We see so many athletes who like to portray themselves as being “really tough,” no matter the situation. They might be extremely focused on achieving their athletic goals and use up all their energy towards the most important day of competition during their season. They get up at 4:00 am, log onto their zoom classes, put in those extra hours of practice, all while losing out on video calls to stay connected with friends/teammates.

What’s wrong with this picture?

As much as it seems like their life is balanced by still managing to get practice and workouts in while going to class, these athletes are all work and no play. While we all must learn how to concentrate on the task at hand, we also need to know how to give ourselves breaks and downtime. When individuals focus exclusively on competition and their performance, they start to lose part of their passion for the sport they compete in. Additionally, our lives in competition should not be thought of as “who we are.” Instead, we must recognize that we are like everyone else – human beings with legitimate emotions. What happens if you lose a game after giving it your all or get injured because you were too stressed about the outcome and your body tensed up?

Our self-worth cannot be associated with our athletic performances; bodies are not machines. Having that perspective between our lives in athletics and who we are outside of competition can make all the difference when we utilize self-care. Something that might be more challenging for some is coming up with ways to take care of some of those individual needs. If you can pick up that you’re dehydrated or have not been involved in the daily zoom calls with your family and friends from back home, that’s a good thing. You’ve started the first step in recognizing that those things are crucial in how you recharge, similar to another drill in practice.

To help regain some balance, I’ve put together a few self-care practices for athletes that are essential to our success:

1. Hydrate.

This might be one of the most obvious areas of self-care. Still, you’d be amazed at the number of athletes who either forget to drink enough water before/after tasking activity or just drink things that don’t do anything beneficial for their bodies. When we take part in any kind of strenuous physical activity, we need a lot more water to produce sweat and spark other chemical reactions in order to maintain strength, agility, but above all else, a clear mind. Try and drink several liters of water every day!

2. Sleep.

Science is an amazing thing. It’s given us so much, but believe it or not, we’re still learning about sleep. It sounds silly, but it’s true! Inadequate sleep can be extremely detrimental to us in the long run. Our bodies don’t just shut-down while we sleep. Instead, our bodies work on detoxing and repairing tissue damage (spoiler alert – we really need those things to happen as athletes). On top of that, not getting enough sleep on a regular basis makes us all feel sluggish and constantly looking for a fix by drinking copious levels of energy drinks or pre-workout. Guess what will happen when it comes time for competition? If you said that everything would feel more difficult, then you get a gold medal, much like the medal you could have won if you had gotten the right amount of sleep. Sure, it’s been proven that teenagers need more sleep than adults, but what usually ends up happening is that they stay up too late and then need to get up early for team lifts or morning practices. In a perfect world, we’d be too tired to stay up late after a full day of lifts/practice in the morning, class, studying, and meetings with coaches, but we all know there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything we want to get done. Instead of thinking about all that you didn’t get to do today, try splitting some of those things up where you do half today and half tomorrow. That way, you aren’t as worried about the million things you wanted to get done today, and you might just be able to get to bed at a better time.

3. Eat Some REAL Food.

There will always be the protein bars and protein powders you have in your kitchen cupboards, but nothing beats whole foods, and I’m not plugging the store. Those protein shakes are great, but they’re still supplements and should be used the right way. This means supplementing them with nutrient-rich foods. Ditch the processed junk and invest in yourself! Something which will be a little challenging at first is learning new recipes. As an athlete, we should be learning about what foods will help us in recovering from physical activity in order to achieve our goals. Something that’s extremely important to me when coaching is making sure athletes understand what they’re doing. I like to say that I “Make Them the Expert.” This means that if you can explain an idea to someone else and they understand the message behind it, the message will stick. Cooking healthy meals is the same way. When you understand why it is that you should have more whole foods along with a protein shake instead of one or the other, you’re more likely to keep up that routine. When you pick up on the fact that your body feels better after having ground turkey mixed with whole wheat pasta instead of pizza after a workout, you’re more likely to keep that trend. The message is that food has the power to help us in amazing ways when we use those tools correctly.

4. Relax.

Isn’t it ironic that our bodies need rest if we want to generate all the power needed to go all out during competition? Like sleep, rest allows us to chill out and decompress when we aren’t under the direct stressors associated with competition. Allowing ourselves to take advantage of relaxation will help us in the future by letting us practice having more flexibility, focus, and a new perspective. All of those things will allow us to perform more optimally the next time we are in competition. Relaxing looks different for everyone, but try reading a new book, meditating, going for a walk, or expressing yourself through art or music!

5. Spending Time with Friends & Family

Being with the people we love and love can make a huge difference. Right now, that isn’t always a possibility, but thanks to the power of technology, we can go on video calls with friends and family who we haven’t seen in all these months. All it takes is hearing a family member or friend crack a joke and boom! Our whole day is changed, maybe even for the rest of the week! By having those weekly video calls with friends and family, we are able to get back a piece of normalcy that we need so badly. It reminds us what is most important.

6. Address your pain.

It wouldn’t be appropriate to talk about self-care without discussing injuries. Please, for you and your team’s success, don’t try to be a tough guy/girl and act like the slash you received while scooping up that groundball didn’t hurt or that it still doesn’t hurt a week later. When you ignore an injury because you don’t want to lose your starting spot on a team or because you don’t want to miss the season, you won’t be the only one suffering. This can impact entire teams and mess up team dynamics. Sometimes we just need to give our bodies a chance to catch up and heal properly. The hardest part is staying patient throughout it all. Believe it or not, if you address it quickly and do what you need to do, oftentimes, you’ll be able to get back into things a lot faster than if you suppress it.

Remember to check in with yourself every so often and make sure everything is running smoothly. If you start noticing a slip in your academic life, reach out. It is in your best interest to let go of any sort of ego that is in your way of asking for help and take advantage of any and all resources at your disposal. If you realize you feel more tired than usual, maybe it’s time to start going to bed earlier. Think about what it is you consume on a daily basis – things we eat and drink can impact the quality of sleep as well. Notice something wrong with your health? Go to a doctor! We learn as we go in life, but by constantly learning about ourselves, we can start noticing little cues that can help gauge how we’re doing. Being aware of any little changes in our balance and actually addressing them will help strengthen our chances for success.