As our mission statement suggests we are all about creating well rounded athletes. That means optimizing ones, SLEEP, NUTRITION, MINDSET, and FITNESS. Now, I firmly beleive if all these pillars are ignited properly first thing in the morning you can create a domino effect into the rest of your day. Through up-to-date research I have found the most scientifically proven ways in which you can make your morning as effective, mentally and physiologically as possible.

WAKE UP-

  • Get out of bed

  • Do not engage in any dopamine releasing behaviors

    • No phone

      • A well known Neurologist and Psychiatrists believes looking at your phone in the morning, "The information overload that hits [you] before you're fully awake also interferes with your ability to prioritize tasks.” Dr. Benders-Hadi.

      • It is difficult to find long-term studies showing the effects of phone use in the morning since it is a fairly new thing. What we can do though is empirically, extrapolate why it might be detrimental.

      • What we know: Dopamine levels are highest in the morning, and therefore you want to do everything you can in order to keep that level as high and without many peaks/falls as necessary. Dopamine has a partnership with motivation, hence its nickname: “The Motivation Hormone”. If you haven’t read through my Dopamine blogpost it might help you understand why this is important. Most spikes in Dopamine (other than cold exposure and coffee) comes with the same spike except in the downwards direction. Therefore if there are tasks that you know you need to do in the morning that are not exactly pleasurable you will find that they will be harder to do if you spend time on your phone before.

    • No food

      • That is of course if you haven’t hit your 14 hour rest window yet. If you ate at 8pm and it is now 10am. You can ignore this.

      • Because a lot of my duties are later in the day I refrain from eating until around 11am. Since I don’t get home until around 9pm.

    • No coffee

      • Waiting an hour before your first cup of coffee helps you clear out Adenosine which is the molecule that is released when you sleep. Drinking coffee doesnt clear Adenosine but rather “pauses” the rhythm so when your body clears the caffeine from you system Adenosine will once again be present and you will feel tired. (If you do this right, you won’t need that second or third cup of coffee).

  • Drink a glass of water

    • There is no study that supports drinking a cup of water early in morning is particularly healthy. However, I can tell you from experience that drinking a cold cup of water in the morning gives a boost of energy you wouldn’t expect. Another benefit is knowing that I’ve done yet another thing in my morning that is good for me. Being dehydrated is detrimental to every aspect of your life and even more so as an athlete who likes to drink coffee.

    • Being dehydrated in todays society has become a particular issue because of the heavily marketed caffeinated drinks in the market. Yerba Mates, coffee, tea, sodas, alcohol, etc, all these drinks will dehydrate you. A good rule of thumb is to try to stick to drinking the same amount of the caffeinated drink in water and another cup on top of that.

    • A study published in May of 2022 found that 75% of adults are “chronically dehydrated”.

    • As a male you should be drinking about 15 cups of water and 11 cups for a female. I know you just told yourself that there is no way that’s how much you should be drinking, well it is. That should bring home the fact that most of us aren’t drinking enough.

GET CHANGED AND GET OUTSIDE-

  • Get at least 15 minutes of direct outdoor sunlight (study)

    • Walk

    • Run

    • Read

  • Cold Shower

    • Dopamine/Epinephrine increase

    • Increases Dopamine! If you are not cold adapted which if you aren’t spending an hour a day in freezing water you are probably not, can up your dopamine baseline 2.5x for at least 3 hours with no trough following the peak. The study was conducted using an immersion pool but a cold enough shower can have an effect as well. The way in which you will know a physiological change is occurring is by catching yourself breathing heavily, and shivering which are signs of an Epinephrine increase. If you didn’t know Epinephrine and dopamine work in congruency, a rise in Epinephrine or adrenaline(which are the same thing) equals a rise in dopamine.

  • At least 1 hour post waking you can indulge in coffee

    • Adenosine receptors are blocked through coffee, this is why you feel alert. The “sleepy” molecule is no longer bound. However, by drinking coffee before your body naturally rids itself of Adenosine you will feel a crash once the caffeine wears off.

    • By waiting at least an hour you’re ensuring that Adenosine has been flushed out

  • Pick a “linear” habit you would like to add to your day that will help propel you closer to a certain goal of yours.

    • These are habits you can just do. Habits that require creativity, are non-linear and are better to do in the second half of your day.

      • Stretch

      • Clean room

      • Work out

      • Answer emails

  • Eat 14 hours from last meal (study)

    • It is important to try to match your feeding time with your circadian rhythm. This will help with digestion, as your body naturally will spike insulin levels to prepare for food intake at a certain time of day based on your recent behaviors. This is one example of a hormone being excreted through rhythm, others include, cortisol and melatonin.

    • Giving your body a 14 hour rest from eating anything should automatically give your body the reset it needs.

    • Here is another heavily cited study which supports using a 10hr feeding window. The benefits shown through this 12 week study include, improving body composition, blood pressure, and atherogenic lipids(lowering LDL-C).