As coaches, we know the importance of exercise in achieving our clients' fitness goals. But it's equally, if not more, important to understand the role of lifestyle habits in achieving sustainable success. That's why at OPEX, we want our coaches to put the same care and attention into creating lifestyle programs as we do exercise programs.

Getting enough sleep is crucial for maintaining overall health and wellbeing, and it’s especially important for those who are focused on fitness and exercise. In this blog, we’ll explore the role of sleep in fitness, why it’s important, and how to improve it.

Not getting enough sleep is the worst, we’ve all been there. Whether it’s work or dealing with a newborn there are a plethora of things that fight for attention and move sleep to the back of the priority list. Other than just feeling tired there are numerous things that deteriorate when you are not getting sleep consistently. One of the first things to deteriorate is the balance between the body’s sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. This can be thought of as the body’s balance between stress and rest. When the balance between these two systems gets off track it can cause a host of issues, such as digestion and detox problems stressing the body further than just simple lack of sleep.

Nutrition and behavior tracking is not just about weighing every gram of rice and obsessing over every step. When executed properly, tracking is a useful tool that can bring about realizations and positive changes in behaviors for many clients. If your client is struggling with compliance or progression in a specific area, tracking nutrition and behaviors may be the answer. Here is how to start doing just that with five different data points. 

There’s a lot of factors an athlete can control to optimize performance and recovery: nutrition, programming, supplementation.  All this can be dialed, but if high-quality sleep is not there, almost none of the previous factors will even matter.