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THE ODYSSEY
  • Home
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    • Mitch Vanhille's Coaching Accreditation
  • Tips & Tricks
    • 1. Training Adaptation
    • 2. Stress Dissected
    • 3. Is all Stress Bad?
    • 4. Recovery Fundamentals 1/2
    • 5. Recovery Fundamentals 2/2
    • 6. Advanced Recovery 1 - Sensate
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Tips & Tricks

Key advice brought to you by Mitch Vanhille
Personal Coach Endurance Sports (Training & Beyond Training) @ MYPo
Maximize Your Potential

​Next article & Video will be released on August 4th ... stay tuned

Lesson 5: Recovery Fundamental 2/2- Interview with Mitch Vanhille

Video Released: 08/07/2022
Question:
Last week you spoke about a holistic sleep hygiene and some of the various elements. Can you tell us more about these 9 Pillars?
​Mitch Vanhille's YouTube Channel
Answer:
Dissecting the 9 pillars one by one:

1. Consistency:
This one is pretty simple, yet hard to implement. Our body loves consistency. So aim to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day. Even in weekends.


2. Avoid blue light
Dim the light and avoid any blue/green light exposure.
One of the biggest inhibitors for sleeplessness is our exposure to screens and bright lights. The blue light absorbed by the eyes inhibits the production of melatonin, which is one of the essential criteria to fall asleep.
So shut those tv’s, tablets and phones off.
If you are going to continue your bad habits, look in to some tech solutions such as blue light blocking glasses can help. Also putting red lights in your bedroom or living room as these colors of light don’t inhibit our melatonin production

3. Wind down:
It’s important to ensure that you find a wind down routine from the stress of the day. Watching TV can feel like you’re winding down, yet the reality is that it’s still too strenuous to allow the brain and hormones prime you for sleep. Have a conversation, read a book, or get cozy with your partner all things that can help you wind down.
Breath-work, meditation, yin yoga are all great ways to wind down and get ready for bed. Especially at the end of one of those stressful days.
 
4. Keep your bedroom cool:
An ideal room temperature is 18C to ensure our body drops its core temperature in order for us to fall asleep.
Taking a warm shower or bath an hour before bed, yes even in hot summer days, will prime your body to cool itself down. Avoid a cold shower as this will have the opposite effect.
Also, your bedroom is for sleeping, not for watching tv
Keep your room, dark, cool and quiet.
 
5. Coffee/Tea:
Both have many health benefits, yet caffeine has a half-life of 6-8hours. Which means that when you drink a coffee at noon, at 6-8pm, 50% of that caffeine is still active.
Also dark chocolate, as healthy as it is, is best to be avoided in the afternoon/evening because of its caffeine content.
All depends of course on your personal caffeine sensitivity.
 
6. Alcohol:
Although I wouldn’t expect a serious athlete to be drinking much, it’s best to make sure you finish drinking the occasional glass at least 4hours before you go to bed to ensure it’s metabolized and doesn’t interfere with your sleep. Alcohol sedates, yet doesn’t make you go in the right types of sleep.
 
7. Dinner & Late night snacking:
Make sure you finish dinner at least 3hours before you go to bed. Also avoid late night snacking. You want the main part of digestion finished so that it doesn’t inhibit your sleep pattern. Late eating will have a definite impact in disturbing your deep sleep.
 
8. Nature’s assistance:
Avoid sleeping pills as these only sedate you, they don’t put you in the right brainwaves to put you in a state of recovery.
Instead consider taking some of nature’s help. Ashwaganda, Reishi are great adaptogens and Gaba aids to slow your brain down. Also Magnesium bisglycinate before sleep can assist you.
CBD oil is also effective to wind down. At least in those countries where it’s legal to use. Ask a professional for advice of how much to use depending on the purpose of taking it.
 
9. Morning After:
In the morning, get at least 15minutes of direct sun, yes also on cloudy/rainy days, exposure to reset your circadian clock and kickstart your metabolism
Even better yet have a cold shower and some training. Although the type of training depends on your personal hormonal state. For most a HIIT training is to be avoided in the morning as our cortisol levels are naturally high in the morning and adding to that with HIIT training can cause overload over time.
Question:
What will all this do and why would this be effective?

Answer:
In order for us to fall asleep, we can look at this as a series of prerequisites that need to be fulfilled:
  • Cortisol has to be low to feel relaxed
  • Adenosine has to be high (and not blocked by caffeine) to make you feel tired
  • Core temperature has to drop 1deg Celsius
  • Melatonin has to be high (by not being exposed to blue light)
 
If sleep was an equation, then all the above tips are there to support 1 or more of the above prerequisites to sleep.


Question:
Is there any resources you could recommend for those that want to dive deeper in the world of sleep?

Answer:
“Why we Sleep” by Dr Matthew Walker is a book and place to start if one wants to understand sleep and its overall importance on our holistic health.
If you google him, you’ll also find many video’s for those that prefer to watch instead of read.


Question:
Sleeptrackers have been on the rise, do you have any thoughts on this?

Answer:
First you have to understand that sleep tracker wearables are algorithms that are using motion to predict your sleep states and volume, so they don’t measure your brainwaves. Some places are more accurate to measure than others, ring based like oura has an accuracy of roughly 75% where wrist based trackers are 50-60%.
All this said, I am a big proponent of wearables if used in the right scope. Don’t focus on the absolutes as much as you should look for patterns of good and bad behaviors in your own life. In example, have you noticed the impact of late snacks or alcohol on how you feel in the morning and on the data? Sometimes the data can help open our eyes for things we already sort of knew.
So if used as guidance, rather than focusing on the minute detail of the data, they can be powerful guides to help you identify what works best for your body and lifestyle.
I personally use the Oura-ring and this has helped me gain a lot of insights.

Lesson 4: Recovery Fundamental 1/2 - Interview with Mitch Vanhille

Video Released: 01/07/2022
Question:
Recovery, tell us a bit more about the fundamentals?
​Mitch Vanhille's YouTube Channel
Answer:
The absolute fundamental of recovery, and this will come as no surprise, is sleep. During our sleep our body repairs itself and grows itself to become stronger thanks to supercompensation, which was explained in the previous video.
At the risk of oversimplifying, deep sleep is for physical recovery, and REM-sleep for mental recovery, although it’s more complex than this.
It’s essential that that we both get mental and physical recovery to repair the ‘damage done’ during our wakeful state and training so we can get it back to homeostasis and balance.

​“Getting enough sleep is crucial for athletic performance
Not getting enough sleep doesn't only make you tired the next day. It has a big impact on what's happening inside your body. You become more prone to injury, less or negative performance adaptation, focus and reaction times less, less endurance resistance, tire faster, perceived effort is higher and so on.
Further hormonal imbalances that can impact your appetite, stress or male sex hormones imbalance, and more…
Training Adaptation = Stress + Recovery
So the better one gets at recovery, the more stress can be added to work on performance gains.
Sleep is the absolute foundation of recovery.
Question:
How much sleep does an athlete need?
 
Answer:
Most people need about 7 to 9 hours of sleep. For an athlete in training, this would be 8-10hours.
I can already hear many people scratch their heads and say ‘how am I going to do this’ or ‘I can get by on 6hours of sleep’. While most people think they can do this, there are indeed people that have a genetic mutation that can get by on 5hours of sleep, yet this is a rarity in the total population.
In essence, most people are underestimating their sleeping needs.
 
If an athlete wants to perform well, they have to take their sleeping as serious as they do their training. There are no shortcuts or ways around this.
Moreover, If you don’t plan for you sleep, in today’s hectic life, you simply won’t get enough
 

Question:
What are some ways to assist with sleep?
 
Answer:
Sleep Hygiene and this is essential. Here’s a few key elements of a holistic approach to Sleep Hygiene covering area’s as:
  1. Consistency
  2. Avoiding blue Light
  3. Winding Down
  4. Cool Bedroom
  5. Coffee/Tea
  6. Alcohol
  7. Dinner & Late night snacking
  8. Nature’s assistance
  9. Morning after
 
In next week’s video, I’ll double click in each and every one of these elements.

Lesson 3: Is all stress bad - Interview with Mitch Vanhille

Video Released: 24/06/2022
Question:
In the previous video you dissected stress and also raised the question, “is all stress bad”?
​Mitch Vanhille's YouTube Channel
Answer:
The simple answer is that stress in itself is not bad, providing it’s not too much and not too frequent.
We need to be aware that it’s specifically Chronic stress that is linked with maladaptation to training as well as many diseases and even accelerates aging.
In my previous video I dissected some of the stresses we are all faced with in this modern world.
 
Too much stress without any recovery, will overload your adrenals and lead to negative adaptation or worse case have one spiral in to overtraining, burn out or depression.
 
We have to keep in mind that when it comes to stress, our body doesn’t know the difference between mental/emotional stress or physical stress, the thought of something stressful can already put you in a heightened state.
"To go deeper in to why stress in itself is not bad, we have to go deeper in understanding Hormesis"
Question:
Indeed tell us more, What is Hormesis?
 
Answer:
Hormesis is a characteristic of many biological processes and responses to exposure to increasing amounts of a substance or condition. Simply put, Stress in the right amount and right timing triggers certain responses which actually make us stronger.
You have to understand that I am talking about ‘small’ and acute doses of stress combined with the right amount of recovery time where the body actually now ‘super compensates’ and makes the body stronger.
Hormesis could also be called as:
“what doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”
Question:
Can you give us an example of Hormesis?
 
Answer:
Here's a 1st example I’m sure most of you have already heard about “Training”.
 
Keeping it very simple, during training we damage our muscle cells. Combined with the right recovery, this leads to ‘supercompensation’ and building the muscle back stronger than the way it was before you did the training. Now if you wait too long, the muscle loses its gained ‘advantage’. If you don’t wait long enough, the body will incur further damage and will need more healing before it gets stronger. Too much damage in too short of a time, … you see where this is going.
 
The key is to make sure you keep adding stress at the right timing in order to get a positive build cycle going. This is also known as the Compound effect.
As an example day on day you train, you do damage, you recover and build your body back stronger.
 
And with that, for endurance athletes, frequency & consistency trumps volume, being a weekend warrior will hamper your progress as the time between sessions might be too long and the stress endured during the long weekend sessions might be too much.


Question:
Can you name another few examples of Hormesis?
 
Answer:
You’ve probably heard about altitude training and this stimulating the body to produce an increase in red blood cells. More oxygen can be transported to the muscles.
 
Or that heat training. Being exposed to heat during or shortly after training stimulates blood plasma and heat shock protein production. More blood volume means an increase in oxygen distribution and more heat shock proteins enables the body to get better at recognizing heat and thereby cooling itself better. Critical for those hot races.


Question:
What would be an example of Hormesis that people don’t know?
 
Answer:
Autophagy and fasting (intermittent) leading to the body to faster clear (or self eat) the ‘weak cells’ and hence you’re improving your cellular turnover, also increasing your metabolic flexibility, and potentially slow down aging.
 
Along those lines, another examples is using a ketogenic diet for people that have insulin resistance can be advantageous and have them minimize or eliminate the needs of insulin. The absence of carbohydrates leads to ketones being produced.
Although for competitive endurance athletes I wouldn’t personally recommend a strict Keto diet. Although for those that want to optimize their metabolic flexibility AND maximize their performance, there is a specific LCHF lifestyle for those athletes. The general approach is that we want to train low, live low, not ketogenic low,  and race high on carbohydrates. Tailoring this through measurement of blood insulin levels to the individual athlete is recommended in this journey.
 
And then there are a whole host of examples of hormesis about the plants and herbs that we can eat as part of our daily staples and meals to restore balance, improve our immune system, reduce stress etc
Think of ginger, red peppers, oregano and many more that can give you individual benefits


Question:
Where would one start with diving deeper in to this world of Hormesis?
 
Answer:
There a great book called ‘stronger by stress’ by Siim Land. I would say that this is a great place to start for those that want to deep dive into this whole concept of Hormesis.
 
 
Question:
Any final words?
 
Answer:
Now a word of caution. If you remember that “Adaptation = Stress + Recovery”, you’ve noticed in the example of supercompensation that time is an important factor to take into account. It’s essential that we reduce or eliminate chronic stress. And then we can be targeted with the ‘acute stresses’ we expose our bodies to. And those should be tailored to your goals, body and where you are on your journey.
 
1+1 can be 2, it can be 3 or it can be 0.5 all depending on the right adaptations.
 
Work with your coach or experts around you to figure out what is the right path for you.
 
And don’t forget, the key to being able to absorb more stress is mastering recovery. Some of the best athletes in the world are absolute masters in this. And the key question is, are you ready to join them?
 
 
Question:
What’s next?
 
Answer:
In some of the next video’s I’ll go deeper in to some fundamental as well as advanced recovery techniques.
 
Looking forward to seeing you there.

Lesson 2: Stress Dissected

Video Released: 16/06/2022
In a previous video, click on the link bellow, I talked about balancing stress and recovery and how this is essential to for training adaptation and Maximize your Potentia


​With Stress I mean TOTAL STRESS.

Now let’s dissect this further.

To name a few of the key categories, we have:
  1. Training stress
  2. Life stress
  3. Nutritional stress
  4. Environmental stress
  5. Sleep stress
​Mitch Vanhille's YouTube Channel
  1. Let’s talk Training stress first. You’re probably most familiar with this one. This is the physical and physiological stress you get from your training. This could be a swim, bike, run, strength or any other form of exercise. The most commonly used way to measure this, is TSS (Training stress score). TSS is number that takes into account the duration and intensity of a workout to estimate the overall training load and physiological stress created by that training session. The higher the intensity and/or duration compared to your personalized zones, the higher the training stress number is. Building this up over time by roughly 5-10% per week is what most of us can handle. Of course much is depending on your base fitness and training history.
  2. And then there is Life Stress. think about Work, family, relationship, terrible events going on in the world that affect you personally or emotionally, an argument, traumatic life events, even being stuck in traffic and ‘eating up your steering wheel’ can add to your overall life stress level.
  3. Nutritional stress. This is another important category. What we eat is important and having a predominantly clean diet, let’s call is 80/20 or 90/10 is the foundation. eating or drinking the wrong foods adds stress to our bodies. Think about processed foods, added or hidden sugars in many of our daily staples, sugary beverages or juices, unhealthy and inflammatory oils, etc… Nutritional stress also comes in the form of individualized sensitivities. And these are not just unhealthy foods. As an example, my body doesn’t handle broccoli or spinach well. Generally these are very healthy foods, but for me, these are foods to be avoided. Every body has foods that it doesn’t respond well to. These can be allergies, but mostly are food intolerances. There are many tests on the market that can help you identify personalized foods. But more foundational is to learn to listen to your body and yes, also observe your bowel movements when you go to the toilet.
  4. A next category is Environmental stress. This comes in the form of pollutants, which are mostly chemical stressors, alcohol is a big one (although this could be put under nutritional stress as well), extreme heat or cold, humidity, altitude…
  5. Then there is sleep, or more specifically Lack of sleep. This can cause a whole host of additional stresses and hormonal imbalances on top of not being able to absorb the training well. Very often this leads to negative training adaptation and increases your risk of injury. In worse case this can add up and lead to overtraining. Sleep will get its separate video when we talk about recovery 

By now you might ask yourself now, how do I become aware of what MY total stress is and how I can monitor and learn from this?
 
The amount of wearables IoT devices on the market has exploded over the past few years with much more to come.
HRV (Heart Rate Variability) is my favorite way of measuring and track ‘total life stress’ by measuring the state of your sympathetic nervous system. The higher the intervals between every heart-beat, measured in milliseconds, the lower the stress levels on your body and better you’ve recovered, the more stable your heart beat drums, the more the body is stressed.
There’s many solutions on the market these days. I personally use HRV4training for my athletes as well as the Oura ring to measure HRV. Have a look around or talk to your coach to see if this something worth exploring for you.
 

I hope this video has broadened YOUR understanding of TOTAL STRESS and you are able to asses these better in your life.
 
My name is Mitch Vanhille, Athlete, Coach & Professional.
 
In a next video I’ll answer the question:
Is all stress bad? And what is hormesis?
 

Lesson 1: Training Adaptation = Stress + Recovery

Video Released: 09/06/2022
Many athletes are focusing on adding training stress to become fitter. Of course this is essential if one wants to become fit. And as important as that is, if you truly want to Maximize Your Potential, you have to look broader. The foundation is:
Mitch Vanhille's YouTube Channel

 
Adaption = Stress + Recovery
 
Mastering both sides of this equation is essential if you want to maximize your potential and become FIT & HEALTHY.
 
​We’ve all experiences moments in our life where training was hard, yet our bodies were able to absorb it well. And then there’s moments where even moderate training levels seem daunting.

​In these series, I would like to broaden your understanding on stress as well as Recovery. I hope you’ll enjoy the learning and there will be some tidbits of information that will help you identify on how to maximize your potential. This is a great moment to steal without shame and make these learnings your own.
 
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’ll be happy to respond.
Happy Learnings
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  • Home
  • About
    • Inspiration
    • Mitch Vanhille's Coaching Accreditation
  • Tips & Tricks
    • 1. Training Adaptation
    • 2. Stress Dissected
    • 3. Is all Stress Bad?
    • 4. Recovery Fundamentals 1/2
    • 5. Recovery Fundamentals 2/2
    • 6. Advanced Recovery 1 - Sensate
  • Articles
    • Go Slow to go fast 2
    • Fasttrack Hack to Adidas Discounts
    • The Unexpected Challenge
  • Media
  • Race Results
  • Contact
  • Strava motivation