Corporate Professionals Need to Start Training like Professional Athletes
To compete at the highest level elite athletes are utilizing a multidimensional training approach to gain a competitive advantage; yet most working professionals are failing to recognize these benefits. Corporate professionals need to start training like true professionals, and I have 3 key ways they can do it.
First, just as a sprinter trains to develop more explosive muscles, working professionals need to focus on improving their most utilized asset, their cognitive functioning. One of the best ways to improve cognition is to practice Mindfulness. Decades of research on Mindfulness have uncovered a multitude of benefits which includes (American Psychological Association):
Boost to working memory and focus
Less emotional reactivity and more cognitive flexibility
Reduced rumination and fewer depressive symptoms
"Now, when I blow a serve or shank a backhand, I still get those flashes of self-doubt but I know how to handle them: I acknowledge the negative thoughts and let them slide by, focusing on the moment. That mindfulness helps me process pain and emotions. It lets me focus on what's really important. It helps me turn down the volume in my brain. Imagine how handy that is for me in the middle of a grand slam championship match."
- Novak Djokovic
Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist with Harvard Medical School was apart of a team of mindfulness researchers who “found that serious meditators had more gray matter—brain tissue comprising cell bodies and nerve cells— in several key areas of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, when compared to a similarly aged non-meditators.” Furthermore, gray matter tends to shrink with age, but “Lazar found that the 50 year-old meditators in the study had just as much gray matter as those who were 25.”
Second, one of the biggest trends in competitive athletics is active recovery. The days of practices without water have been replaced with science-based training that emphasizes recovery as much as training. Corporate professionals, however, tend to be the worst at recovery especially in our interconnected, never out of touch smartphone era. In the short-run, one might be able to push through with relentless effort, but burnout and lost productivity are almost guaranteed in the long run. Working professionals need to learn techniques to incorporate short recovery sessions in their day while also developing routines that maximize sleep and recovery.
Sleep is the most important aspect of recovery yet it is often undervalued in the corporate setting. Matthew Walker, author of “Why we Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams” states:
“The irony that employees miss is that when you are not getting enough sleep, you work less productively and thus need to work longer to accomplish a goal. This means you often must work longer and later into the evening, arrive home later, go to bed later, and need to wake up earlier, creating a negative feedback loop.”
-Matthew Walker, PhD
Two quick tips to develop a better sleep routine are:
Power down all technology at least 1 hour prior to going to sleep.
Set an alarm to start your bedtime routine. Choose a time and pick activities that promote deep sleep such as reading a paper book, taking a hot shower, or meditating.
Third, professional athletes such as LeBron James (NBA Star), Arron Rodgers (NFL Star), and Evan Longoria (MLB Star) have all gotten tremendous benefits out of utilizing holistic practices such as Yoga. Yoga can help relieve back-pain and off-set the detrimental effects of prolonged sitting, but Yoga can also help increase energy, boost morale, and reduce stress. Office Yoga doesn’t have to mean changing your clothes and rolling out a mat, working professionals can get all the benefits with “no-sweat chair yoga”.
“Yoga isn't just about the body, it's also about the mind, and it's a technique that has really helped me."
-LeBron James
To get the most gains get out their training, corporate professionals need to train with specialists just like professional athletes do. There’s a Japanese proverb that says, “Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.” Some corporate professionals might be reluctant, but if NBA Hall Of Famers such as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Coach Phil Jackson have all seen tremendous benefits of incorporating holistic practices into their training, imagine what it could do for you and your workplace.