helpful to train with either a partner or as part of a group. You can also learn from other people’s training styles, techniques and experience, which can help you become a sporting star.

Enjoy Recovery Days

Give your body enough time to recover from a day of intense physical activity. Enjoy recovery days to allow your body to recover from an exercise. Every successful athlete will experience routine rest periods, which can improve their sporting performance and speed. So, don’t push your body to its limits and make some time in your schedule to relax.

If you are worried about suffering from stiff or sore muscles during the recovery process, you should perform small, low intensity workouts, such as a walk or an exercise warmup. This can increase your body’s blood flow without contracting too many muscles.

Perform Compound Movements

Compound movements will use multiple joints at the same time. The more muscles you use, the more muscle you can gain over time, which is why you should perform more power cleans, overhead presses, deadlifts, and squats. Focus on ground-based movements, which are exercises that require you to keep your feet on the ground for most of the time, as your body can both absorb and apply force from the floor.

Avoiding Filling Up on Food the Night Before

Many people make the big mistake of filling up on food the night before a day of extreme sports, such as skiing, hiking or snowboarding, as they might believe it maximizes their muscle glycogen stores. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. It can take many weeks of post workout fuel replenishment and consistent training to maximize muscle glycogen. So, filling up on carbs the night before will only create body fat, which will be extra weight you’ll need to carry around. So, skip filling up on pasta and potatoes and simply eat until you are satisfied.

Mental Training

It is important to find ways to moderate stress, so you can focus solely on your performance. You must learn to block out both internal and external distractions, such as fear, anxiety, a noisy teammate or a loud crowd. Mental training couldbe the ideal solution, as it can create a strong mind-body connection.

Mindfulness is a form of mental training for the prefrontal cortex, which is the area of the brain that can create an alert yet calm state of mind. As a result, it can increase focus, eliminate distractions and help a person perform to the best of their ability.

You can train your brain using mindfulness by performing mindful breathing, which requires you to pay close attention to your breath to create a clearer mindset. You should also spot negative emotions both internally, such as “I can’t do it” or “I hope I don’t miss”. Instead, tell yourself “I can do it” and “I will not miss”.  You might be surprised by the positive impact it can have on your sporting performance.

Do you have any helpful advice on how to improve a performance for a specific sport? Share your tips and stories by posting a comment below.